9. Scaphism requires the victim to be trapped within boats, coated in milk and honey, and gradually eaten alive by parasites and vermin over the course of weeks.
Scaphism, also known as “the boats”, is a disputed method of Persian torture and execution. Trapping a condemned prisoner, the individual would be force-fed milk and honey as well as coated in the foodstuffs. Attracting bugs and vermin, whilst also inducing diarrhea to lure additional parasites, the victim would be gradually consumed by the animals as they fed upon them. Originally described in Plutarch’s “Life of Artaxerxes II”, the first recorded, if challenged, use of scaphism was against a Persian soldier named Mithridates in 401 BCE. Decreeing that Mithridates “should be put to death in boats”, two were framed “exactly to fit” his body to prevent escape.
Thereafter, his head, hands, and feet, were left outside the boats, whilst the remainder of his person was contained within the floating prison. Forced to eat under pain of physical torture, Mithridates was drenched “with a mixture of milk and honey”. Gradually, his body was consumed after seventeen days of being eaten from both within and without. Although disputed for historical veracity, Plutarch’s account has nonetheless proved influential. Shakespeare referenced the practice in The Winter’s Tale, whilst the legendary fictitious hunter Allan Quartermain experiences a vision of the brutal technique.