Out of many ancient myths and legends, there is one that keeps fascinating me: the story of ancient Roman noblewoman Lucretia. The legend says that after she became a victim of rape, she was unwilling to go on living in a body which she felt was irreparably defiled, and supposedly she ctb'ed by taking a ritual dagger from her altar and plunging it into her heart. Of course with all tales of such nature, veracity is always questionable, but I still wonder nonetheless. We may never know if Lucretia was a real historical person, much less if she really did ctb in the manner described in the legends about her - but how plausible is it? How realistic is it for someone to ctb by stabbing themself in the heart? It seems obvious that this method would be very painful, require an incredible amount of willpower to overcome SI and likely be slow and agonizing once the stab has been done - but is it still historically plausible, or completely implausible? One factor in favor of plausibility is that in ancient times there were no modern hospital ERs to which ctb attempts would be rushed - while forced-life anti-suicide cultural attitudes could have been just as bad as today or worse, medicine of the day just wasn't advanced enough to "save" ctb attempts that would end up as failures today.
Another factor in the plausibility equation about Lucretia's alleged ctb: Lucretia was female, and most certainly had already developed breasts by the time of her alleged suicide following rape. If you are a woman with breasts seeking to ctb by stabbing yourself in the heart, would you have to stab directly through your left breast, or would a stab just below the breast or in the middle of the cleavage gap be plausibly sufficient?
To be clear, I am not planning to ctb by this method - but given that Lucretia is someone I greatly admire as a legend, an example to be imitated if not in exact detail than at least in general conceptual principle, I am trying to gauge if the canonical story is plausible at all in terms of what an ancient Roman noblewoman could have practically done.
Another factor in the plausibility equation about Lucretia's alleged ctb: Lucretia was female, and most certainly had already developed breasts by the time of her alleged suicide following rape. If you are a woman with breasts seeking to ctb by stabbing yourself in the heart, would you have to stab directly through your left breast, or would a stab just below the breast or in the middle of the cleavage gap be plausibly sufficient?
To be clear, I am not planning to ctb by this method - but given that Lucretia is someone I greatly admire as a legend, an example to be imitated if not in exact detail than at least in general conceptual principle, I am trying to gauge if the canonical story is plausible at all in terms of what an ancient Roman noblewoman could have practically done.
