This article compares suicide in Greek tragedy & the Hebrew Bible. It concentrates on the actual life situations portrayed in the 2 sets of narratives promoting or preventing suicide. Perhaps the most striking comparison is the frequency of suicides in Greek tragedy & the infrequency of them in the Hebrew Bible. The stories of Narcissus & Jonah are compared in an attempt to pinpoint what is suicide-promoting in Greek narratives & what is suicide-preventing in Biblical ones. (26 refs.)