Iron maiden - Definition and Overview

For information about the heavy metal band, see Iron Maiden (band)

An iron maiden is a torture device, often mistakenly thought to date from medieval times. The following short quote from Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (http://www.bartleby.com/81/8956.html) describes the 'Iron Maiden of Nuremberg', which was an example of such a device used in Germany in the 16th Century:

An instrument of torture for heretics, traitors, parricides, etc. It was a box big enough to admit a man, with folding doors and its interior studded with sharp iron spikes. When the doors were (slowly to increase pain) closed these spikes were forced into the body of the victim, who was left there to die in agony. (German, Eiserne Jungfrau).

Legend has it that a German coin counterfeiter was sentenced to the iron maiden. For the last two days of his life, the forger cried in vain while the spikes went through his body.

In truth, the iron maiden was never used during medieval times and was a later invention of German propaganda. The iron maiden has never been widely used as a torture device and was not invented until long after the middle ages.

Example Usage of maiden