How to Kill Oneself Like an Ajax

Since the sophisticated and vigorous thematization of suicide is one of the most remarkable features of the Ajax, it is not surprising that this drama becomes a literary model for later writers who tell stories of self-killing, particularly if they want to look at the suicide as a problematic situation. In this paper I try to analyse two examples taken from the novelists: the (intended) suicide of Anthia in book 3 of Xenophon Ephesius’ Anthia and Habrocomes and the quasi suicide of Callirhoe in books 2 and 3 of Charito’s Chaireas and Callirhoe.