“Thirteen proper young men lost their lives for that fair Hipodamia’s sake, the daughter of Onomaus, King of Elis:  when that hard condition was proposed of death or victory [in a race], they made no account of it, but courageously for love died, till Pelops at last won her by a sleight.”

What is this but another version of the story of the lotos and the elephant?  The prize was great, and worth the risk.  Men risk their lives daily for gold, and for objects infinitely less attractive to the senses and the selfish ambitions than a beautiful princess.  In the following, which Burton quotes from Hoedus, the sensual and selfish basis of all such confronting of death for “love’s” sake is laid bare to the bone: 

“What shall I say of the great dangers they undergo, single combats they undertake, how they will venture their lives, creep in at windows, gutters, climb over walls to come to their sweethearts, and if they be surprised, leap out at windows, cast themselves headlong down, bruising or breaking their legs or arms, and sometimes losing life itself, as Calisto did for his lovely Meliboea?”

I have known rich young Americans and Europeans risk their lives over and over again in such “gallant” adventures, but if I had asked them if they loved these women, i.e., felt such a disinterested affection for them (like a mother’s for her child) that they would have risked their lives to benefit them when there was nothing to gain for themselves—­they would have laughed in my face.  Whence we see how foolish it is to infer from such instances of “gallantry” and “self-sacrifice” that the ancients knew romantic love in our sense of the word.  It is useless to point to passages like this (again from Burton): 

“Polienus, when his mistress Circe did but frown upon him, in Petronius, drew his sword, and bade her kill, stab, or whip him to death, he would strip himself naked and not resist.”

Such fine talk occurs in Tibullus and other poets of the time; but where are the actions corresponding to it?  Where do we read of these Romans and Greeks ever braving the crocodile for the sake of preserving the purity of the lotos herself?  Or of sparing a lotos belonging to another, but at their mercy?  Perseus himself, much vaunted for his chivalry, did not undertake to save the rock-chained Andromeda from the sea monster until he had extorted a promise that she should be his prize.  Fine sort of chivalry, that!

SUICIDE IS SELFISH