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The iron maiden is a torture device, consisting of a solid iron cabinet with a hinged front and spike-covered interior, sufficiently tall to enclose a human being. While often popularly thought to have been used in the medieval period, the first stories citing the iron maiden were composed in the 19th century. The use of iron maidens is considered to be a myth, heightened by the belief that people of the Middle Ages were uncivilized; evidence of their actual use has never been found. They have become a popular image in media involving the Middle Ages and involving torture chambers.

History

Despite its reputation as a medieval instrument of torture, there is no evidence of the existence of iron maidens before the 19th century.^[1] There are, however, ancient reports of the Spartan tyrant Nabis using a similar device around 200 B.C. for extortion and murder. The Abbasid vizier Ibn al-Zayyat is said to have created a "wooden oven-like chest that had iron spikes" for torture, which would ironically be used during his own imprisonment and execution in 847.^[2]

Wolfgang Schild, a professor of criminal law, criminal law history, and philosophy of law at the Bielefeld University, has argued that putative iron maidens were pieced together from artifacts found in museums to create spectacular objects intended for (commercial) exhibition.^[3] Several 19th-century iron maidens are on display in museums around the world, including the Museum of Us,^[4] the Meiji University Museum,^[5] and several torture museums^[6]^[7]^[8] in Europe.

Possible inspirations

The 19th-century iron maidens may have been constructed as a misinterpretation of a medieval Schandmantel, which was made of wood and metal but without spikes.^[9] Inspiration for the iron maiden may also have come from the Carthaginian execution of Marcus Atilius Regulus as recorded in Tertullian's "To the Martyrs" (Chapter 4) and Augustine of Hippo's The City of God (I.15), in which the Carthaginians "shut him into a tight wooden box, where he was forced to stand, spiked with the sharpest nails on all sides so that he could not lean in any direction without being pierced,"^[10] or from Polybius' account of Nabis of Sparta's deadly statue of his wife, the Iron Apega (earliest form of the device).^[11]^[12]

The iron maiden of Nuremberg

The most famous iron maiden that popularized the design was that of Nuremberg, first displayed possibly as far back as 1802. The original was lost in the Allied bombing of Nuremberg in 1945. A copy "from the Royal Castle of Nuremberg", crafted for public display, was sold through J. Ichenhauser of London to the Earl of Shrewsbury in 1890 along with other torture devices, and, after being displayed at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Illinois, 1893, was taken on an American tour.^[13] This copy was auctioned in the early 1960s and is now on display at the Medieval Crime Museum, Rothenburg ob der Tauber.^[14]

Origins

Some historians have argued that Johann Philipp Siebenkees (1759–1796) made up the history of the device.^[15] According to Siebenkees' colportage, it was first used on August 14, 1515, to execute a coin forger.^[16]

References

^ Graf, Klaus (June 21, 2001), Mordgeschichten und Hexenerinnerungen – das boshafte Gedächtnis auf dem Dorf, archived from the original on August 28, 2004, retrieved July 11, 2007, Das Hinrichtungswerkzeug "Eiserne Jungfrau" ist eine Fiktion des 19. Jahrhunderts, denn erst in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts hat man frühneuzeitliche Schandmäntel, die als Straf- und Folterwerkzeuge dienten und gelegentlich als "Jungfrau" bezeichnet wurden, innen mit eisernen Spitzen versehen und somit die Objekte den schaurigen Phantasien in Literatur und Sage angepaßt." "The execution tool "Iron Maiden" is a fiction of the 19th century, because only since the first half of the 19th century the early-modern-times' "rishard cloaks", which sometimes were called "maidens", were provided with iron spikes; and thus the objects were adapted to the dreadful fantasies in literature and legend."{{citation}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link).
^ Al-Tabari (1989). The Incipient Decline: The Caliphates of Al-Wathiq, Al-Mutawakkil, and Al-Muntasir, A.D. 841–863/A.H. 227–248. Translated by Kraemer, Joel. State University of New York Press. p. 70.
^ Schild, Wolfgang (2000). Die eiserne Jungfrau. Dichtung und Wahrheit (Schriftenreihe des Mittelalterlichen Kriminalmuseums Rothenburg o. d. Tauber Nr. 3). Rothenburg ob der Tauber.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ San Diego Museum of Man, Medieval Imposter: the Iron Maiden, archived from the original on 2015-02-18, retrieved 2015-01-17
^ Meiji University Museum, The Mission of the Meiji University Museum.
^ Museum Kyburg Castle, The Iron Maiden, archived from the original on 2008-05-10, retrieved 2015-01-17.
^ Český Krumlov Castle Museum of Torture, Museum of Torture, archived from the original on 2016-02-16, retrieved 2015-01-17.
^ Seth Robson, "Prague: Torture Museum Offers a Blood-Curdling Collection", Stars and Stripes, archived from the original on 2015-03-20, retrieved 2015-01-17.
^ Museum Digital, Schandmantel.
^ Translation by Gerald G. Walsh, S.J., Demetrius B. Zema, S.J., Grace Monahan, O.S.U., and Daniel J. Honan.
^ Polybius (2013-11-08), The Histories of Polybius, vol. II, translated by Evelyn Shirley Shuckburgh, Book XIII, Chapter 7.
^ Pomeroy, Sarah B. (2002p), "Elite Women, The Last Reformers: Apega and Nabis and Chaeron", Spartan Women, Oxford University Press US, pp. 89–90, ISBN 9780195130676 – via Books.Google.com.
^ "Famous torture instruments: the Earl of Shrewsbury's collection soon to be exhibited here", The New York Times, 26 November 1893 accessed 20 June 2009, refers particularly only to the "justly-celebrated iron maiden".
^ It was notably absent from the remainder of the collection, auctioned at Guernsey's, New York, in May 2009 (Richard Pyle, Associated Press, "For sale in NYC: torture devices").
^ Bishop, Chris (2014). "The 'pear of anguish': Truth, torture and dark medievalism" (PDF). International Journal of Cultural Studies. 17 (6): 591–602. doi:10.1177/1367877914528531. hdl:1885/17580. S2CID 146124132. Retrieved 2022-12-25.
^ Wolfgang Schild, Die Eiserne Jungfrau, 2002.

External links

Media related to Iron maiden (torture) at Wikimedia Commons
Infernal Device: Iron Maiden at Occasional Hell

[Klaus_Graf-1] Graf, Klaus (June 21, 2001), Mordgeschichten und Hexenerinnerungen – das boshafte Gedächtnis auf dem Dorf, archived from the original on August 28, 2004, retrieved July 11, 2007, Das Hinrichtungswerkzeug "Eiserne Jungfrau" ist eine Fiktion des 19. Jahrhunderts, denn erst in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts hat man frühneuzeitliche Schandmäntel, die als Straf- und Folterwerkzeuge dienten und gelegentlich als "Jungfrau" bezeichnet wurden, innen mit eisernen Spitzen versehen und somit die Objekte den schaurigen Phantasien in Literatur und Sage angepaßt." "The execution tool "Iron Maiden" is a fiction of the 19th century, because only since the first half of the 19th century the early-modern-times' "rishard cloaks", which sometimes were called "maidens", were provided with iron spikes; and thus the objects were adapted to the dreadful fantasies in literature and legend."{{citation}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link).

[2] Al-Tabari (1989). The Incipient Decline: The Caliphates of Al-Wathiq, Al-Mutawakkil, and Al-Muntasir, A.D. 841–863/A.H. 227–248. Translated by Kraemer, Joel. State University of New York Press. p. 70.

[3] Schild, Wolfgang (2000). Die eiserne Jungfrau. Dichtung und Wahrheit (Schriftenreihe des Mittelalterlichen Kriminalmuseums Rothenburg o. d. Tauber Nr. 3). Rothenburg ob der Tauber.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

[4] San Diego Museum of Man, Medieval Imposter: the Iron Maiden, archived from the original on 2015-02-18, retrieved 2015-01-17

[5] Meiji University Museum, The Mission of the Meiji University Museum.

[6] Museum Kyburg Castle, The Iron Maiden, archived from the original on 2008-05-10, retrieved 2015-01-17.

[7] Český Krumlov Castle Museum of Torture, Museum of Torture, archived from the original on 2016-02-16, retrieved 2015-01-17.

[8] Seth Robson, "Prague: Torture Museum Offers a Blood-Curdling Collection", Stars and Stripes, archived from the original on 2015-03-20, retrieved 2015-01-17.

[9] Museum Digital, Schandmantel.

[10] Translation by Gerald G. Walsh, S.J., Demetrius B. Zema, S.J., Grace Monahan, O.S.U., and Daniel J. Honan.

[11] Polybius (2013-11-08), The Histories of Polybius, vol. II, translated by Evelyn Shirley Shuckburgh, Book XIII, Chapter 7.

[Google-12] Pomeroy, Sarah B. (2002p), "Elite Women, The Last Reformers: Apega and Nabis and Chaeron", Spartan Women, Oxford University Press US, pp. 89–90, ISBN 9780195130676 – via Books.Google.com.

[13] "Famous torture instruments: the Earl of Shrewsbury's collection soon to be exhibited here", The New York Times, 26 November 1893 accessed 20 June 2009, refers particularly only to the "justly-celebrated iron maiden".

[14] It was notably absent from the remainder of the collection, auctioned at Guernsey's, New York, in May 2009 (Richard Pyle, Associated Press, "For sale in NYC: torture devices").

[15] Bishop, Chris (2014). "The 'pear of anguish': Truth, torture and dark medievalism" (PDF). International Journal of Cultural Studies. 17 (6): 591–602. doi:10.1177/1367877914528531. hdl:1885/17580. S2CID 146124132. Retrieved 2022-12-25.

[Schild-16] Wolfgang Schild, Die Eiserne Jungfrau, 2002.

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+{{Short description|Mythical torture device}}
-[[Image:Iron Maiden of Nuremberg.jpg|right|thumb|200px|The Iron Maiden of [[Nuremberg]]]]
+{{distinguish|Maiden (guillotine)}}
+{{about|the supposed torture device|the band|Iron Maiden|other uses|Iron Maiden (disambiguation)}}
+[[File:Diverse torture instruments.jpg|right|thumb|Various [[Neo-medievalism|neo-medieval]] torture instruments. An iron maiden stands at the right, with its door opened to reveal the spikes on its interior surface.]]
+The '''iron maiden''' is a [[torture]] device, consisting of a solid iron [[Cabinet (furniture)|cabinet]] with a hinged front and spike-covered interior, sufficiently tall to enclose a human being. While often popularly thought to have been used in the [[Middle Ages|medieval period]], the first stories citing the iron maiden were composed in the 19th century. The use of iron maidens is considered to be a myth, heightened by the belief that people of the Middle Ages were uncivilized; evidence of their actual use has never been found. They have become a popular image in media involving the Middle Ages and involving [[torture chamber]]s.
-{{Redirect|Iron maiden|the band of the same name|Iron Maiden}}
-{{For|other uses see|Iron maiden (disambiguation)}}
+== History ==
-An '''iron maiden''' is an [[iron]] [[cabinet]] built to [[torture]] or [[capital punishment|kill]] a person by piercing the body with sharp objects (such as knives, spikes, or nails), while he or she is forced to remain standing. The condemned bleeds profusely and is weakened slowly, eventually dying because of [[blood loss]], or perhaps [[asphyxiation]]. It was used for more than a millennium during the [[Dark Ages]] and [[Middle Ages]].
+[[File:Muzeum Ziemi Lubuskiej - Muzeum Tortur - Żelazna dziewica.JPG|thumb|An open iron maiden]]
+Despite its reputation as a medieval instrument of torture, there is no evidence of the existence of iron maidens before the 19th century.<ref name="Klaus Graf">{{citation|last=Graf |first=Klaus |quote=Das Hinrichtungswerkzeug "Eiserne Jungfrau" ist eine Fiktion des 19. Jahrhunderts, denn erst in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts hat man frühneuzeitliche Schandmäntel, die als Straf- und Folterwerkzeuge dienten und gelegentlich als "Jungfrau" bezeichnet wurden, innen mit eisernen Spitzen versehen und somit die Objekte den schaurigen Phantasien in Literatur und Sage angepaßt." "The execution tool "Iron Maiden" is a fiction of the 19th century, because only since the first half of the 19th century the early-modern-times' "rishard cloaks", which sometimes were called "maidens", were provided with iron spikes; and thus the objects were adapted to the dreadful fantasies in literature and legend." |url=http://www.mondzauberin.de/einstieg/informativ/essays/essays3/BerlinOnline%20Die%20unsichtbare%20H/vortrag.html |title=Mordgeschichten und Hexenerinnerungen – das boshafte Gedächtnis auf dem Dorf |date=June 21, 2001 |access-date=July 11, 2007 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040828060227/http://www.mondzauberin.de/einstieg/informativ/essays/essays3/BerlinOnline%20Die%20unsichtbare%20H/vortrag.html |archive-date=August 28, 2004 }}.</ref> There are, however, ancient reports of the Spartan tyrant [[Nabis of Sparta|Nabis]] using [[Apega of Nabis|a similar device]] around 200 B.C. for extortion and murder. The Abbasid vizier [[Muhammad ibn al-Zayyat|Ibn al-Zayyat]] is said to have created a "wooden oven-like chest that had iron spikes" for torture, which would ironically be used during his own imprisonment and execution in 847.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Al-Tabari|title=The Incipient Decline: The Caliphates of Al-Wathiq, Al-Mutawakkil, and Al-Muntasir, A.D. 841–863/A.H. 227–248|publisher=State University of New York Press|year=1989|pages=70|translator-last=Kraemer|translator-first=Joel}}</ref>
+Wolfgang Schild, a professor of criminal law, criminal law history, and philosophy of law at the [[Bielefeld University]], has argued that putative iron maidens were pieced together from [[artifact (archaeology)|artifacts]] found in museums to create spectacular objects intended for (commercial) exhibition.<ref>{{cite book|first = Wolfgang| last = Schild|year = 2000| title = Die eiserne Jungfrau. Dichtung und Wahrheit (Schriftenreihe des Mittelalterlichen Kriminalmuseums Rothenburg o. d. Tauber Nr. 3) |location = Rothenburg ob der Tauber}}</ref> Several 19th-century iron maidens are on display in museums around the world, including the [[Museum of Us]],<ref>{{citation | author = San Diego Museum of Man | url = http://www.museumofman.org/blog/medieval-imposter-iron-maiden | title = Medieval Imposter: the Iron Maiden | access-date = 2015-01-17 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150218094216/http://www.museumofman.org/blog/medieval-imposter-iron-maiden | archive-date = 2015-02-18 | url-status = dead }}</ref> the [[Meiji University]] Museum,<ref>{{citation |author=Meiji University Museum |title=The Mission of the Meiji University Museum |url=http://www.meiji.ac.jp/cip/english/institute/museum.html}}.</ref> and several [[torture museums]]<ref>{{citation |author=Museum Kyburg Castle |title=The Iron Maiden |url=http://www.schlosskyburg.ch/e/virtualtour/sub_5a.html |access-date=2015-01-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080510154945/http://www.schlosskyburg.ch/e/virtualtour/sub_5a.html |url-status=live |archive-date=2008-05-10}}.</ref><ref>{{citation |author=Český Krumlov Castle Museum of Torture |title=Museum of Torture |url=http://www.ckrumlov.info/docs/en/atr589.xml |access-date=2015-01-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160216192406/http://www.ckrumlov.info/docs/en/atr589.xml |url-status=dead |archive-date=2016-02-16}}.</ref><ref>{{citation |author=Seth Robson |title=Prague: Torture Museum Offers a Blood-Curdling Collection |url=http://www.stripes.com/military-life/travel/prague-torture-museum-offers-a-blood-curdling-collection-1.45463 |work=Stars and Stripes |access-date=2015-01-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150320000737/http://www.stripes.com/military-life/travel/prague-torture-museum-offers-a-blood-curdling-collection-1.45463 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2015-03-20}}.</ref> in Europe.
-[[Augustine of Hippo|St. Augustine]] makes an early reference to [[Carthage|Carthaginian]] use of this device in ''[[The City of God]]'' I.15. The most famous device was the iron maiden of [[Nuremberg]]. Historians have ascertained that [[Johann Philipp Siebenkees]] created the history of it as a [[hoax]] in [[1793]]. According to Siebenkees' [[colportage]], it was first used on [[August 14]], [[1515]], to execute a coin [[Forgery|forger]].{{Fact|date=June 2007}} The Nuremberg iron maiden was actually built in the [[19th century]] as a misinterpretation of a [[Middle Ages|medieval]] "[[Schandmantel]]" ("cloak of shame"), which was made of wood and tin but without spikes.
+=== Possible inspirations ===
-The iron maiden of Nuremberg was [[anthropomorphic]]. It was probably styled after [[Mary, the mother of Jesus]], with a carved likeness of her on the face. The "[[maiden]]" was about 7 feet (2.1m) tall and 3 feet (0.9m) wide, had double doors, and was big enough to contain an adult man. Inside the [[tomb]]-sized container, the iron maiden was fitted with dozens of sharp spikes.
+The 19th-century iron maidens may have been constructed as a misinterpretation of a medieval [[Schandmantel]], which was made of wood and metal but without spikes.<ref>{{citation |author=Museum Digital |title=Schandmantel |url=http://www.museum-digital.de/bawue/pdf/multipleimages.php?imagenr=957}}.</ref> Inspiration for the iron maiden may also have come from the Carthaginian execution of [[Marcus Atilius Regulus]] as recorded in [[Tertullian]]'s "To the Martyrs" (Chapter 4) and [[Augustine of Hippo]]'s ''[[City of God (book)|The City of God]]'' (I.15), in which the [[Ancient Carthage|Carthaginians]] "shut him into a tight wooden box, where he was forced to stand, spiked with the sharpest nails on all sides so that he could not lean in any direction without being pierced,"<ref>Translation by Gerald G. Walsh, S.J., Demetrius B. Zema, S.J., Grace Monahan, O.S.U., and Daniel J. Honan.</ref> or from [[Polybius]]' account of [[Nabis of Sparta|Nabis]] of [[Sparta]]'s deadly statue of his wife, the [[Apega of Nabis|Iron Apega]] (earliest form of the device).<ref>{{citation |author=Polybius |title=The Histories of Polybius |date=2013-11-08 |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44126/44126-0.txt |volume=II |at=Book XIII, Chapter 7 |translator=Evelyn Shirley Shuckburgh}}.</ref><ref name=Google>{{citation |last=Pomeroy |first=Sarah B. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c3k2AN1GulYC&q=apega+of+nabis&pg=PA89 |title=Spartan Women |chapter=Elite Women, The Last Reformers: Apega and Nabis and Chaeron |publisher=Oxford University Press US |date=2002p|pages=89–90 |via=Books.Google.com |isbn=9780195130676}}.</ref>
+== The iron maiden of Nuremberg ==
-==Iron maidens in fiction==
-* [[Kurt Vonnegut]] describes the iron maiden of Nuremberg in ''[[Slaughterhouse-Five]]''.
+[[File:Eiserne Jungfrau von Nürnberg 15. od. 16. Jh. Rothenburg.JPG|right|thumb|Copy of the iron maiden of Nuremberg on display in Rothenburg ob der Tauber]]
+The most famous iron maiden that popularized the design was that of [[Nuremberg]], first displayed possibly as far back as 1802. The original was lost in the Allied [[Bombing of Nuremberg in World War II|bombing of Nuremberg]] in 1945. A copy "from the Royal Castle of Nuremberg", crafted for public display, was sold through J. Ichenhauser of London to the [[Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 20th Earl of Shrewsbury|Earl of Shrewsbury]] in 1890 along with other torture devices, and, after being displayed at the [[World's Columbian Exposition]], Chicago, Illinois, 1893, was taken on an American tour.<ref>[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9805EEDB153EEF33A25755C2A9679D94629ED7CF "Famous torture instruments: the Earl of Shrewsbury's collection soon to be exhibited here", ''The New York Times'', 26 November 1893] accessed 20 June 2009, refers particularly only to the "justly-celebrated iron maiden".</ref> This copy was auctioned in the early 1960s and is now on display at the Medieval Crime Museum, [[Rothenburg ob der Tauber]].<ref>It was notably absent from the remainder of the collection, auctioned at [[Guernsey's]], New York, in May 2009 ([http://www.wtop.com/?nid=104&sid=1670209 Richard Pyle, Associated Press, "For sale in NYC: torture devices"]).</ref>
-* [[Bram Stoker]] wrote a short story about the iron maiden titled "The Squaw" (1893).
-* [[Roald Dahl]]'s novel ''[[Matilda (novel)|Matilda]]'' contains a device similar to an iron maiden called "the Chokey."
-* [[Alejandra Pizarnik]] wrote a short story about the Countess Bathory regarding Valentine Penrose's work which briefly details the countess' use of an iron maiden (1968).  It has been reprinted in ''The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales'', edited by Chris Baldick.
-* An iron maiden was always present on the classic television series ''[[The Addams Family]]'' (1964-66), usually seen in the "play room", but sometimes was found upstairs in the living room. Cast members and house guests were often seen getting in and out of the Addams' spiked-filled iron maiden. An iron maiden is also seen briefly in the 1991 Paramount film, ''[[The Addams Family]]''.
-* An iron maiden appears in the [[Tim Burton]] movie ''[[Sleepy Hollow (film)|Sleepy Hollow]]'', in a dream by [[Johnny Depp]]'s character, [[Ichabod Crane]] (1999). Ichabod's fundamentalist father killed his wife by trapping her in an iron maiden; young Ichabod opened it and found his mother's corpse inside.
-* Several iron maidens are also featured in the [[Oogie Boogie]] part of [[Tim Burton]]'s movie, ''[[The Nightmare Before Christmas]]'' (1993).
-* In the 1975 movie version of ''[[Tommy (film)|Tommy]]'' by Ken Russell [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073812], [[Tina Turner]] as the Acid Queen morphs into a highly stylized iron maiden with, presumably, [[LSD]]-filled syringes instead of spikes.
-* In ''[[Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure]]'', the protagonists of the story go back in time to medieval Europe and are sentenced to the iron maiden, which they associate with the [[heavy metal]] band [[Iron Maiden]], screaming "Excellent!" and playing [[air guitar]] until the king says "Execute them".
-* In ''[[Batman Returns]]'', another Tim Burton movie, an iron maiden in [[Bruce Wayne|Bruce Wayne's]] collection has a secret trapdoor to the [[Batcave]].
-* At the beginning of the ''[[The Simpsons|Simpsons]]'' episode "[[Treehouse of Horror XVII]]", an iron maiden is shown killing [[Moe Szyslak]].
-* A similar device is described by [[Franz Kafka]] in his short story "[[In the Penal Colony]]" ("Die Strafkolonie"). The whole story is dedicated to witnessing the one final session of the torture device by the narrator. While Kafka's device does not envelop the whole body, the type of piercing described can well be compared to that of the iron maiden.
-* In Angela Carter's short story, "The Bloody Chamber", (a re-telling of the Bluebeard story) one of the wives is killed by torture in an iron maiden for an unspecified amount of time.
-* In the videogame ''[[Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow]],'' four iron maidens appear in the boss room of the PuppetMaster.
-* In the videogame ''[[Shadow Hearts: Covenant]], ''an iron maiden is seen in the torture room of the St. Margurite Island Prison
-* Jen, the protagonist from the videogame ''[[Primal]] ''is locked into an Iron Maiden at one point.
-* In the videogame ''[[Resident Evil Code: Veronica]] ''an iron maiden appears at one point with a hole for a sword to be driven through in addition to the internal spikes.
-* The video game ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'' features an enemy called an "[[List of Resident Evil 4 creatures#Iron Maiden|Iron Maiden]]", which is a humanoid creature that is covered head to toes with spikes. The "Iron Maiden" attacks you by grabbing the body of your character and hugging them against their spike covered bodies; this is similar to the method of the Iron Maiden torture device.
-* The computer game ''[[Diablo II]]'' and its expansion, ''[[Diablo II: Lord of Destruction]]'' both feature a Necromancer skill named Iron Maiden.  The skill inflicts a self-damaging curse on any enemy that isn't a boss level.
-* In the computer game [[Haunting Ground]], there is a premature bad ending to the game that involves the protagonists untimely demise should she lock herself inside an Iron Maiden.
-* In ''[[Shaman King]],'' a young girl who refers to herself as [[Iron Maiden Jeanne]] is the leader of the X-Laws. She spends the major part of time inside of an iron maiden full of spiked vines to augment her own spiritual powers.
-* An iron maiden was used by Jasdebi against Baron Aleister Crowley III in chapter 107 in the D. Gray-Man manga.
-* In the 1981 [[Mel Brooks]] comedy film ''[[History of the World, Part I]],'' an Iron Maiden is featured in the Spanish Inquisition segment.
-* The character [[Donovan Baine]] of the ''[[Darkstalkers]]'' series carries a Iron Maiden seen in his opening and win poses.
-* In the 2007 animated feature film ''[[Shrek the Third]],'' one of the girls at Artie's school says, "I'd rather get the black plague and lock myself in an iron maiden than go out with him."
-*In the video game [[Escape from Monkey Island]], [[Guybrush Threepwood]] comes across an iron maiden in the "Hall o' Justice" at [[Lucre Island]]. When prompted by the player, he responds "Iron Maiden! Excellent! I have no idea why I just said that." This is a reference to both the [[NWOBHM|British Heavy Metal]] band [[Iron Maiden]] and the 1989 movie [[Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure]] (see above).
-* In the episode "Abracadaver" of [[The Powerpuff Girls]] the zombie magician Abracadaver is killed after getting trapped in an Iron Maiden.
-* The [[Volfoss]] videogame contains a race named "Iron Meiden", which represents mutilated womans in Iron Maiden.
-* In [[Matilda]], the Trunchbull keeps an Iron Maiden in the office called The Chokey where children who misbehave go.
-* In the video game, Dragon Guest VIII: The Journey of the Cursed King, the party escape from Maella Abbey using a secret passageway disquised as an iron maiden.
-==Sources==
+=== Origins ===
+Some historians have argued that [[Johann Philipp Siebenkees]] (1759–1796) made up the history of the device.<ref>{{cite journal |last= Bishop |first= Chris |date= 2014 |title= The 'pear of anguish': Truth, torture and dark medievalism |url= https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/17580/8/Pear%20of%20Anguish%20(Revised).pdf |journal= International Journal of Cultural Studies |volume= 17 |issue= 6 |pages= 591–602 |doi= 10.1177/1367877914528531 |hdl= 1885/17580 |s2cid= 146124132 |access-date= 2022-12-25}}</ref> According to Siebenkees' [[colportage]], it was first used on August 14, 1515, to execute a coin [[Forgery|forger]].<ref name="Schild">Wolfgang Schild, ''Die Eiserne Jungfrau'', 2002.</ref>
-*{{cite book
- | first = Wolfgang
+== See also ==
- | last = Schild
+* [[Pear of anguish]] – another supposed medieval torture device with little actual evidence of use
- | authorlink =
+* [[Brazen bull]]
- | year = 2000
+* [[Ducking stool]]
- | month =
- | title = Die eiserne Jungfrau
+== References ==
- | pages =
+{{Reflist|30em}}
- | publisher =
- | location =
+== Further reading ==
- | id =
+* {{cite web
- | url =
-}}
-*{{cite web
  | author=Jürgen Scheffler
- | year=
  | url=http://www.zeitenblicke.de/2002/01/scheffler/scheffler.html
- | title=Der Folterstuhl - Metamorphosen eines Museumsobjektes
+ | title=Der Folterstuhl – Metamorphosen eines Museumsobjektes
  | work=Zeitenblicke
- | accessdate=January 25
+ | access-date=January 25, 2006
- | accessyear=2006
  }}
-*{{cite web
+* {{cite web
+ |url=http://www.mondzauberin.de/einstieg/informativ/essays/essays3/BerlinOnline+Die+unsichtbare+H/vortrag.html
- | author=
+ |title=Vortrag von Klaus Graf: Mordgeschichten und Hexenerinnerungen
- | year=
+ |work=Mondzauberin
- | url=http://www.mondzauberin.de/einstieg/informativ/essays/essays3/BerlinOnline%20Die%20unsichtbare%20H/vortrag.html
+ |access-date=July 11, 2007
- | title=Vortrag von Klaus Graf: Mordgeschichten und Hexenerinnerungen
+ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040828060227/http://www.mondzauberin.de/einstieg/informativ/essays/essays3/BerlinOnline%20Die%20unsichtbare%20H/vortrag.html
- | format=
+ |archive-date=August 28, 2004
- | work=Mondzauberin
+ |url-status=dead
- | publisher=
+}}
- | accessdate=January 25
+* {{cite web
- | accessyear=2006
+ | url=http://www.uni-koblenz.de/~graf/strafj.htm#a274
- }}
+ | title=Das leckt die Kuh nicht ab – "Zufällige Gedanken" zu Schriftlichkeit und Erinnerungskultur der Strafgerichtsbarkeit
+ | access-date=July 11, 2007
-== Notes ==
+ |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20030802234515/http://www.uni-koblenz.de/~graf/strafj.htm#a274 |archive-date = August 2, 2003}}
-{{reflist}}
+== External links ==
-[[Category:Torture devices]]
+* {{Commons category-inline|Iron maiden (torture)}}
+* [http://www.occasionalhell.com/infdevice/detail.php?recordID=Iron%20Maiden Infernal Device: Iron Maiden at Occasional Hell]
+{{DEFAULTSORT:Iron Maiden (Torture)}}
-[[cs:Železná panna]]
+[[Category:European instruments of torture]]
-[[de:Eiserne Jungfrau]]
+[[Category:Hoaxes]]
-[[es:Doncella de hierro]]
+[[Category:Misconceptions]]
-[[fr:Vierge de fer]]
+[[Category:Torture]]
-[[it:Vergine di Norimberga]]
+[[Category:19th-century neologisms]]
-[[no:Jernjomfruen]]
-[[he:בתולת הברזל]]
-[[ja:鉄の処女]]
-[[pl:Żelazna dziewica]]
-[[ru:Железная дева]]
-[[fi:Rautaneitsyt]]
-[[sv:Järnjungfrun]]
-[[zh:鐵處女]]