Philemon and Baucis Syndrome
In forensic literature, the Philemon and Baucis syndrome describes the simultaneous death of long-term married partners. It is named after the characters Philemon and Baucis in Greek mythology .
Based on the story of the Roman poet Ovid , the simultaneous death of couples who have lived happily together for many years is romantically interpreted in such a way that the remaining partner can no longer or does not want to live without the deceased and also dies soon. In forensics, it is understood to mean simultaneous deaths in the narrower sense.
Rational causes of simultaneous death are:
- non-obvious homicides
- extended suicide (one partner kills the other first, then kills themselves)
- common suicide
- Poisoning (shared food, carbon monoxide , ...)
- Accidents
- statistical considerations of the random coincidence of sudden causes of death in older and therefore often multimorbid people
Individual evidence
- ^ Forensics - Death from Philemon and Baucis Syndrome
- ^ Carbonetti N: Philemon and Baucis syndrome: three additional cases of double deaths of married couples. . In: Forensic Sci Int. . 226 (1-3), 2013 Mar, pp. 32-6. PMID 23415164 .