As a student, I heard a story about the philosopher Democritus, who some sources say was more than 100 when he died. According to the account that’s inexplicably stuck in memory, Democritus saw death coming and, instead of running, helped it — in the gentlest way. I found a quotation attributed to the psychologist James Hillman that gets at the story I remember:
A story is told of the legendary philosopher Democritus. At 109 he began relinquishing the pleasures of life one by one by omitting an item of food from his diet each day. At the last, he had only a pot of honey left. He absorbed its sweet aromatic fragrance and passed away.
I have not tracked down Hillman’s book to find his source. And my usual source on the old philosophers, Diogenes Laertius, has a story about Democritus's death, but not this one.
I’ve got some work to do on my next trip to the library. But I like the story I remember and the similar version attributed to Hillman. I like the image of a person who has used up every bit of life and then has the grace to hand it back gently.
• Sources: James Hillman, The Force of Character: And the Lasting Life; New York: Random House, 1999.
Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Vol. II, with a translation by R.D. Hicks; Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1991.
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