She and her army of warrior women fought many battles and Penthesilea was one of the Moon priestesses of the goddess Athene. Great horsewomen, the Amazons are associated with the pre-Hellenic horse cult. Horses were sacred to the moon because their hooves make a moon-shaped mark. They rode fearlessly into battle, not just to protect their own cities, but as allies in defence of others who shared their beliefs, and it was answering the loyal call of one such alliance that cost Queen Penthesilea her life. 

The war was caused by a woman, and it lasted for nearly ten years. The woman, Helen, was married to the King Menelaus of Sparta, Greece. She fell in love with Paris, the son of King Priam of Troy. Paris had come to visit and after accepting the King of Sparta's hospitality, he left taking Helen with him to Troy. 

Helen, who was an outstanding beauty, was accepted in Troy, where everyone, including King Priam himself, fell in love with her too. She and Paris were married there. 

Meantime, King Menelaus of Sparta, appealed to the other Kings of Greece to join him in battle to win Helen back, and a large expedition against Troy was assembled, the actions of Paris being taken as an insult to the whole of Greece. 

War being declared, King Priam of Troy send out a similar request to his allies who included his nephew, Memnon, the king of the Ethiopians. Memnon was a son of Eos or Aurora, the goddess of dawn and sister to Selene, the Moon. 

Queen Penthisilea answered King Memnon's call for aid. Dictys Cretensis, of Crete, who accompanied his leader to the Trojan War, says in his diary that she rode up at the head of a large army and, finding Hector, (another son of King Priam), dead, would have gone away had Paris not bribed her with gold and silver. In their first encounter, Achilles, the greatest Greek warrior, speared Penthisilea and dragged her from her saddle by the hair. 

As she lay on the ground, dying, the Greek soldiers cried "Throw this virago to the dogs as punishment for exceeding the nature of womenkind". When he removed her mask, Achilles fell in love with the Amazon queen's beauty and committed necrophily upon her body. 

Later, when he called for volunteers to bury her body, an ugly man named Thersitis, who had gouged out her eyes with his spear, accused Achilles of unnatural lust and was struck by him. This caused indignation amongst the Greeks and one of them, Diomedes, dragged Queen Penthiselea's body by the foot and threw it into the Scamander. It was rescued and buried with great honour on the bank. 

Achilles then sailed to Lesbos, where he sacrificed to Apollo, Artemis and Leto, and was purified by Odysseus of the murder.

And the runaway lovers?

Paris was killed in the Trojan war, so Helen first married his brother, who was also killed, then when Troy was defeated, she reunited with King Menelaus of Sparta. 

A carving of the dying Penthesilea, supported by Achilles was said to be cut into the throne of Zeus at Olympia. A stone carving, depicting Penthesilea and Achilles in battle, is housed today in the British Museum. 

Love for the dead has been remade into many forms. That best known and baffling is necrophilia, or the desire for sexual contact with a corpse. Sexologists cite ancient Egyptian embalmers, who had the opportunity for satiating arousal over  female corpses before they completed mummification. In order to disgust and presumably to discourage them  with the onset of putrefaction, the family kept the corpse uncovered for several days. 

Lesser known, but more recent is the opportunities taken by hangmen in the Middle Ages upon the bodies of condemned women that were executed for infanticide. These young mothers were quite numerous. The preparers of the body appeased themselves  with the women using lubrication before the corpses were extracted of their substance in which to make an effective salve. The salve incidentally was very effective, and also used to make candles. Again at the beginning of the 19th century, the wedding night of Napoleon and Marie-Louise was illuminated by such candles made from this extract of corpses. They were less odorous and smoked less. The pubic hair from the corpse was sold for its reputed capability to cure impotence. 

The profanation towards abusing young beautiful dead women have been rare. The case  of Sergeant Francois Bertrand in the cemetery of Montparnasse, in the last century, is famous though there have been others. In Pere Lachaise, 1969, in an alley, they discovered the corpse of Countess Delespine, who had died at the age of 20, only to have to return her to her tomb. The same year, in Poland, as the historian P. Riberette describes, they were surprised to find the coffin of Marie Walewska’s remains emptied by her brother and moved to Pere Lachaise authorized by Louis-Phillipe.[ An unknown necrophile may have removed the remains of Napoleons ‘Polish wife.’ ?] 

‘Immersion in Alcohol’
  One other famous accommodation made for the deceased, remaining an enigma to this day,  is the case of the Marquise of [Paiva.?] She was  a courtesan who left off street prostitution and became the wife of the stinking rich Prince Henckel of [Donnersmark?]. She, outrageously blighted and obese the last years of life, broke her mirror in order to avoid her reflection.  She died at the country house of [Neudeck in Silesie?] Beyond her death she strangely satiated her husband , who was 11 years younger..: Her husband, in an isolated room, secretly kept and visited regularly the body of his first wife who was immersed in alcohol to preserve her. The remains of the second wife disappeared immediately, the only person who might have shed some light on  his behavior. 

In certain human groups  necrophilic ritual was customary. Up to about 40 years ago, the Hindus of [Malabar?] believed that a virgin could not reach paradise.  Also, all young  unwed girls at death were deflowered, by whichever male was willing, before their incineration over a funeral pyre. Already at the 18th century Abbot Dubois, a French explorer to the  <Indes> had pointed out the same practice. The necrophilic ritual existed equally in ancient Persia but towards deceased males. Men who had lived as bachelors could not enter paradise; a woman became united to his remains even though this impromptu marriage couldn’t be consummated. The post-mortem erection is quite rare outside of death by hanging or by a great absorption of [cantharsis/Spanish Fly] so there was no extension of the cadavers once virile member besides a flow of blood. This flow could monstrously enlarge the penis from  the [cantharsis/Spanish Fly]  poisoning. 
[In the Russian tzar, the showing of deceased in the church was able to endure more days, the necrophilic would not have been exceptional.] 
 

For many years it has been  customary in all of north America for the embalmer to dress and put make up on by the deceased in order to give them a pleasant appearance. They are exhibited advantageously  in a lifelike pose and without a trace of their ultimate sufferings So a young and beautiful person could arouse sexual impulses in the heart of a few wicked people. Above all,  the embalmers had the corpse at the mortuary where for long hours without witnesses.  Since of course the dead women wouldn’t say anything. Some morbid touching doesn’t seem exceptional in the professional funeral parlors or mortuaries in the USA. Some of the funeral parlors in Europe and particularly in France have reported similar goings-on. There exists a temptation for some employees to act on their necrophilic tendencies. 

In a book kept for specialists Professor P. de River, medical <legist> in Los Angeles recalls how 2 employees in the funeral services were abusing certain young deceased women. One signed on at the age of 11 to a mortuary in Milan. He was masturbating while in contact with the young pretty dead girls. He immigrated to the US and found employment in a morgue. He continued his macabre contact sometimes accompanied by intercourse. He decided to stop at the age of almost 43, 32 of which he was able, without impunity, to spoil innumerable corpses.   The other funeral parlor employee and necrophile cited by de River was an American who, at the age of 18, had been overwhelmed by the sight of the corpse of a young woman that he had been in love with. This image of death was forever lodged in his mind--inseparable from the memory of the girl he loved. He specialized in embalming. Performed them 4 or 5 times a week. He found himself alone with young deceased women, entrusted to his care.  He may have been trying to remember his Love as he  satiated himself with the sexual contact of others. For two years he had been violating some hundreds of dead women before he was stopped. The two necrophiles mentioned by de River were without anything suspicious in their outward demeanor hinting to their perversion; were chronic masturbators who lived almost like virgins. [That was also the case for Sergeant Bertrand; he is let to suppose that <l’onanisme>exclusive at the psychologically fundamental level a deterrent of a normal sexual life can steer ones predisposition to worse aberrations.?] 

The American Sexologists A. Bronson, in 20 years had studies 13 necrophiles. Most were funeral home employees. She confirmed a normal appearance that rendered them inconspicuous but a desire that kept them sexually isolated. A majority of necrophiles embrace their perversion without it delivering itself into reality. One, according to H. Branson, will limit himself to  stepping over the graves of young women.  Another, after having consulted the obituaries, went to see the dead women uncovered at the wake at the funeral home. Then on returning to his home masturbated while imagining a sexual relationship with the dead women’s bodies. Many others desisted necrophilic practices once they were denounced. They  returned to their wives with a more intimate relationship. 

Literature and sculpture has evoked complacency with these eccentricities. In the home one can lay out their partner, naked, and  couple while a white sheet remaining between them to simulate death. Some psychologists believed that an onset of necrophilia comes from the inability for certain males to practice coitus with a female-- unless she is mute and inert. The except being the sound of sad music. 30 years ago there was a dance, a faster version of the fox-trot, over the notes of a funeral march by Chopin. It was a reputed aphrodisiac for a number of dancers.

Another deviation, Pygmalionism (or lust for statues)  is a bit like necrophilia. According to Greek mythology, Pygmalion, from Cypress, fell in love with Galatea a statue of a woman he sculpted himself. Venus, touched, changed the statue into a living person. [ Galatea didn’t cease and so of to talk and of to torment the unhappiness of Pygmalion who regretted the transformation?]. Following his example many humans  became lovers of statues. They were  tempted with the same kind of fire to unite themselves with the statue. Masturbating while touching statues was sexually arousing. Further, at [Samos’] temple, the Greek Clysophe coupled with a statue over which he affixed a piece of meat. And today in France and other countries, it is essential to clean some stone feminine nudes of indecent soiling. 

Adolescents, indeed even some adults, have been caught by surprise while masturbating near the female statues.  The great cemeteries, with their wealth of fine voluptuous sculptures and <votive> elicit many sexually charged strokes. At Pere Lachaise women visitors show a particular attraction to Victor Noir, a bronze study, laying in his eternal slumber. Dalou, the sculptor, sexually obsessed, transfixed the departing sexual projections upon a pant leg, of which the first button is undone, as if  put specifically to attract the attention of women. The bronze on the bulge between his legs gleams from having been rubbed so much by numerous women who frequent his grave. According to a supervising authority of Pere Lachaise, the wife of a policeman was also caught by surprise laying atop Victor Noir. The bottom of his shoes are equally brilliant after innumerable rubbings upon the tip of his shoes, especially the big toe. The big toe is often equivalent to the shaft for lustful women. Fellatio is also practiced by many women upon the big toe as well as the penis. What happens upon the person of Victor Noir in his eternal form confirms this equivocation. Some believe that the first time one exhibits this behavior it heals sterility. A tradition which lost itself in the memories of time tells of the peasants who, not too long ago, when wanting to become pregnant, went to masturbate on the stone edifices of Brittany and Auverge. The contact brought on orgasm and aided some women in conceiving more quickly. 

‘Encouragement for Shy People’ 
Another famous  ‘layer’ of Pere Lachaise is the sleeping statue of former president Felix Faure. He is reproduced sleeping in his natural grandeur under his tomb. His birth city wasnot interested in his remains after his scandalous death. [The sculpture suggests a brain hemorrhage who him slaps in the arms of a cute visitor from Elysium.? The President looks to the right as if he is situated during the time of an unexpected brain hemorrhage.] This was the case with Felix Faure’s : his hand and his left arm moving nearer towards his lower stomach, the reminder was again evocative of the cause of his sudden death. But it was ordered for the statue to be modified. Henceforth the arm was elongated over the side and everything else of the President was concealed under a great drape. [Well those lewd touches were probably in that manner evident to Felix Faure, like the letting anticipate the malicious smiles of a crowd who scorns all the other tombs of political men, often far more important.?] Many visitors of the cemetery feel the need to try to touch the breasts of nymph statues on certain tombs. Barbediennes, the celebrated [craftsman?] of the last century, sculpted a young female allegorical; the extremities of their bosom were glossy from having been exposed to a lot of lascivious caresses. A man who got off by rubbing himself against her explained that this young woman, with her face turned aside with her eyes not looking at anything, was an encouragement for him to abandon his usual timidity. Other touchers of statues are also afflicted with a great shyness; occasionally they had been affected by a sleeping woman in some case their mother. They apprehensively attempt to touch sleeping women, hoping she doesn’t wake herself up. In bronze or in stone, there is  nothing to fear. 

‘Lascivious Dances and Poetry’ 
To lessen the perverts temptations,  female statues are never entirely asleep or naked. In comparison, a person who does this is more rational than a practicing necrophile. However, some people who get off on rubbing themselves on things, like statues, break their fingers and  hands. One female, under the tomb of Chopin at Pere Lachaise, had two fingers removed. They had to get replaced with a plastic mold. This particular plastic resists being bent and made masturbating at home very hard to accomplish. 
 Homosexual encounters aren’t rare in the cemeteries of the city. They are expansive and riches in hiding places. The absence of police in their enclosure and the closing of public urinals at the outside contribute to multiplying encounters. In the chapel of certain abandoned tombs there can be found an array of accessories of  discarded shrouds and clothing, like a forgotten cloakroom. The toilets under the grand chapel of Pere Lachaise were very frequented by homosexuals. On the ground level, the great funeral column approximately 42 meters high ,  swollen at the base,  tapered at its extremities, also has discarded bits of clothing. It does remind one of an erect male organ and the [guardians of the familiar detail by the name common of that organ;?]  The resemblance has inspired many a curious visitor. 

The homosexual communion manifests itself overtly in the cult around certain famous homosexuals. At Pere Lachaise each autumn, a group of thirty homosexuals gather themselves around the magnificent tomb of Oscar Wilde made possible by the generosity of a rich Englishman. Headed by Jean Genet and to the sound of a harmonica, they  gyrate there in a lascivious dance, called The Cup. After a few homoerotic poems, Jean Genet opens the back metal door to the tomb of Oscar Wilde, of which he has the key, and tosses into the interior white carnations and forget-me-nots. Others contend themselves with graffiti. The penis of the stone guardian has been broken off many times. This organ has been carried off by some unidentifiable people once, then restored. But it was protected from such theft with something like a chastity belt –a metal plate with four screws. This cover was unhitched and the virile member  was newly broken off. Stolen again. One can see still the holes of the screws. The caretakers finally gave up trying to restore the  protecting angel. Now it resides castrated. 

Marcel Proust, another homosexual writer, is also the object of a fervent cult following. His tomb is quite more frequented than those of other illustrious interred literati at Pere Lachaise. More and more visitors have been turning up. They had to re-situate the familial remains of the Proust burial vault. His brother, a celebrated surgeon, had been displaced to the end so that Marcel could be moved in front to be closer to his admirers. 

‘Favorable Encounters’ 
A sympathetic homosexuality seems also to manifest itself for those famous deceased who weren’t actually homosexual, but rather champions of sexual liberty. Jim Morrisson, the American singer died in Paris some years ago. He acquired a ground shaking noteriety on the day, where before 4, 000 spectators, he masturbated upon the stage. According to the guards over the tomb at Pere Lachaise, hippies masturbate, out of devotion for him. The M.L.F (undefined acronym in the text) fills his tomb at Pere Lachaise regularly with flowers. 
Certain cemeteries are reputed favorable for encounters of love between the two sexes.  An atmosphere more pure outside. The silence, the tranquillity, some spaces lush in greenery, some fragrant flowers often flowing onto your shoes, invites flirtation. Between noon and two  o’clock, certain employees working in the area go to Pere Lachaise and utilize their leisure-time to find those who are people after their own heart. Particularly favorable is the street called <Le Chevre>. At other times a discrete solicitation rages in the cemeteries. 

In the middle ages, a envoy of Spaniards announced prohibition of women  to walk about at night. In Paris, the cemetery ‘Des Innocents’, located in Halles, has for a long time been the scene of  nocturnal debauchery. In the last century, some socialites were specializing in  tomb visits. They did not believe in staying in their widows weeds for very long, as it would not attract male attention, but they did utilize them for sympathy. The novel of Maupassant <les Tombales>(“ the things associated with the tomb”) tells of the misadventure of a distinguished visitor to the cemetery Montmartre. He was duped by a woman posing as a widow, but who was really a fortune-hunter. Around the same time there were some women who emulated Marie Duplessis and played up their depression. But they were just mercenaries and lay in wait for a wealthy man, inconsolable in his own grief. 

For the very timid to find adventure, some famous sepulchers are used as a place to make marriage proposals  .  Edith Piaf <sert> each day gets a multitude of loving proposals. Theo Sasapo, who lays next to the singer, inspires women to search for that tender companion. [One can amaze themselves with erotic exaltations in the place of those who seeing first  don’t have anything for to provoke .?]. (Last bit is about procreation, and it intensifying after calamity. And that too many in a small  space will  lessen how often coupling occurs.) In a funeral setting some visitors look as if they want to take revenge out on the dead because they feel deserted, while on the other hand it is a place to free their sexual inhibitions . 

It happened in 1931 in Key West, Florida.  Radiologist Carl von Cosel, 56, became obsessed with one of the tuberculosis patients at the sanitarium where he worked. Her name was Maria Elena de Hoyos and she was a beautiful, 22-year-old woman.  Von Cosel hoped to marry her, but before she could respond to his attentions, she weakened and died.  He begged the family not to bury her.  Fearing contamination of her body from groundwater, he built a mausoleum for her in the nearby cemetery and preserved her in formaldehyde.  There in secret he would sit and have "conversations" with her.  He even left a phone in the mausoleum so he could speak to her while away.  This man was clearly obsessed.  One day he just decided to illegally remove her corpse and take her to his home.

To keep her in good shape, von Cosel brought in a regular supply of preservatives and perfumes, but Maria Elena's corpse eventually began to deteriorate.  Using piano wire to string her bones together, von Cosel replaced her rotted eyes with glass eyes and her decomposed skin with a mixture of wax and silk.  As her hair fell out, he used it to make a wig to put on her head.  Stuffing her corpse with rags to keep her from collapsing and dressing her in a bridal gown, he kept her by his side in bed.  Dr. Michael Baden pointed out on HBO's Autopsy that the man even inserted a tube into her decrepit corpse to serve as a vagina for making love.  He also played a small organ to her as she "slept."

He got away with this for seven years until de Hoyos' sister accidentally came upon her in von Cosel's home.  Horrified, she called the police.

Von Cosel was arrested, but the statute of limitations had run out on his crime of grave robbing, so he was set free.  Maria Elena was buried in a secret unmarked area and von Cosel moved to central Florida, where he sold postcards of his beloved.  Even when she was taken from him, he couldn't forget her.  When he eventually died in 1952, he was found in a room with a large doll in his arms that was wearing Elena's death mask.

An interesting postscript is that when the story initially broke in the Key West community the citizens thought the doctor's amorous post-mortem activites as not being gross or obscene but rather very romantic.  Many felt sorry for the gentleman and were essentially willing to accept his mourning and grief and thought the event should just pass.  It wasn't until the law got inolved and started to squirm for a legal violation and revealed more of the sexual details did public opinion shift.  In fact, there was no law on the books in Key West (or most other places in those days) making sex with a corpse illegal.  A lesser crime, grave robbing (a theft of property crime), was conjured up, was well past the statute of limitations.