In fact, the Kafes of the Ottoman Empire were an effort to stop the ritual of a successor king having all his brothers executed. Instead, extra heirs would be locked up in a nice dwelling full of harem women. They went mad.

And now they are a tourist attraction and a footnote of history.

[–] Shou 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That's fucking dark. I'm not sure what is worse. Death or caged for your entire life.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

It really is.

I guess if I had to pick I'd definitely choose the lifetime of prison, but with the harem, or whatever. It would still get old pretty quick, I imagine. I understand the eventual insanity, for sure.

I definitely feel worse for the women in that situation, but maybe they were allowed to rotate out and leave, at the very least.

[–] Shou 7 points 3 months ago

Probably not. Islam and christianity have the habit of enabling subjugation of women. Wives aren't allowed to reject their husbands advances for example. It was really just about power and control, as usual.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Oh it's worse than that. According to a History Channel special on the Kafes (take that for what you will) the prisoners behaved as folks generally do, and developing relationships with their lovers, but getting pregnant was a capital offense (since niblings were additional political baggage), and they often would get pregnant. This contributed to the mental health deterioration of the imprisoned men.

[–] flicker 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

What are you replying to? I don't give a shit about fratricide. A woman orgasming because the fetuses inside her are murdering each other is the part I have a big problem with.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Oh, the original notion in the post of the practice of killing offspring past the heir and the spare. Your response was ambiguous about to what specifically it was reacting.