Biathanatos
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Biathanatos (from Greek Βιαθανατος meaning "violent death") is a prose work by the English writer and clergyman John Donne. Written in 1608 and published after his death,[1] it contains a heterodox defense of "self-homicide" (suicide), listing prominent Biblical examples including Jesus, Samson, Saul, and Judas Iscariot. Thomas De Quincey responds to the work in his "On Suicide",[2] and Jorge Luis Borges responds in "Biathanatos".[3]
During their sixteen years of marriage Donne's wife Anne More gave birth to 12 children, out of which three died before the age of ten. Donne wrote Biathanatos in a state of despair that almost drove him to kill himself. He noted that the death of a child would mean one mouth fewer to feed, but he could not afford the burial expenses. During this time, Donne wrote but did not publish Biathanatos, his defence of suicide.[4]
