Sexual life in ancient Greece : with thirty-two full-page plates

NEKROPHILIA 7. NEKROPHILIA

In proof of the cruel malpractice of abusing corpses, I can only quote three passages from Grecian antiquity, one of which, by Dimeetes, who had connection with a drowned girl, has already been given (see p. 248). In the second passage it is a question not of Greeks, but of Egyptians. Herodotus relates (ii, 89) that an embalmer was informed against for having misused the dead body of a beautiful woman, who had been entrusted to him to embalm. After that it became the usual custom not to hand over the bodies of especially beautiful or distinguished women to the embalmers until three or four days had elapsed after death.

Lastly, the same Herodotus informs us that Periander, the well-known ruler of Corinth, committed an offence on the dead body of his wife Melissa after he had—perhaps accidentally—killed her (v, 92).

DoD