In two plays by Sophocles, Oedipus Rex & Antigone, the full range of self-destructive behaviour is laid out: completed suicide, focal suicide, psychic homicide, & victim-precipitated homicide. There is suicide committed out of shame, suicide motivated by reunion fantasies, suicide as a result of blocked anger, suicide to escape suffering, & suicide in order to transform one’s image after death. It is astonishing to find the psychodynamic of suicidal behaviour so clearly explicated 2500 years ago. (12 refs)