Facing Down the Furies: Suicide, the Ancient Greeks, and Me

by Edith Hall

An award-winning classicist turns to Greek tragedies for the wisdom to understand the damage caused by suicide and help those who are contemplating suicide themselves
 
In Sophocles’ tragedy Oedipus the Tyrant , a messenger arrives to report that Jocasta, queen of Thebes, has killed herself. To prepare listeners for this terrible news, he announces, “The tragedies that hurt the most are those that sufferers have chosen for themselves.” Edith Hall, whose own life and psyche have been shaped by such loss—her mother’s grandfather, mother, and first cousin all took their own lives—traces the philosophical arguments on suicide, from Plato and Aristotle to David Hume and Albert Camus.
 
In this deeply personal story, Hall explores the psychological damage that suicide inflicts across generations, relating it to the ancient Greek idea of a family curse. She draws parallels between characters from Greek tragedy and her own relatives, including her great-grandfather, whose life and death bore similar motivations to Sophocles’ both men were overwhelmed by shame and humiliation.
 
Hall, haunted by her own periodic suicidal urges, shows how plays by Sophocles and other Greek dramatists helped her work through the loss of her grandmother and namesake Edith and understand her relationship with her own mother. The wisdom and solace found in the ancient tragedies, she argues, can help one choose survival over painful adversity and offer comfort to those who are tragically bereaved.

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy, History, Audiobook, Biography, Psychology, Memoir

256 pages, Hardcover

Published March 19, 2024

Reviews

[Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Difficult but important read

[Chloe Natasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This combination of both personal family memoir and academic exploration of Greek tragedies is a deeply emotional and heavy read, but an important one for both the depressed and those not.

Edith navigates her “family curse” in which three of her family members, in relatively quick succession, killed themselves, and how she and her mother coped with being left behind. It is a topic rarely discussed, and it does irreparable harm to both those with depression and to their families in treating the topic as taboo. Edith’s candour and openness in the face of tragedy is deeply refreshing, and it was a privilege to hear her story.

Her passions shine through in this book too, with a profound fascination and kinship towards Greek tragedies — particularly their handling of suicide. I learned a lot from this book about a subject I likely would never have touched, and it was a pleasure.

At the risk of getting incredibly personal here, I have dealt with suicidal ideation for more than half my life. Fifteen years of depression compared to twelve formative years without it has made it so this is the norm for me. I am, if possible, at peace with that, and have learned to manage it relatively well. The distinction between suicidal ideation and suicidal planning is lost on the vast majority of people, and has led to me almost never discussing the topic with anyone, but this book touched on the differentiation — and Edith’s own experience with ideation herself — in a way that made me feel seen.

I do recommend the audiobook. Edith herself narrates it, which really amplifies the weight of such a memoir, but also the passion of her academia. Of course, tread lightly due to the subject matter, and only read if you are comfortable with discussing suicide casually.

[Luisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

There really isn't much to say other than this is the perfect intersection of personal essays through greek academia. This is really good example of how we can find interpretation to events in our life through art, which is always appreciated.

[Megan Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part memoir, part academic paper in Facing Down the Furies, Edith Hall delves into the historical association, generational impact and actions associated with the actions and thoughts of suicide; a concept that has gripped humankind for hundreds of years that (for some reason) divides people on whether it is a sin, something to cure, or to be ignored.

Written matter-of-factly with echoes of personal experience, for an academic piece Facing Down the Furies still pulls at some heartstrings for those who've survived suicide or have known the impact of suicide in their lives. Hall writes with care and emotion as she links people, emotions, places, and eras to examine how the concept of suicide is seen through time and places. Facing Down the Furies reflects on both Greek and Modern tragedies that show the intricacy behind a powerful yet terribly tragic concept that is still mistreated by some.

Although a very interesting book, I will give a warning that because Facing Down the Furies deals with suicide, make sure you're in the right mindset before you pick up Hall's book.

Thank you, NetGalley and Yale University Press for sending me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to #NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy of this book by Edith Hall. I'm afraid to say that it took me so long to read it, but the subject matter was so heavy that I had to put it down and come back to it to read in small amounts. I found that Hall looking to the ancient past to try and make sense of the events in her life was interesting. The Greek philosophers and playwrights had some interesting thoughts on the matter of suicide, something which Hall pulled together into this part memoir, part academic study. I was expecting this to be more academic than it was, and the snippets of her past and her family compared to the ancient Greeks really brought home how similar we all are.

[Tara ☆ Tarasbookshelf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Absolutely necessary. Required reading.

A book about suicide through an academic lens examining the Greek tragedies, and heavily led and influenced by the author's own life and experience.

Wonderfully written and sensitivity handled with a complete lack of stigma and a spacious non-judgemental tone.

Hall, through a compelling and enlightening perspective, details the compassionate ancient Greek methodology and manner of assisting those who are suicidal. Western medicine has much to learn, and very far to go.

Truly, I have been waiting for this book since I was fifteen and my father took his own life. Like the preceding years of dysfunction, abuse and neglect, it was not spoken of. This book would have been a guiding light in the abysmal pit of darkness.

I highly, empathetically recommend this to anyone and everyone who has ever had suicide impact their lives, including anyone who has ever had suicidal ideation.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Publishers for making available a free digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. I look forward to purchasing a copy of this excellent book to add to my personal home library, as it has touched me deeply and personally.

[Logan Kedzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Against Suicide" ought to be the subtitle, in the form of an Athenian orator's prosecution speech.

The scholarly side of the work discusses instances of suicide, along with trauma and depression, as portrayed in Ancient Greek drama. It is not scholarship, in it being the author's interpretations and feelings about the works, but it is informed by scholarship and done with an expert's familiarity. I appreciated (in part because I feared) that most of the takes are 'deep cuts' and not reiterations on the same well-known plays. To the extent that there is a thesis, it is that the Ancient Greeks had a complex and subtle take on mental illness, full of suggestions that they spent a lot of time grappling with the psychological damage of war for instance.

I loved it. Hall's passion spills over every page. The asterisk would be that I think that a reader might get the impression that the author is providing a definitive or accepted interpretation, where I think that is not the case. Or at least I have heard plenty of well-supported versions of what things in these works are meant to represent. 'Yes, Logan,' I argue with myself, 'that's theater.' But maybe we need to create a distinction between the dramaturgical and the scholarly. It is a great read though.

(About the only thing that I thought was missing was Neoptolemus. If you want to talk family trauma, whooo. But that gets better expressed in the Roman corpus, so it gets a pass.)

The non-scholarly side of the work is a half-history, half-memoir on the author's own family and the members who have commit suicide, including the author's own suicidal ideation and mental health crises. At points, this feels the more polemical side of the work. Akin to her work on Aristotle, the book is the secular argument against suicide, which centers around the trauma in others that it produces and the harm it does to their lives, and importantly the lives of those that they then touch and the trauma they induce in others.

These sections feel like handling hot coals. Vulnerability is the source of all good art, but the discussion here is so intimate that I feel uncomfortable in reading it, much less writing something about what I think about reading it. I want to believe that I connect to this, that it has been a positive experience for me, but I just don't know. Mental health in general suffers in darkness, but I almost feel like this brings too much light. Or at least let's say that the amazing degree of artful disclosure and feeling that Hall makes into words feels like anything I could do is shameful for not having that.

Even though Hall makes a visit to the places and the records of her ancestors, at points my credibility meter started to go off. There are times when the author makes reasonable suppositions and guesses about things in her family's past. While these guesses are reasonable, they often end up serving as the buttress for others around the theme of intergenerational trauma. And while she does hedge her language, it itched my mind at points.

But whatever the weaknesses floating around, the power and the warmth of the book is worth it. When the author starts relating her own direct experiences, more certain in her situating and its relationship to the familial relationships in her life, is when the book feels the most true to its cause.

Thanks the author and the publisher for making the ARC available to me.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Yale University Press for an advance copy of this book on suicide, and how we as humans have been grappling with this issue in art and philosophy for quite a long time.

I remember reading in a book, I'm not sure the author, or even the subject matter, though I am sure it was nonfiction a line that stayed with me, not because of how it was used, but how it explained a few things that were going on in my life. I remember in the book a terrible crime, maybe a parent killing children, has be committed and the author says, this person succumbed to the devil's beautiful music. The devil's beautiful music is how I think of suicide and the solution it provides. I have known a few people who couldn't ignore that devil's beautiful music, one who lived, but the others lost now for many years. As has the author of this book Edith Hall, whose family, family relationships, and even her own thoughts have heard the devil's beautiful music, the effects of which still affect her life in many ways. Also, as a scholar, Hall can look to the past for ideas, discussions, and even consolation which Hall does in her book Facing Down the Furies: Suicide, the Ancient Greeks, and Me part memoir, part study, part search for understanding and a look at grief of what suicide does to both victims and survivors, even generations later.

The book begins with a discussion of the author's life, when England offered programs that helped students who might not have ever gotten the chance to learn things in higher education. Hall found Latin uninteresting, but Ancient Greek was a vast wonderland to Hall. One which she studied, passed and has made her life's work. Certain works though dealt with the topic of suicide, not just in plays, but in works about Socrates, and other writings. Hall was famiilar with the subject of depression and suicide. Her Mother's grandfather, mother and cousin all had committed suicide, and as Hall grew older Hall dealt with the same feelings. The classics were a way of looking at suicide. The coldness of Socrates on his last days to his young family, the words used to describe characters whose death effected so many, along with other writings.

I'm not sure what I expected when I started reading this, but I did not expect a book that touched my brain, my heart and my soul so much. This is suck a well-written book, dealing with the classics, family, and the pain that people have when their own brains turn against them. Or when they feel society has. The book has a perfect balance between memoir, and using the classics to deal with real world events, along with current research on why people commit suicide, and what happens to those left behind. Expect a run or emotions also, from little victories, to great losses and what could have beens.

A book that I would recommend,but I can see where it would be hard for a lot of people. I found the writing quite helpful, and interesting, and could see a lot of people getting a sense of consolation from it. In the academic sense it is also an different look at the classics, and one that people could take a lot from.

[Elisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Combining a memoir with philosophy, history and literature, the author takes a look at the heavy legacy of suicide that her family left her. Through the stories of her great-grandfather and her grandmother, both dead by their own hand, she explores the similarities between self-murder and the Greek classics. Through her mother and herself, she studies the burden such deaths leave on the survivors, including the genetic component of people who die in such a way and the daily battle their families face trying not to give in to it. She looks at the way suicide has been seen through the ages and in different cultures and tries to learn from the classics ways to help people with suicidal ideations. It is a different way to explore the issue and I believe it can help some readers. Unfortunately, I found it a little too dry and distant. Memoirs are not my genre, and I was mostly interested in the historical part, which had too many original texts and poems for me. Suicide has touched my life, twice, and I was looking for either more emotional, or more useful content. Readers of classics and fans of memoirs will enjoy it, I was just the wrong reader for this.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#Yale University Press.

[LilyRose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Facing Down the Furies by Edith Hall is a powerful and informative work of nonfiction. The author, a world renowned classicist explores the Greek tragedies for their wisdom and lessons on suicide, its impact and help to be found for those contemplating suicide themselves. It is a personal journey as the author explores her own family history of suicide and mental illness and the effect this legacy has had on her own psyche and well-being. She draws parallels and connection between the work of Greek tragedians and philosophers across the years with her own family member's. It highlights how these are questions which we as humans have been asking for centuries and where comfort and help can be found in the writings of past minds. It is a brave and beautiful examination of a difficult topic which is often hidden from view. It does contain sensitive triggers of suicide and mental illness but I found it helpful and hopeful in reflecting upon my own personal experiences with mental illness. It also explores the importance of sharing and trying to gain understanding and clarity in our experiences to help people, family, friends and wider communities impacted by suicide. A book ideal for readers of nonfiction, classics and memoirs 4 Stars ✨.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for a review copy of this book in exchange for honest feedback.

[Noel Cisneros]

Edith Hall hace una aproximación al suicidio entre los antiguos griegos a partir de su propia experiencia —e historia familiar—. Deja en claro desde la intruducción que lo hace desde una postura que se opone al suicidio y es este sesgo a partir del cual construye el ensayo. Es una reflexión personal sobre los traumas intergeneracionales, pero, la aproximación al mundo helénico está supeditada a ello y el suicidio no deja de ser visto a través de ese lente, quien lee no adquiere un conocimiento de lo que era el suicidio para los griegos antiguos, sino lo que Hall quiere mostrar —en una visión anclada en la visión cristiana que ve el suicidio como pecado—, así las múltiples dimensiones que el suicidio tuvo para los griegos apenas si son mencionadas si no se refieren al aspecto negativo que implica.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Memoirs are not a genre I gravitate towards. I wanted to read this book because of my interest in Greek tragedy and because I've experienced suicidal ideation. I was curious about using ancient literature as a way to explore and understand people's decision to kill themselves and the impact it has on the people left behind. 


It was a very interesting read, but I found it a bit disconnected. It was a dry read. Even the sections about her family and her experiences were very dry. If it was more emotive I might have felt more connected. 


Equally, it is the author’s right to keep that to themselves especially regarding such a sensitive topic. It isn't a criticism or a demand for vulnerability. I personally found it difficult to overcome that distance.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC

[Iola Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

A convoluted read for me.but worthwhile as it lead to learning in a different way. If you want some insights that don't come from the therapy angle on suicide, suicidal thoughts, the potential impact of both (be it yours or a person connected to you) then this might be a book for you. I have to go and have a long think and evaluation now. I hope if you read it you find it similarly challenging and thought provoking. I confess I knew nothing of the ancient Greek philosophers before reading. I don't feel I know much more now but that is not a barrier to having gained a huge positive from reading the book. The episodes from the tragedies were excellent for progressi g thinking.

[Liis · Rating 5 out of 5]

As far as challenging subject matter goes, Facing Down the Furies takes top spot among nonfiction.

I love how author Edith approached the topic of suicide, through the prism of Greek tragedy and her personal experiences. In the end, this book is a celebration of life, celebration of life after death.

My biggest take away?
For thousands of years, the human condition has largely remained the same. We are driven by largely the same emotions that go hand in hand with close relationships within academia, profession, romantic and family ties.

If reader does not feel triggered by suicide and mental health topics, I would most certainly recommend this title.

[Taylor Swift Scholar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve never read anything quite like this before. Hall is an accomplished classicist, to say the least. Her family history includes several notable suicides including the grandmother after whom she was named. Hall weaves together her family
history, what philosophers have said about suicide over the years, analyzes of what the Greek tragedians had to say about it, and her own struggle and opinions. Hall focuses on how suicide impacts those who remain behind — the spouses, children, friends, and even just peers. This was a difficult read but one I will remember.

[Paul Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having just read Greek Heroes and Heroines edited by Jean Menzies this book offered a very different perspective on the Greek tragedies. Through her encyclopaedic knowledge of Greek drama the author traces the tragic lives and deaths by suicide in her own family history and her personal struggle with depressive illness.

[Bibliohiker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me review this book. I’ve never really thought about suicide and Greek tragedies but it shows that suicides along with suicidal thoughts were just as prevalent then as they are today.

[Peter F. · Rating 5 out of 5]

By diving into her own family history, Prof. Hall casts extraordinary light into dark areas of the human psyche, and demonstrates Greek tragedy's power - showing us a way out of despair and suffering towards understanding and healing.

[Catherine Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author brings her own family experience to bear in this work that looks at how the classic scholars dealt with the subject of suicide so many centuries ago and how relevant their work still is for us today.

[l · Rating 3 out of 5]

I suppose it depends on what you're looking for. I find some of it meaningful and some of it large stretches - saying Eurydice (Haemon's mother) shouldn't have killed herself in Antigone because Ismene was still left... that would be her almost niece-in-law.

[Fionnbharr Rodgers · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting kind of memoir which is both informative of Greek mythology but also investigates the subject of intergenerataional trauma and suicide.

[talia ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

insanely necessary read for me

[Zina Bibanovic · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recommend this book to anyone with suicidal thoughts or who are grieving a loss due to suicide.

[milo in the woods · Rating 5 out of 5]

i can’t review this eloquently, it hits too close to home.

[Cary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really good. And I really wanted to give it five stars, but it doesn't quite deserve it in my eyes.

[Sarah]

(siobhan rec)

[Emma Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Got home and accidentally sat on my floor for an hour until I finished this because I couldn't stand to stop long enough to relocate