Mariticide
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| Homicide |
| Murder |
| Note: Varies by jurisdiction |
| Assassination · Child murder Consensual homicide Contract killing · Honour killing Lust murder · Lynching Mass murder · Murder-suicide Proxy murder · Ritual murder Serial killer · Spree killer Torture murder · Feticide Double murder · Misdemeanor murder Crime of passion |
| Manslaughter |
| in English law Negligent homicide Vehicular homicide |
| Non-criminal homicide |
| Note: Varies by jurisdiction |
| Justifiable homicide Capital punishment Human sacrifice Feticide |
| By victim or victims |
| Suicide |
| Family Familicide · Avunculicide Fratricide / Sororicide Mariticide / Uxoricide |
| Other Genocide / Democide Regicide / Tyrannicide |
Not to be confused with Matricide.
Mariticide (from Latin maritus "married" + -cide, from caedere "to cut, to kill") literally means the murder of one's married partner, but has become most associated with the murder of a husband by his wife, as the reverse is given the name uxoricide.
Contents |
Notable instances
Historical
- Laodice I allegedly poisoned her husband Antiochus II Theos of the Seleucid dynasty around 246 BC.
- drugged and had her son kill her husband in 1991, creating a test case for the 'battered woman syndrome' defense in Australia.[1]
- Katherine Knight murdered her de facto husband by stabbing him, then skinned him and attempted to feed pieces of his body to his children.[2] She was sentenced to life in prison, but her rejected appeal said that the sentence was too severe for the crime.[3]
- In 1991, Pamela Smart had her husband murdered by a student of hers. Though the student committed the murder, the courts ruled that Smart had been guilty of mariticide due to her influence on the young man and her convincing manner to get him to carry out the act.
Mythological
- In Greek mythology, Clytemnestra murders her husband Agamemnon as an act of vengeance for the murder of their daughter Iphigeneia, and to retain power after his return from Troy. In Aeschylus' Oresteia the Erinyes consider Orestes' matricide a greater crime than Clytemnestra's mariticide since the killing of a spouse does not shed familial blood, but the opposite view is espoused by Aeschylus's Athena.
- In Greek mythology, the Amazons were said to kill men they partnered with after conceiving.
Fictional
- In Final Fantasy X, Lady Yunalesca, a Summoner and the daughter of Yu Yevon, sacrificed her husband to gain the powers of the Final Aeon.
References
- ^ Stateline Victoria
- ^ HTML Document: Regina v Knight [2001] NSWSC 1011 revised - 29/01/2002
- ^ Knight loses appeal for skinning partner - Breaking News - National - Breaking News
See also
- Uxoricide, the practice of killing one's wife
Category: Homicide