Talk:The Last Days of Pompeii

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How Historically Accurate Is This Novel?
The headline says it all. Anyone know? 76.118.23.40 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 16:59, 12 November 2010 (UTC).

Nydia
Nydia does not commit suicide "rather than suffer unrequited love". She kills herself so that Glaucus may marry and live happily without the complication of her love for him. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.184.41.226 (talk) 02:03, 11 May 2013 (UTC)

From Book 5, Chapter 10, the last paragraph,, Nydia says:

'No, no!' she said, half aloud, and in a musing and thoughtful tone, 'I cannot endure it; this jealous, exacting love—it shatters my whole soul in madness! I might harm him again—wretch that I was! I have saved him—twice saved him—happy, happy thought: why not die happy?—it is the last glad thought I can ever know. Oh! sacred Sea! I hear thy voice invitingly—it hath a freshening and joyous call. They say that in thy embrace is dishonour—that thy victims cross not the fatal Styx—be it so!—I would not meet him in the Shades, for I should meet him still with her! Rest—rest—rest! there is no other Elysium for a heart like mine!'

These are not the words of a woman readying suicide, but instead, sacrifice. She is sacrificing her life so that, the man she loves, will not have to deal with her causing problems again. This is a story, about how great a woman can love, even if it means taking her life, just so she knows that the man she loves can have a happy life with another woman. Painting her as a weak woman suffering from unrequited love and killing herself from depression, is a great dishonour and disservice. She is really a shining example of what real love is all about... sacrifice. What can you say about a woman that is prepared to accept eternal damnation for her dishonourable death, just so that the man she loves so much, Glaucus, can have the rest of his life on Earth and then an eternity in the Underworld with his love, Ione, without having herself, Nydia, getting in the way or worse? This was a sacrifice made for a man for eternity, and not just a death because of unrequited love! This is a woman with the incredible capacity, in her struggle, to find peace and satisfaction that the man she loves will find happiness with another women. That is, true love. Nydia is not suffering, thus there is no "unrequited love" here, and before you ask, her not enduring the jealous and exacting feelings she has about her love for Glaucus, is not about suffering, its about her inability for not interfering in his life and injuring him. Glaucus may have been the protagonist in this story, but without doubt, Nydia was the true heroine. 2.238.240.69 (talk) 16:13, 1 March 2014 (UTC)