“Bring out your dead.”
-Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Definition
Necrophilia is an attraction to corpses or the desire to have sex with dead people.
History
There are written accounts all throughout history that talk about necrophilia. Typically the writing is against the practice and not in support of it. The Histories, written in 430 BCE, says that the ancient Egyptians would leave beautiful women to decay for three or fours days before embalming them to discourage intercourse. In ceramics found in Northern Peru dating from the first to eighth century CE, there were images depicting necrophilia. A Hittite law from the 16th to 13th century BCE explicitly permitted necrophilia. The Xianbei Emperor Murong Xi had sex with the corpse of his empress. During the Renaissance era in Italy there were many pieces of literature that referenced necrophilia. The most famous modern example is Jeffrey Dahmer. He was a serial killer who kept body parts of his victim and would have sex with the body parts.
Play Dead!
The only way to have truly safe and legal necrophilia is to roleplay. There are many ways a partner can roleplay necrophilia, from simply playing dead to getting into full cosplay and wearing makeup like they are dead. Depending on the type of fantasy, it could include a death scene where someone dies and then their partner has sex with them or the more traditional where they come upon the “dead body” and have sex with it. In the roleplay, the person playing dead can have no reaction to the sex or it breaks the fantasy.
Vampires and Zombies
There is debate on whether sex with a vampire or zombie would count as necrophilia. On one hand they are both dead, but they also have some kind of animation or consciousness. While typcially sex with a zombie or vampire is not considered necrophilia, there are heavy necrophilia overtones in both vampire and zombie stories. It’s more like erotic versions of these myths are edging on necrophilia.