Desafiar a las furias : Lo que la tragedia griega me enseñó sobre el suicidio

In Oedipus Rex, a messenger arrives to announce that Jocasta, Queen of Thebes, has taken her own life. To prepare her listeners for this terrible news, he declares: “The tragedies that hurt the most are those that the sufferers themselves have chosen.” In this deeply personal essay, Edith Hall explores the psychological damage that suicide inflicts across generations, relating it to the ancient Greek concept of the family curse and the inevitable inheritance of trauma. Haunted by her own suicidal impulses, Hall traces the genealogy of suffering within her family and finds in the wisdom of ancient tragedies—in the words of Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Euripides—a form of understanding, solace, and hope. Amidst guilt, shame, and grief, a profound conviction beats through these pages: even in the darkest tragedy, it is still possible to choose life.