Oh god the wikipedia page has some vile descriptions too. Especially the last part for Mithridates
In this way Mithridates, after suffering for seventeen days, at last expired.
Comment on Here's a historical reference for any history buffs out there.
simulacra_simulacrum@lemmy.world 8 months ago
This ancient execution method was also known as “the boats,” as victims were placed in two hollowed-out logs or boats before their suffering even began.
With their heads and limbs sticking out and their bodies trapped inside, the victim was force-fed milk and honey. Their uncontrollable diarrhea filled the boats as executioners poured honey over the victim’s face — and vermin arrived to not only feast upon the prisoners, but enter their bodies to fatally eat them from the inside out.
hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
I_Has_A_Hat@startrek.website 8 months ago
The most interesting thing to me is both quoted descriptions talk of vermin and worms “springing forth” from the excrement. It was once thought that things like worms, insects, even mice and rats, would just spawn from various kinds of filth.
TheOakTree@lemm.ee 8 months ago
I learned this as spontaneous generation, the obsolete theory that life could appear directly from things that are not alive.
StereoTrespasser@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I like how everyone is just ignoring this part:
However, Ctesias’s credibility is questionable due to his reputation for fanciful and exaggerated narratives.
hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
No it’s more about the horror of the story than the legitimacy of it.
PM_ME_FEET_PICS@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
It was long thought that the Greek God Glycon was a work of fiction for similar reasons. That was until an artifact of Glycon worship was found and later other prints.
We know there were hundreds of Greek underworld gods but only 3 names fully survive today.
Much of what was written has been lost for various instances of destruction.
shneancy@lemmy.world 8 months ago
yo what the fuck
PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Like most of these “oh my God so brutal” execution methods, scaphism probably never actually happened or is at least exaggerated. Ctesias wrote the only first-hand account of the punishment ever being delivered and his credibility among modern historians is a bit… questionable. Plutarch’s own writings on scaphism were lifted straight from Ctesias, as well.
Even if scaphism did actually happen like Ctesias wrote, it’s not like it was a normal thing.
shneancy@lemmy.world 8 months ago
even if it happened only one or twice, even if it didn’t happen at all - someone had to think about it in enough detail to create a torture method beyond most people’s imagination
orrk@lemmy.world 8 months ago
now the chinease/japanese and the human sashimi competitions most likely did happen
hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
I was supposed to eat, now that I remembered the existence of this practice, I’m not that hungry anymore.
simulacra_simulacrum@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Can I have your honeyed toast?
bobs_monkey@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Accompanied by heavy whipping cream