Suicidio del espartano Timócrates, leyes de Adrastia y muerte de Tebina: un incidente moralizante en la obra de Tucídides (II 92, 3)

Abstract

Thucydides describes the naval battle of Naupactus and mentions that before his ship sank, the Spartan commander Timocrates committed suicide by slitting his throat. This incident never has been correctly interpreted. The author studies the prevailing ideas in Greece about those drowned at sea and as in the case of suicide when ships are about to sink straight to the bottom. He analyzes the beliefs shared by all Greeks about the misfortune that befalls the dead when wild animals, birds, or fish consume their cadaver. Devoured by a shark, Tebina’s death near an island of Polynesia unleashed the rapid intervention of his family to rescue a portion of the body, thereby managing to save that youth from the fate of eternal extinction if his remains had disappeared inside the beast. At issue is an analogy pertinent to understanding the nature of Greek thought. Timocrates’ action was necessary and even heroic. The Athenians, who retrieved the corpse, turned it over to the Spartans in accordance with religious duty.