Growing bamboo, tearing breasts or torture pear. Punishments for unfaithful women and men suspected of homosexuality have been extremely brutal in the past
Brutal punishments were not just the preserve of the Middle Ages
The period that was famous for the brutality of punishments is undoubtedly the ancient world (on the other hand, even in the Middle Ages, mankind was not lagging behind in ingenuity), e.g. Socrates was given a punishment that can be described as an indirect execution - he was forced to drink a cup of hemlock, whose active substance, called coniine, causes intense spasms, paralyses the spinal cord and deprives a person of control over his own body. So he ends up suffocating to death. Inventive? Far from it. Around the sixth century BC, for example, offenders were even grilled alive in a bronze bull statue (this method of killing earned the name Sicilian bull). In ancient Israel, lead was poured down the throats of some strangled convicts, and in many countries, skinning was not uncommon (yes, skinning PEOPLE alive, and even supposedly so that the skin was as little damaged as possible when finished). While all of these are truly horrific punishments, there are some even more horrific ones - and the mere thought of them will surely make many of you unconsciously clutch at the incriminated body parts. Yes, in the past torture has also targeted female breasts and human genitalia...
Breast ripper on unfaithful women
Various corporal punishment and torture were indeed widespread activities in the past. And torture has not infrequently targeted parts of the body that are otherwise considered a source of pleasure. To start "lightly", for example, the "breast ripper" was very popular in Bavaria in the 16th century. This instrument did exactly what its name implies - it ripped the breasts, specifically of women who were accused of adultery or abortion. Breast rippers were usually made of iron and were also heated over a flame before being used (i.e. ripping the breasts out of the victim's chest). However, breast ripping was still a walk in the rose garden against the pear tree, i.e., the torture pear tree...
The pear as a source of unimaginable pain
The torture pear is generally considered to be the most horrifying and evil instrument that could be used for torture. The first references to this terrifying piece of metal date back to the 17th century, yet many believe it to be a medieval tool. Regardless of when it was first used, the fact is that those who encountered it in practice usually did not survive the torture. It was, in fact, an object made up of several separate "leaves" that could be opened at will. Logically, therefore, it was inserted where this function could cause adequate pain, i.e. into the body's orifices, specifically the anal opening and also the vagina.
This method of torture was then also allegedly intended for very specific groups of people, namely men who were suspected of homosexuality and also women associated with witchcraft (but also those who were unfaithful). The unwrapping of the various parts of the "pear" then caused absolutely inhuman pain - which was supposed to lead those who were tortured to confess (to basically anything). But although the intention was to confess, usually this torture ended in the death of the victims, who died of internal injuries or bleeding to death... (but not to think of the pear in such a one-sided way, there are also suggestions that it could have been used as a sex toy, which - by the way - is confirmed by its popularity today in the BDSM field...).
When bamboo kills...
However, they also came up with very subtle torture in the past in ancient China. And when we say "subtle", we mean something that no one would really think of. Chinese bamboo torture is a truly unique form of torture. It involves taking advantage of the fact that some varieties of bamboo grow really fast, about 4 cm per hour. And so people are said to have been placed on these shoots (cut to the tip with a knife), often directly towards the anal opening, so that the bamboo would grow through their body and cause them excruciating pain. Similarly, victims were also hung horizontally over the bamboo tip.
By the way, the creators of the show Mythbusters have also confirmed that bamboo shoots can indeed penetrate human skin, and therefore any part of the body, and simply stab a person in less than three days. You can see the related experiment below.
While the days of ancient China seem very distant indeed, the truth is that many believe that this Chinese bamboo torture was also used by the Japanese, on prisoners of war during World War II.
While many of the methods may seem miles away from today's reality, it is important not to paint reality pink. For example, the so-called Bloody Code (i.e. the draconian code of the British Empire) in 1723 provided for the death penalty for over two hundred different offences, including damaging a pond or cutting down an ornamental shrub. In France, the famous guillotine was last used to carry out the death penalty in 1977. And today, the death penalty is still used in 56 countries around the world...
