Why did they let the Egyptian wives rot in the sun?

[Muad_Dib]

Okay, so I am reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman, when I get to this passage:

“-like, did you know, in Egypt, if a particularly beautiful girl or the wife of a lord or whatever died, they wouldne’t send her to the embalmer for three days? They’d let her body spoil in the heat first.”

“Why? Oh, hold on. Okay, I think I know why. Oh, that’s disgusting.”

The only reason I can think of is to make sure that they are dead, but then why only women? Am I missing something here or is it just what I think?

[lokij]

@Muad'Dib

Okay, so I am reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman, when I get to this passage:
The only reason I can think of is to make sure that they are dead, but then why only women? Am I missing something here or is it just what I think?

The key words are “Particularly beautiful” I think, he’s talking about necrophillia.

[FisherQueen]

I just read about this in Herodotus, who claimed that Egyptian women were left to ripen a few days so that no one would offer indignities to their bodies.

Even a necrophiliac doesn’t want to violate a corpse that’s been out in the Egyptian sun for three days.

[Muad_Dib]

@FisherQueen

I just read about this in Herodotus, who claimed that Egyptian women were left to ripen a few days so that no one would offer indignities to their bodies.

Even a necrophiliac doesn’t want to violate a corpse that’s been out in the Egyptian sun for three days.

Thanks! It was Herodotus that they were talking about.