Worst instruments of torture?

Kyriakos

Kyriakos

Creator
Joined
Oct 15, 2003
Messages
78,218
Location
The Dream
I think that Prokroustes had a nice gig going, with his bed on which he placed all people he immobilised, and proceeded to fit their body neatly on the bed's length, by either cutting legs, or stretching them to the point they died anyway.

Honorable mention to another bandit near Theseus' era Attica, the famed Sciron and his pet monster-turtle :)

You can suggest your own, and failure to do so with result in black helicopters flying above and a trip to Gitmo, you enemy of Freedom.

image17.png
 
Here 'tis:

images


And the worst of it is: it's not even a reliable instrument of torture.

Sometimes it beguiles, with showing people something moderately interesting in amongst all the torture.
 
This one time I waterboarded myself.

I was taking a bath, all relaxed, and draped my flannel over my head. Then I wondered if it would be nice to pour water over the flannel on my head.

It was not. Most definitely was not. But feel free to try this at home kids!
 
Kyriakos said:
^A microwave, oh nice and deliciously sadistic thinking, mr B :D
Click to expand...

In Wallace's Infinite Jest a character commits suicide by cutting a whole in the door of a microwave oven, putting his head through the hole, and turning the machine on.

How realistic a way of committing suicide this is, I don't know. I imagine it would be so painful that you'd likely remove your head before it was fatal. Though maybe not. Since the brain itself doesn't feel pain when a surgeon operates on it. I've heard.

But anyway, the whole novel was a flight of fancy. And the character's son came in later, to be greeted with the smell of cooking meat and thought to himself how hungry he was... before he realized the truth.

(That's not a microwave in the image, btw. It's a toaster.)
 
How about the thing where an elephant slowly crushes your head with his foot?

Or the thing where they cover you with honey and put you out on a boat with insects in it? And they slowly eat you or something similar?

Or the thing where a sleeping cat is sewn into your stomach?

Or maybe a spinning blade that cuts you in half, starting with your junk?

All those sound horrible to me, I'm not sure I can think of a worse way to die.
 
It's the simplest thing...to cause more pain than a man can possibly endure.

Physically, there are lots of specialized equipment, but everyday items (chains, meathooks, knives, rope, salt, etc.) can be equally horrible, I imagine.

And then there's psychological torture in all its forms--being in a straitjacket most of the day in solitary confinement in a padded room with people preventing you from committing suicide has got to be up there. It might seem harmless at first, but I can imagine that it would get to you.

I'll be visiting the medieval crime and punishment museum in Rothenburg ob der Tauber this week, among other things, so I'll see what I can find. But I loathe torture and anyone twisted enough to make or have made dedicated instruments of torture.
 
Only Kyriakos would ask such a question. :rolleyes:

Phrossack said:
I'll be visiting the medieval crime and punishment museum in Rothenburg ob der Tauber this week, among other things, so I'll see what I can find. But I loathe torture and anyone twisted enough to make or have made dedicated instruments of torture.
Click to expand...

Apparently a lot of "medieval" torture devices were actually from later periods or completely made up during the Victorian era, like the iron maiden. Not that medieval folks didn't have torture devices per se, but they were generally not so fantastic (why bother with something crazy and fancy when something relatively simple will do?). Hopefully the museum will take that into account.
 
cybrxkhan said:
Only Kyriakos would ask such a question. :rolleyes:



Apparently a lot of "medieval" torture devices were actually from later periods or completely made up during the Victorian era, like the iron maiden. Not that medieval folks didn't have torture devices per se, but they were generally not so fantastic (why bother with something crazy and fancy when something relatively simple will do?). Hopefully the museum will take that into account.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I hope so. The Victorians really did a number on our understanding of the Middle Ages. I saw another little collection of things like that in a castle here, but none of them seemed earlier than the 16th century, if I recall. Lots of "medieval" stuff, like witch-burnings, happened well after that period.
 
Just pump somebody full of a muscle relaxant like they use to paralyze people for lethal injection in the US, then put them of the floor of a room filled with hungry rats.
 
Farm Boy said:
Just pump somebody full of a muscle relaxant like they use to paralyze people for lethal injection in the US, then put them of the floor of a room filled with hungry rats.
Click to expand...
Problem with parayltics is (in addition to the tendency to dull pain and induce unconciousness) is they also tend to stop ventilation.

Not sure if a cocktail of drugs exists that can pull off complete loss of voluntary muscular control, maintenance of normal breathing, maintenance of conciousness, and maintenance (or increasement) of pain sensation.
 
You might not need complete loss though. Just enough so that the subject couldn't stand. Maybe.

Alcohol would probably work. But then you've got an anaesthetic effect... so yeah, it's a bit of a problem.
 
I'm sure there's some way we could pull it off but it might be beyond current "medical" knowledge. Usually inducement of unconciousness and dulling of pain is a desirable effect.
 
I thought we were going for the horror aspect of it instead of the raw pain part. It just has to be enough that you can't keep them from eating you, right? We could just tie 'em down I suppose. Bucket'o'rats and a slug of cable ties is pretty cheap, too.
 
There is the Chinese water torture. A drop of water falling on your forehead, at mostly regular interval. Keeps you from sleeping. In most cases it will force the person to anticipate the next drop. Likely leading to a very miserable mental break-down after many hours. Also it is not traceable.
 
The humble knife has so many possible applications that there really is no need for overengineered contraptions.
It doesn't even need to be very sharp.

Borachio said:
How realistic a way of committing suicide this is, I don't know. I imagine it would be so painful that you'd likely remove your head before it was fatal. Though maybe not. Since the brain itself doesn't feel pain when a surgeon operates on it. I've heard.
Click to expand...

I don't know if the brain feels pain, but the tissue around the brain and the skull definitely does.
 
The old torture trick of: Being pulled apart by horses sounds like a lot of fun (not really)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom