king herod dead wife

[tali122]

i read that king herod had sex with his dead wife for 7 years -is there any truth in this?
thx

[WaldoMcFroog]

There's nothing on Wikipedia's article on Herod, though that isn't definitive proof, of course.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herod_the_Great

I would think that the chances of a body remaining, shall we say 'viable' for seven years is very low, even assuming the wife was embalmed etc. Herod had many wives and seems to have been quite a virile chap, so it seems a little unlikely that he'd suddenly go necro.

What's your source for believing this may have happened?

[Octavius]

Herod married nine times, but the wife he loved most was Mariamme, Hyrcanus' granddaughter. Manipulated into believing that Mariamme had been unfaithful, Herod had her executed--and may have been driven mad by guilt. "So hot was the flame of his desire that he could not believe her dead," Josephus wrote, "but in his sickness of mind talked to her as if still alive, until time revealed to him the terrible truth, and filled his heart with grief as passionate as his love had been while she lived."

[tali122]

WaldoMcFroog this is the scource http://tinyurl.com/7ma3w

[Octavius]

tali122 - the word necrophilia comes from the greek for "love of the dead".

Hence my reference to the above quote, which I think a translation of led to the legend of King Herod 'loving his dead wife for 7 years'.  I don't believe that there is any viable proof that he did any more than love a dead person, certainly not intercourse.

[mystress]

Hi tali,

Slightly off thread here.

There was a King of Spain who (when he was Prince) lost his wife to a disease.When he became King( about 10 years after she died) he had her exhumed and sat on a throne next to him, and his courtiers had to kiss her hand! Eugh.

I don't think he had sex with her,mind you there probably wasn't enough left to get hold of anyway! LOL

[jno]

mystress as I recall Queen Katherine, the wife of Henry V, had a partly open coffin in Westminster Abbey for centuries. Samuel Pepys boasted of kissing her. I guess people then saw a lot more of death and were slightly less queasy about it than we are.

[carolegif]

I think mystress is getting mixed up with Joan the Mad who was the daughter of the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella.  She carted her husband around with her all the time and even insisted he sit next to her at meals which was very distressing for the other guests as you could imagine.. Eventually she was locked away.

 

cdg

[BlackRose]

There is absolutely no truth to it.  Even if the body had been embalmed the decompostion rate would have been that well along by the end of the seven years.  The embalming fluid just prolongs this process for a period of time.

[thorkel9]

This might be what mystress is thinking about:

"The coronation of King Pedro I (Portugal) did not take place until 1361. Before the event Dom Pedro had sworn solemnly upon the gospels the reality of his private marriage with In�z de Castro and insisted that she be taken from her tomb and crowned with him. At the coronation ceremony the nobles were expected to express their loyalty by kissing the decaying hand of the Queen. During the following banquet two of her three murderers were tortured and their hearts were torn from their living bodies outside the windows. The third murderer, Diogo Pacheco, is said to have escaped capture. After the ceremony the crowned In�z was reburied as queen, with great pomp, in the magnificent sarcophagus prepared for her at the Cistercian Abbey Church of Alcoba�a. The heavily carved tomb is decorated with scenes from her life, with a portrayal of the Crucifixion at the head and the Great Doom at the foot. Surrounded by angels, she lies supported on six gargoyle-like representations of her murderers and enemies.

King Pedro died in 1367. As he requested in his will, he was buried in a sarcophagus, the pair to that of In�z, in the great Monastery church. Inscribed on his tomb are the words 'At� ao fim do mundo4'. In this Gothic monument the embellished tombs of Pedro and In�z are still positioned strictly in accordance with his wishes, and against custom; the King lies in the South transept with his feet to the North, and In�z in the North, with her feet to the South. Thus, on the Day of the Last Judgement, the first person who will greet the eyes of Pedro as he rises from his grave will be his beloved, fair In�z."

The full article is here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A2458325