The Castrated Gods and their Castration Cults: Revenge, Punishment, and Spiritual Supremacy (original) (raw)

New Age Eunuchs: Motivation and Rationale for Voluntary Castration

Archives of Sexual Behavior, 2000

We used a survey posted on the Internet to explore the motivation of men who are interested in being castrated. Out of 134 respondents, 23 (17%) reported already having been castrated. The 104 (78%) individuals who said they had not been castrated were asked why they wanted to be castrated and why they had not actualized that desire. They were given multiple-choice answers to select from. The major reason (selected by 40% of respondents) for desiring castration was to achieve a "eunuch calm" and freedom from sexual urges; however, a large proportion (∼30%) of respondents found fantasies about being castrated sexually exciting and a similar percentage desired castration for the "cosmetic" appearance it achieved (which we interpret to mean scrotal removal along with an orchiectomy). This high interest in castration as either a sexual stimulus (a fetish) or a cosmetic enhancement was unexpected and contrasted with the more classically stated motivation for voluntary castration in the psychiatric literature, i.e., libido control and transsexualism. Internet discussion groups that serve these men may encourage them to act out their castration fantasies. Alternately, Internet discussions may give them a displacement outlet for their fantasies and decrease the risk of castration by nonmedically qualified "street-cutters" or by self-mutilation. Forty percent of our respondents claimed that they would have an orchiectomy, if it were cheap, safe, and simple. A quarter wanted to try chemical castration first, but 40% were embarrassed to talk to their doctors about their interest in castration. Information now available on the Internet provides these men with increasingly easy access to street-cutters and directions on how to perform surgical castrations, putting them at risk of permanent injury and disability. Physicians need to be aware of these risks.

Modern-Day Eunuchs: motivations for and consequences of contemporary castration

Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 2007

This article compares the motivations for, and responses to, castration between two groups of males: prostate cancer patients and voluntary modern-day eunuchs with castration paraphilias or other emasculating obsessions. Prostate cancer patients are distressed by the side effects of androgen deprivation and typically strive to hide or deny the effects of castration. In contrast, most voluntary eunuchs are pleased with the results of their emasculations. Despite a suggested association of androgen deprivation with depression, voluntary eunuchs appear to function well, both psychologically and socially. Motivation, rather than physiology, appears to account for these different responses to androgen deprivation.

A Man Without Manliness: A Case of Involuntary Castration

Anil Aggrawal's Internet Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology

The practice of castration has its roots before recorded human history and male castration was performed for social reasons in prehistoric times.1 Though, antiquity has revealed variety of reasons for the forced involuntary castration of males but here we are discussing a case of 26 years married male who was in the business of dancing to earn his livelihoods in the company of eunuchs, commonly called as hijra / kinners. One day they took him in an ebriated condition to an unknown isolated place where his private parts were severed and removed. On gaining conscious, he noticed pain in the area of his private parts and found that his scrotum and penis were removed without his consent. He was beaten mercilessly when he protested and then was sold him to another identical group who forced him to in the male prostitution. Examination and investigations established his sex and surgical intervention carried out as per his allegations.

The Ideology of the Eunuch Priest

Gender <html_ent glyph="@amp;" ascii="&"/> History, 1997

Eunuchs were a regular part of the gendered world of Mediterranean antiquity. Most eunuchs were castrated involuntarily, many as slaves and prisoners of war. This paper examines a different class of eunuch, the eunuch priest. This was a free man who, as a mature male, castrated himself voluntarily by removing his testicles with a sharp object, an act undertaken as a token of his dedication to the deity he served. 1 All of the eunuch priests known from ancient Mediterranean society were attendants on so-called Oriental divinities, deities whose cults originated in western Asia. Of these, the most prominent one is the Great Mother Goddess, known in Greece and Rome as Cybele, whose priests will form the principal subject of this paper. The Great Mother was originally a deity of Phrygia, a region of central Asia Minor (modern Turkey). Evidence for her worship first appears in the early first millennium BCE, and she remained a conspicuous figure in the religious life of Mediterranean antiquity until the dominance of Christianity in the fourth and fifth centuries CE. Despite her Phrygian origins and her continuing identification as a Phrygian deity, the Great Mother is best known through her cult centers in the Greek world and in the city of Rome. In the Greek world she was addressed as Meter, the Mother, and her civic shrines could be found in several Greek cities. In the city of Rome the Great Mother, the Roman Magna Mater, gained even more public visibility, as she acquired the role of a patriotic, protective divinity, worshipped at an important temple in the very heart of the city. The ubiquity and public presence of the Mother Goddess are marks of a deity who enjoyed a great deal of dignity and respect in Mediterranean antiquity. Yet this circumstance forms a sharp contrast to the position of her eunuch priests, whose asexual condition caused them to be viewed with disgust and loathing outside the goddess's Phrygian homeland. In some cases the eunuch priest was described as a man who had deliberately made himself into a woman, taking on all of the negative implications that were attached to a woman's body in antiquity. In other cases the eunuch was addressed as a being who was a grade below a woman, as one 'neither man nor woman', whose appearance and manners incorporated the most disagreeable aspects of both male and female.

Eunuchs in Contemporary Society: Characterizing Men Who Are Voluntarily Castrated (Part I

Journal of Sexual Medicine, 2007

Introduction. Some males desire to be emasculated for no medical reason. These individuals are often secretive about their desires and little is known about their background and motivation.Aims. We sought to characterize these modern eunuchs and to identify risk factors for genital self-mutilation or self-administered chemical castration.Methods. We posted a questionnaire on the Eunuch Archive (http://www.eunuch.org) that was responded to by 135 voluntarily castrated males. Questionnaire data were supplemented by accompanying narrative responses and several personal interviews.Main Outcome Measures. Participants answered questionnaire items pertaining to their knowledge about androgen deprivation, the nature of their castration, and the length of time between initial presentation of castration paraphilia and castration. These questionnaire data allowed us to compare and contrast voluntary chemical and physical eunuchs.Results. The physical castrations were largely premeditated, with an average of 18 years from the time that an individual developed interest in being a eunuch to the time of their actual castration. We identified four factors that may promote castration ideations: (i) abuse sustained during childhood, including parental threats of castration; (ii) homosexuality; (iii) exposure to animal castration during youth; and (iv) religious condemnation of sexuality. Chemical eunuchs were more likely to have sought castration for libido control or to advance transition from male to female (P < 0.05). Physical eunuchs had a nonsignificant tendancy to have masochistic paraphilia involving genital mutilation in advance of their castration (P < 0.1). Both Body Integrity Identity Disorder and Gender Identity Disorders occur among those who self-identify as eunuch.Conclusions. We present evidence that the majority of self-identified voluntary eunuchs are not male-to-female transsexuals. Whereas the majority identify as male, many view themselves as in an alternate nonmale, nonfemale, gender space. We therefore suggest that male-to-eunuch is a valid transgender identity. Johnson TW, Brett MA, Roberts LF, and Wassersug RJ. Eunuchs in contemporary society: Characterizing men who are voluntarily castrated (Part I). J Sex Med 2007;4:930–945.

Castration as Exemplum: The Making of a Medieval Trope

Festschrift for John D. Lyons, 2020

Seeking to transform the Roman Empire from a secular to a sacred construct in De civitate Dei contra Paganos, St. Augustine roundly denounces Roman religion, particularly self-castration by priests of the great Earth Mother, Tellus/Ceres. Augustine describes the ritual self-mutilation so vividly as to transform the rite into a negative example of sacred ecology. The image imprints itself deeply enough to transform historical act into moral concept: an exemplum against Roman religion. His hypotyposis obliges readers to visualize depicted members, thereby posing a problem for Church Fathers who taught that the “parts of shame” should neither be named nor depicted. But as Saint Ambrose and Isidore of Seville demonstrate, it is futile to castrate language or to repress what the imagination evokes.

Eunuchs in Contemporary Society: Expectations, Consequences, and Adjustments to Castration (Part II

Journal of Sexual Medicine, 2007

Introduction. There are men in the Western world who are voluntarily castrated and are not male-to-female transsexuals.Aims. We surveyed members of this group to understand their responses to androgen deprivation (AD) and how their experiences matched their expectations of AD.Methods. We posted a questionnaire on the Eunuch Archive (http://www.eunuch.org) that received responses from 92 voluntarily orchiectomized males who identified as eunuchs. Data from this questionnaire were supplemented with interviews with 19 of the eunuchs.Main Outcome Measures. Participants completed questionnaire items regarding: (i) the side effects they expected and experienced; (ii) their current physical and psychological condition; (iii) their level of regret; (iv) what they appreciated most about their castrated status; and (v) who performed their orchiectomies.Results. The most appreciated aspect of castration was the sense of control over sexual urges and appetite (52%). The major side effects experienced were loss of libido (66%), hot flashes (63%), and genital shrinkage (55%). The population had high self-rated sociability, and mental and physical health. Although there was an insignificant reduction in depression after castration, the overall level of self-reported obsessive-compulsive disorders decreased significantly (P < 0.01). Twenty-two percent of the population reported a change in sexual orientation. Many respondents (60%) took supplemental hormone treatments to counteract the side effects of AD. The use of both supplemental testosterone and high-dose estrogen correlated with a significant increase in self-reported sexual desire and activity above the agonadal level (P < 0.001). The majority of the castrations (53%) were not performed by medical professionals.Conclusion. The medical community needs to be aware of men at risk of unsafe castrations in order to provide them with more information on the side effects of AD and access to safe orchiectomies. Brett MA, Roberts LF, Johnson TW, and Wassersug RJ. Eunuchs in contemporary society: Expectations, consequences, and adjustments to castration (Part II). J Sex Med 2007;4:946–955.