Scaphism

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The scaphism , actually Skaphismos , is a since ancient traditional form of execution . In scaphism, the victim was allegedly locked in a prepared two-shell container with the exception of the head, hands and feet and force-fed; According to the representations, death occurred through infection, tissue destruction as a result of insect damage or through physical exhaustion (thirst, hunger) and blood loss and / or poisoning through insect bites .

The name derives from altgr. σκάφη, pl. σκάφαι (skáphe , pl. skáphai) from, which originally referred to something "hollowed out" - a hollow, a hollow tree trunk, then especially in the Ionian- speaking world, a trough-shaped container, tub, basin, bowl, trough, then a boat (still today ; the related word τò σκάφος (tò skáphos) means “digging”, then hollow, belly, hull, boat, barge).

Historical sources

In his biography on the life of the Persian king Artaxerxes II (4th / 5th century BC), Plutarch reports that this death penalty was imposed on a Persian named Mithridates, who claimed to be Cyrus , the king's brother to have killed. The execution is described by Plutarch as follows:

“Accordingly, he [Artaxerxes] ordered the Mithridates to be executed by the boat method [hollows, skaphai] . The nature of this form of death and punishment is as follows: You take two hollows of the same shape and size, place the criminal to be punished on his back in one, then cover it with the other, with the head, hands and feet still peeking out , but the rest of the body is firmly enclosed. Food is offered to the delinquent and he is forced to eat against his will by poking him in the eyes with a sharp tool. During the meal, he is coated with a mixture of milk and honey that is poured not only into his mouth but all over his face. Then you constantly turn your face towards the sun, which is soon completely covered by a multitude of flies that settle there. He relieves himself in the basin, as everyone who has eaten and drunk must do. Bugs and worms arise from the rotting excrement, crawl into his body orifices, and so his body is eaten from the inside. As soon as the man is obviously dead, the upper shell is removed and the decomposed flesh can be seen; Swarms of these disgusting creatures take pleasure in it, and they do so gradually into their bowels. This is how Mithridates died after suffering seventeen days. "

- Plutarch : Artaxerxes

In the annals (Annales or Xρονικóν) of Zonara , who lived in the 12th century AD , one finds a similar description:

“The Persians surpass all other barbarians in the appalling cruelty of their punishments using tortures that are particularly terrible and long-lasting, namely the 'boats' and the 'sewing into raw animal skins'. But what is meant by 'boats' I have to explain to less informed readers. Two boat-like bowls [the 'boats'] are placed on top of one another [with the openings] and have holes cut so that the victim's head, hands and feet remain outside. The convict is placed on his back in these bowls and the bowls are fastened together with bolts. Then a mixture of honey and milk is poured into the delinquent's mouth until he has passed out, his face, hands, feet and arms are covered with the same mixture and he is left exposed to the sun. This is repeated every day with the effect that flies, wasps and bees, attracted by the sweetness, settle on his face and all parts of the body that protrude from the shells and torture and sting the unfortunate man terribly. In addition, his belly, which is bloated with milk and honey, gives off liquid excretions, which then rotting quantities of worms of all kinds in the intestines. So the victim lies in the 'boats' while his flesh in its own excretions is consumed by worms and dies a long, terrible death. With this punishment Parysatis , the mother of Artaxerxes II. And the younger Cyrus , is said to have executed the man who pretended to have killed Cyrus during the struggle with his brother for royal dignity [during the battle of Kunaxa ]; he endured the torment a fortnight before he died. So that's the kind of 'scaphism' or 'boat torture'. "

- Zonaras : Annales

Plutarch based his texts on earlier authors such as Xenophon , Dinon or Ktesias , who worked in the 4th century BC. Chr. Persia had described and lived there. However, it is not certain whether scaphism really existed in Persia, where the crucifixion was also known as the death penalty to prolong suffering. Greek writers tended to make claims that supported their view of the Persian dynasties as cruel and decadent rulers. The representation of the biological processes also seems to follow the ancient theory of spontaneous generation rather than actual facts. The outrageousness associated with this execution is exaggerated into the grotesque in the ancient novel Λούκιος ἢ Ὂνος (Lukios e Onos - Lukios or Donkey) by Pseudo-Lucian , a parallel tradition to the novel Metamorphoses of Apuleius , where the protagonist transformed into a donkey robbers threaten to slit open his stomach and sew a girl up to her head so that she will be eaten by vultures and worms.

Scaphism - obviously a morbid fascination and vehicle for cultural demarcation - reappeared again and again in the following centuries with various authors. The late Platonist Eunapios von Sardis received Plutarch's report in his de vitis philosophorum at the beginning of the 5th century, the Byzantine world chronicler Johannes Zonaras in the 12th century. Further sources are in lexical works of the 17th century, in the Traité des instruments de martyre et des divers modes de supplice employés par les paiens contre les chrétiens; tortures et tourments des martyrs chrétiens ("Treatise on torture instruments and various torture methods used by pagans against Christians; torture and agony of martyr Christians") by Antonio Gallonio from 1605 and in the Lexicon Universale by Johann Jakob Hofmann from 1698. In Johann Heinrich Zedler's Universal Lexicon (1732–1754) Scaphism appears as a "hideous and cruel punishment for life among the Persians". In these writings, which were written under the influence of the intensified Inquisition during the early modern period , comparisons are made with early Christian martyrdoms and torture, as in the case of St. Markus , Bishop of Arethusa in Syria , who, tied to a tree and poured with honey and a fish stock, was supposed to sting wasps and mosquitos to death. The Antiquar Coelius Rhodiginus (1469-1525) mentioned in the Lectiones antiquae a similar antique penalty called Kyphonismos , wherein the condemned to a whipping bonded rubbed with honey and was exposed to insects. The name comes from the related ancient Greek terms for the torture instrument used and the resulting posture of the torture victim: κύφων (kýphôn) "neck wood" and κυφóς (kyphós) "bent over" (see also kyphosis ).

Scientific assessment

While the existence of this method of execution was controversial for a long time, the contemporary reports are today judged as serious by scholars, including the ancient historian Bruno Jacobs . Around 1770 a similar device, the "Dessauer Trough" or "Dessauer Torture Trough", was used in Germany to force confessions.

literature

  • Geoffrey Abbott: The Book of Execution. An Encyclopedia of Methods of Judicial Execution (TB) . Headline Book, London 1995 (reprint), ISBN 0-7472-4581-9 .
  • Martin Zimmermann (Ed.): Extreme forms of violence in images and text in ancient times . Herbert Utz, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-8316-0853-9 .

Web links

Wiktionary: Scaphism  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The made-up word Skaphander "boat of the man" is also derived from σκάφη.
  2. ↑ Quoted in: Geoffrey Abbott: The Book of Execution: An Encyclopedia of Methods of Judicial Execution (TB) . Headline Book Publishing Ltd., London 1995, ISBN 0-7472-4581-9
  3. ↑ According to Plutarch, the worms literally hollow out the victim (σκάπτειν (skáptein) = dig, hollow out; cf. Eng. "Scrape"); the choice of the designation skaphe for the execution equipment or scaphism for the execution may have been one of the reasons for this. Possibly the word sarkóphagos (actually "meat eater ") could have been heard in terms of content and sound.
  4. ↑ Pseudo-Lukian: Lukios or Donkey , chap. 25: “At last someone said: 'Comrades, I know you will praise my invention! The donkey deserves death no less, because it is a lazy good-for-nothing, is now paralyzed on top of that and has been helpful and official to the girl to escape. So we want to slaughter him tomorrow, eviscerate him, and stick this brave young lady in his stomach, so that she should just peek out with her head so that she doesn't suffocate soon, but the rest of the body should be completely buried in him. Then we want to sew them properly into the donkey and throw them both to the vultures, who will have a splendid feast from this new dish. Now just think, brothers, what a hell of a torment it must be! For now, to dwell alive in a dead donkey; then to be cooked in the fermenting carrion in the hottest season, moreover, to die of slowly killing starvation and to have no means of killing oneself. I pass over the torture that they have to endure from the stench of the rotting donkey and from the worms that will swarm it, and that at last they will be with him, perhaps even more, from the vultures that will feast on him alive, will be eaten up. '"(Quote from: Apuleius: Der goldene Esel . Artemis Verlag, Zurich and Munich, 1989, p. 529, ISBN 3-7608-1508-1 )
  5. ↑ In Webster's dictionary of 1913 this punishment was declared - in the undertone of the civilization difference between Greeks and Persians developed by ancient writers - as "It is still in use among some Oriental nations".
  6. ↑ Matthias Schulz: Putrefaction in the trough . In: Der Spiegel . No. 20 , 2009, p. 142 ( online ).
  7. ↑ Alfred Martin: The Dessau torture trough and the position of lawyers and doctors in its use , Berlin-Wilmersdorf [1913]