6. The Biblical king who had relations with his wife’s corpse for years
Herod the Great (74 BC – circa 1 AD) is best known from the New Testament as the king who ordered the Massacre of the Innocents when Jesus was born. Herod also carried out massive building projects, including the Second Temple in Jerusalem, and the fortress of Masada, both of which featured prominently in the Great Jewish Revolt, decades after his death. Less commonly known about Herod is that he was also a pervert of the ickiest kind.
Herod did not inherit the throne, but ascended it by marrying Mariamne, one of the last surviving heirs of Judea’s Hasmonean Dynasty. One of the reasons that Hasmoneans were so few on the ground was that Herod and his relatives had murdered them. Understandably, Mariamne found it difficult to love a hubby who had murdered so many of her kin. By contrast, Herod was crazy about Mariamne, who was a great beauty. However, when Herod discovered that Mariamne had been plotting against him with two of their sons, love did not stop him from having her and their offspring executed. He then plunged into a deep depression and was unable to let her go. Literally. According to the Talmud, Herod had Mariamne’s corpse preserved in honey, and kept “fulfilling his animalistic desires” with the cadaver for the next seven years.