Anxieties of the Castrator

Author(s): George Devereux

Source: Ethos, Vol. 10, No. 3 (Autumn, 1982), pp. 279-297
Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological Association
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 Anxieties of the Castrator

GEORGE DEVEREUX

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this study is to describe and to define the anxieties of

the castrator, which are the symmetrical opposite of castration anx-
ieties, and induce the castrator to expose himself to retaliation.
The fact that the castrator's anxieties have been neglected in
psychoanalytic literature is nearly incomprehensible. Though I do
not think that any professional castrator of human beings was ever
analyzed, the reactions of fathers who caused their sons to be
circumcised as well as my clinical data concerning a gelder of stal-
lions and bulls (Devereux 1969) do provide adequate clues to the
anxieties of real castrators.
For the moment I simply report the following incident. The day
my ethnopsychiatry seminar was discussing circumcision, which only
a minority of the seminar's circumcised members defended, a
young Jewish father (at that time in analysis) flatly stated that a few
days after the recent circumcision of his firstborn, a dream sug-

1 One Mohammedan
Arab; one African belonging, as he himself pointed out, to a tribe
practicing circumcision.

GEORGE DEVEREUX is Director d'Etudes Associe (Emeritus), Ecole des Hautes Etudes en
Science Sociales, Paris.
The final drafting of this paper was sponsored by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, Cologne. Pro-
fessor B. Kilbourne adapted my manuscript to the stylistic rules of Ethos.

ETHOS 10:3 FALL 1982

Copyright ? 1982 by the Society for Psychological Anthropology
0091-2131/82/030279-19$2.40/1

279
280 ETHOS

gested that he unconsciously equated circumcision with castration.

The stunned silence with which his admission was received may in-
dicate why psychoanalysts have shown no interest in recognizing the
existence of the castrator's anxieties.
This scotomization of the castrator's anxieties is closely connected
with the routine scotomization of a number of other facts related to
the present topic.

THE THEORETICAL PROBLEM

Certain theories and concepts explain a phenomenon or process

so brilliantly that they inhibit interest in symmetrical or conjugate
phenomena or processes, without which the initially studied
phenomenon could not even come into being. This happens
especially in the study of the organism, many of whose most impor-
tant activities result from its interaction with one or more others.
This is true even of interactions structured, from start to finish,
primarily by instincts and tropisms-simply because, in such in-
stances, it is the presence and response of the other organism that
elicit the concrete manifestations of the organism's instinct and
tropisms.
Now, sooner or later, every inquiry into behavior leads back to the
problem of nature (physis) and nurture (= nomos), of individual
and society, and, in the last resort, to the extraordinarily com-
plicated problem of "inside" and "outside" (Devereux 1967; 1978,
chap. 2). If one's explanations are formulated in terms of the
nature/individual/inside frame of reference, as the inquiry pro-
gresses one soon reaches a point where the law of diminishing
returns begins to operate, forcing one to switch to the nur-
ture/society/outside frame of reference. Needless to say, the reverse
is equally true (Devereux 1978).
These two types of explanations stand in a complementarity rela-
tionship to each other. The more fully one understands a given
phenomenon in terms of the nature/individual/inside frame of
reference, the less fully one understands it simultaneously in terms
of the nurture/society/outside frame of reference, and vice-versa, of
course (Devereux 1978). Each of these two frames of reference
enables one to explain the phenomenon adequately: to represent it
as both necessary and comprehensible, in terms of one's chosen
 ANXIETIES OF THE CASTRATOR 281

frame of reference. Also, if one explains a phenomenon first in

terms of one of these frames of reference and then in terms of the
other, one regularly finds that the two explanations validate and
reinforce each other-not "even though" but "precisely because"
they are absolutely distinct. Hence, no matter how complete one of
these explanations may seem in terms of its own frame of reference,
the phenomenon itself is not fully explained until both types of ex-
planations have been (successfully) formulated (Devereux 1970) and
the complementarity relationship between them made evident.
This logical problem was discussed in the publications just cited.
But I now realize that in two of my earlier papers (1953; 1980, chap.
6) which highlight the role of paternal homosexual impulses in
eliciting the small boy's Oedipal reactions to his father and also in a
paper which indicated that the cannibalistic impulses of parents
trigger the small child's (not baby's!) cannibalistic fantasies (1980,
chap. 5), I implicitly explained the phenomena hitherto explained
chiefly in terms of a nature-individual/inside frame of reference, in
terms of the nurture/society/outside frame of reference.
This finding brings me to the general problem of true but also
one-sided and nonreciprocal explanations in psychoanalysis. The
classical example of a one-sidedly studied psychoanalytic
phenomenon is the Oedipus complex, which it is customary to en-
visage exclusively from the child's point of vantage. This is a par-
ticularly inappropriate approach to a complex which involves (by
definition) at least the imagos of the two parents, and-pace Kar-
diner and Linton (1939, 1945)-is at the root of ethnic personality
and of the capacity to function as a social being (Devereux 1969).
Therapeutically and clinically, the child's experience of the
Oedipus situation is assuredly the most relevant aspect of the total
phenomenon, but this cannot justify the utter neglect of the con-
jugate process-of the parents' share in the total Oedipal experi-
ence-in theoretical formulations, especially since the latter, too,
has certain therapeutic implications.
The Oedipus complex is increasingly defined as a wholly spon-
taneous-"internally," and even biologically, determined--event or
behavior. The possibility that it might (also) be elicited behavior
(Devereux 1967), that is, a response to external stimuli, is hardly
ever envisaged. For example, so far as I know, only I (1953) and,
stimulated by my paper, Kouretas (1963) have tried to highlight the
282 ETHOS

influence of paternal homosexual impulses on the nature and struc-

ture of the Oedipus complex, in the Oedipus myth itself.
Be it only because of its respect for facts, the present study claims
to be in the strict Freudian tradition. It attempts to analyze the
-
global phenomenon of castration anxiety, not -as is usually done
from the viewpoint of the one who is-or believes himself to
be-threatened with castration, but from the viewpoint of the
castrator. The two relevant concepts (and the experiences to which
they pertain) are denoted by the conjugate terms: "castration anxie-
ty" and "castrator's anxiety." Methodologically, these two ex-
periences (and concepts) presuppose each other; neither can be ade-
quately studied without reference to its symmetrical opposite.
Although Freud can hardly be accused of having minimized the
importance of the pregenital stages, he never ceased to stress (right-
ly) the paramount importance of the Oedipal stage. Thus, the find-
ing that he called the early stages of development "pregenital" in-
dicates that they must be understood in terms of- and derive most
of their importance precisely from - the fact that they lead up to the
Oedipal stage. This, too, is implicit in Freud's concept of psycho-
sexual maturation, which is similar to Aristotle's conception of the
organism's, more or less successful, more or less complete, progres-
sion toward its arete: toward its maximal self-realization. In fact,
there is logically no real difference between Aristotle's concept of
(man's) arete and Freud's concept of the (exclusively human) genital
character which is capable of effecting sublimations.
The purpose of this study is, thus, to define and to discuss a type
of adult male reaction-the anxiety of the castrator-which stands
in a complementarity relationship to the anxieties of the male child,
who is-or fantasies that he is-threatened with castration.
Such an inquiry is long overdue, precisely because the child's
castration anxieties have been so thoroughly explored. I therefore
recall once more how surprising it is that the castrator's anxieties-
his guilt feelings and self-punitiveness-should not have been
discussed at all in the psychoanalytic literature. Thus, not even
Freud's (1957) and Yates's (1930) analyses of the anxieties of the
deflorator (of a virgin) really correlate these anxieties with the
paradigmatic anxieties of the castrator who, in Oedipal fantasies,
also sheds the blood of kindred. Moreover, even though I have
shown that the unconscious tends to correlate all types of female
 ANXIETIES OF THE CASTRATOR 283

genital bleeding (menses, defloration, and parturition) (Devereux

1950b), which permits such bleedings to be correlated in turn with
the female castration complex (Devereux 1960)-I, too, failed to in-
fer from the deflorator's anxieties the existence of a paradigmatic
anxiety of the castrator.
My basic thesis is that the logical complement of the "castration
complex" is the "castrator's complex," characterized by anxiety,
guilt feelings, neurotic risk-taking, and/or the courting of
retaliatory aggression. To a lesser extent, it is reflected by the
castrator's acceptance of the contempt in which he is held by the rest
of the group.
The castrator's anxieties also reveal the preponderant role which
mechanisms of projection and of identification play in his aggres-
sions. My analysis of cursing (Devereux 1951) shows that the
malediction one hurls at one's enemy invariably reflects the curser's
own major fears or anxieties. Thus, the Sedang Moi curse: "May the
tiger devour youl" is meaningful only because the tiger is a real
threat to them, in their jungle habitat. Uttered in Europe or in
America, this curse would sound preposterous. Similarly, whereas
the curse: "Cohabit with your father!" does not seem very scandalous
in homosexually inclined Arab society, it elicits a violent reaction
from the Somali, whose culture is hostile to homosexuality (Roheim
1932). It is also obvious that only someone who values his virility and
therefore dreads or regrets losing it, would utter castration threats.
Similarly, the (exclusive) owner of a harem-which is a constant
challenge to his potency--is just the kind of man who would want
his wives guarded by eunuchs. Another type of person who would
wish to castrate others is either himself a eunuch or else a man who
imagines himself to be sexually inadequate or has repudiated his
own sexuality. Also, true or false as this may be historically, the
tradition that castration was invented by a woman-by Queen
Semiramis (Ammianus Marcellinus 14.6.17) -makes sense psycho-
logically, especially since psychoanalysts have found that, in fantasy,
the circumciser is usually a woman (Daly 1950; Nunberg 1947).
The best way of tackling the "castrator's anxiety" complex is to
examine, first, reactions to the castration of animals.
1. The Tanala of Madagascar reveal their feelings of guilt by
always castrating at least two bulls simultaneously, so that they can
comfort each other in their misery (Linton 1923).
284 ETHOS

2. Although the Mohave are quite ebullient, the small group that
watched the castration of a stallion seemed under a strain: anxious,
giggling, and yet depressed (Devereux 1948). The Mohave also
speak feelingly of the pitiful bellowing of newly castrated calves and,
even though they know that animals survive castration, believe that
castration would kill a man (Devereux 1950a). This is reminiscent of
a paradox: though the Chinese know that the court eunuchs had
survived total (penile and testicular) castration, they believe the (im-
aginary) shock jong (= koro) illness (Wufften-Pahlte 1935; Kobler
1948)- in which the penis supposedly retracts into the abdomen - to
be fatal (Linton 1956:68).
3. Though the Sedang are casually cruel and may castrate a dog
simply "for fun,"they believe that the thundergods punish those who
laugh at animals in pain. Similar beliefs have also been recorded in
other cultures. Also, the Sedang do not castrate animals with an
iron knife, but with a razor-sharp bamboo sliver, for the use of an
iron knife would make the spirits suppose that they were about to
sacrifice the (gelded) animal, and would feed both a morsel of its
meat and all of its soul to the spirits. I will return to this matter fur-
ther on.
4. In the most common version of the myth of Iphiklos-well
discussed by Kouretas and Tsoukantas (1955) and more briefly by
Engle (1942) and by Pearson (1955)-Phylakos first castrates his
rams and then "jokingly" threatens to castrate also his small son
Iphiklos-whom his threat subsequently makes impotent.
I note that a similarly "threatened" 20th-century Hopi Indian boy
later on become impotent for a while (Simmons 1942). There are,
however, also two other versions of the Iphiklos myth: in one of them
Phylakos threatens his son because of his unbecoming behavior
(during the castration of the rams) (Pherecydes, Fragment 75
F.H. G.). In the other, Iphiklos himself castrates rams, and in so do-
ing shocks and offends the gods (ibid.).
5. According to the Greeks (Strabo 7.4.8), only the Skythians
regularly castrated their horses. It is therefore an odd coincidence
that, according to Hippocrates, (Airs etc. 22) genital atrophy and
even impotency was practically an ethnic illness of wealthy
Skythians. The possibility that this atrophy may have been caused
by their riding without stirrups and, so to speak, bareback, need not
concern me here; I only note that, according to Hammond (1882), a
 ANXIETIES OF THE CASTRATOR 285

Pueblo Indian tribe deliberately produced effeminate men, by forc-

ing certain youths to ride bareback day after day.
6. While employed as a cowboy, a Plains Indian regularly had to
castrate both bulls and stallions. Now, in the early stages of his
psychotherapy he spoke so often of the castration of animals and of
incompletely gelded ("proud cut") horses, that I finally asked him
whether he himself had sexual difficulties. Only then did I learn
that impotency was one of his many symptoms. Moreover, in a
dream, which manifestly reflected his castration anxiety, this pa-
tient saw a wild duck caught by its leg in a (toothed) steel trap, and I
note that his tribe's folklore includes the vagina dentata motif. Also,
as soon as his impotency was cured, he not only ceased to talk about
castrating animals, but decided to change his profession (Devereux
1969).
Two other aspects of the castration of animals also have clear-cut
human equivalents.
1. Professional castrators of livestock in agricultural (though
perhaps not in pastoral) societies are sometimes despised or at least
ridiculed. Thus, in Shelley's "Oedipus Tyrannus" [1819?]--a savage
political satire directed against King George IV and his repressive
prime minister, Lord Castlereagh--Oedipus commands the services
of a "sow-gelder." A grotesque episode of Nikos Kazantzakis' novel,
Zorba the Greek, turns the contempt for the castrator into a
Rabelaisian joke. All the cocks of a village are castrated at the same
time, so as to provide enough testicles for a specially tasty dish des-
tined for a princely visitor.
2. People who prefer to own spayed bitches tend to buy already
spayed females, instead of having a bitch they already own spayed.
Similarly, people who like dog breeds with docked tails and cropped
ears usually buy dogs already mutilated, instead of having a puppy
they already own so "beautified." I will show that this, too, has its
equivalent on the human level.

CASTRATION OF HUMAN BEINGS

Turning now to the castration of human beings, I will, for reasons

of expository convenience, discuss social attitudes first.
Contempt for castrators: Those who castrate human beings, or
make them available for castration or engage in the sale of eunuchs,
286 ETHOS

must accept social ostracism. When the tyrant Periandros sent 300
boys-the sons of his enemies-to King Alyattes of Lydia, to be
made into eunuchs, the Samians freed the boys when their ship
stopped in Samos and returned them to their families (Herodotus
3:48). This story is told in one of the many passages in which
Herodotus expresses his horror of castration. (Another important
Herodotus passage, which coners Panionios, will be discussed fur-
ther below). It is also quite strikingthat personswho castrate human
beings for profit often belong either to socially despised classes or
else to sexually defective groups.
1. In Mohammedan Egypt, where Christians-and more especial-
ly their priests and monks-were despised, one of the main eunuch
"factories"was the Coptic monastery of Abu Ghagha, in the Nile
valley. In that monastery the (continent) monks castrated, for gain,
boys destined for Mohammedan harems (Spencer 1946).
2. In China the (despised) maker of eunuchs was frequently
himself a (despised) eunuch (Spencer 1946).
3. It is said that, in the early Middle Ages, the Jews of Verdun
castrated boys for the (Spanish) Mohammedan slave trade
(Verlinden 1955). Not being a historian of the Middle Ages, I can-
not determine the reliability of this report. However, even if this ac-
count should be untrue, it would still show that the castration of
boys was held in such contempt that its practice was imputed to the
(despised) Jews.
Circumcisersalso tend to be despised or at least ridiculed. Thus,
among the Somali, who excise ("circumcise") and infibulate all
young girls, this operation is performed by women belonging to a
despised subgroup-the smiths. In a Somali anecdote, a husband
even curses the person who had "excised"his wife (Roheim 1932).
The same contempt and anxiety is reflected also in the following
incident. An analysand reported that his German-Jewishgrand-
father, a businessman, learned to circumcise boys ritually as a hob-
by, and pursued his hobby so eagerly that he not only did not ask to
be paid for his services, but at times even neglected his business,
traveling around at his own expense to circumcise as many boy
babies as he could find. This hobby of his was so well-known in the
small community that people jokingly claimed that he must have cut
off enough (penis) tips (Spitzen, also: lace) to provide a "lace-dress"
 ANXIETIES OF THE CASTRATOR 287

(Spitzenkleid)for his wife.2. This joke not only ridicules the circum-
ciser but, in a way, also his wife, who is represented as the potential
beneficiary of her husband's peculiar hobby: it is she who wears the
3
"trophies" (I Samuel 18:25ff.) of his aggressionsagainst small boys.
The psychoanalystwill not be surprisedto learn that, after telling
this story about his ("castrating") grandfather, the analysand
reported that his own circumcision (performed by a rabbi) had been
bungled. About two days had elapsed before it was discovered that
the circumciser had bandaged his penis so tightly that he could not
urinate.
An even more peculiar, though equally disguised, manifestation
of contempt for the castratoris exemplified by the misadventureof a
medieval Spanish knight, who, finding his wife and her lover in
flagrante delicto, castrated his rival. The matter came before a
feudal court which, as a punishment, deprived the knight of his
knighthood--a procedure that involved a humiliating public
degradation. Though the court declared that the man had proven
himself unworthy of his knighthood because he "only"castrated his
rival, instead of killing him, the real reason of this verdict was prob-
ably that he had degraded his knighthood by castrating a human
being.
I have stressed so far only the contempt in which the castrator is
held. Though this suffices to elicit shame and feelings of guilt in the
castrator, it cannot possibly account for most of the anxiety and
guilt such a person seems to experience. Indeed, the choice of the
professionof castratoris, itself, neurotically determined, for its exer-
cise manifestly involves a great deal of psychopathological acting
out. It might, of course, be argued that, for example, the poverty of
low-class Somali women forces them to earn a living as excisers and
circumcisersof girls. Though this argument is valid as far as it goes,

2 I note that the

Sedang sometimes call the foreskin the "blanket"(= coat) of the penis.
Bryk (1939) and others (Daly 1950; Nunberg 1947) have noted long ago that the foreskin
which covers the glans tends to be viewed as the masculine equivalent of the vagina.
3
According to the Bible (I Samuel 18.25ff.) David brought for his royal bride a "dowry"of
foreskins, taken from slain foes. The Egyptians also appear to have taken foreskin trophies, at
least from the corpses of courageous foes (Diodorus 1.48.2). The claim of some scholars that
the "Ahajjawa"who had invaded Egypt and had been defeated, were not the Achaians of the
Iliad, is supported by an Egyptian text which records that no foreskin (?) trophies could be
taken from them, for they had none (were circumcised)(Page 1963:21.1). As for the Galla of
Ethiopia, they are supposed to take penis trophies from their fallen foes to this day.
288 ETHOS

one should not forget that the exercise of this aggressive profession
also permits such low-class women to ventilate some of their bitter
envy of socially more privileged girls. As for the makers of eunuchs,
their profession was not hereditary either in ancient Rome or in
Mohammedan society. I therefore assume that they chose this pro-
fession-in preference to some other and perhaps equally despised
occupation-for reasons which, though assuredly more neurotic
than most, were unconscious.
I note, infine, that in China eunuchs were made chiefly by per-
sons who had themselves been made into eunuchs. A well-known
Chinese picture shows two eunuchs laughing at a recently castrated
colleague of theirs (Spencer 1946). This scene hardly requires
psychological comment.

THE VENGEFUL EUNUCH

The incidents I now propose to cite require a brief preamble.

Both Herodotus, whom castration revolted, and Xenophon (Cyro-
paedia 7.5.60ff.), who advocated it, wrote that the eunuch, despised
by all, is, of necessity, faithful to his master, who is his sole protec-
tion. But history shows that a eunuch would turn occasionally even
against a royal master, if he felt he could get away with it.
1. Bagoas, a highly placed eunuch at King Artaxerxes Ochos'
court, poisoned his royal master (Diodorus 17.5.3ff.).
2. Philetairos, a man of good birth, whom an early childhood ac-
cident had made into a eunuch, was put by King Lysimachos in
charge of the city-state of Pergamon, which he then usurped and
transmitted after his death to his collateral kin (Strabo 13:4.1).
3. In the 10th century, the black eunuch Kafur successfully
usurped the throne of Egypt (Spencer 1946).
4. In 1796, the court eunuch Agha Mohammed usurped the
throne of Persia, exterminated the royal family in a bloodbath and
founded, through his collateral kin, the Qajah dynasty (Spencer
1946), which reigned until it was dethroned in the 20th century by
Mohammed Reza, father of the recently deceased Shah-in-Shah.
5. The eunuch Chao Kao deposed the second emperor of the Ch'i
dynasty and briefly usurped the throne of China (Spencer 1946).
Last, but not least, court eunuchs time and again exerted a con-
siderable-and generally nefarious--influence on both policies and
 ANXIETIES OF THE CASTRATOR 289

politics; German historians sometimes designate such a situation as a

Eunuchenwirtschaft, for it is invariably corrupt and also contrary to
the best interests of the king and his state. This fact should surprise
no one, for even a moderately intelligent eunuch cannot but know
that no eunuchs would be made, were there no demand for them.
The loyalty of eunuchs, praised by the Socrates-pupil Xenophon, is
therefore largely illusory. One way or another the eunuch takes
revenge--if he can--on those who have castrated him or have pur-
chased or employed him because he has been castrated. If eunuchs
do not always manage to dethrone the king, their master, they often
cause him harm by their rapacity, corruptness, and intrigues--in
short, by the Eunuchenwirtschaft they establish, more often than
not through their participation in harem intrigues.

THE SELF-DESTRUCTIVE CASTRATOR

If the eunuch is prone to harm those responsible for his condition

or even those who simply take advantage of it, the latter also some-
times exhibit strikingly self-destructive behavior.
Though I have two very striking ancient cases to cite, I will begin
my discussion with the analysis of the case of a modern medical
castrator, who operated strictly in accordance with the laws, simply
because I possess personal information on this case.
One argument of the late head of Winfield State School in Kansas
was "prophylactic": castration made the feebleminded as tractable
and as exploitable as the ox (Hawke 1950), who is, of course, also a
source of meat. It is therefore noteworthy that in aboriginal
America only the fierce Caribs castrated their slaves, so as to fatten
them up for a cannibal repast more easily: in fact, the word "can-
nibal" is a corruption of the tribal name Carib (Caraib) (d'Anghiera
1907). I also note that in one of the few areas of aboriginal America
where circumcision was practiced-amongst the Nootka-the In-
dians also practiced cannibalism, though this, too, was not a com-
mon practice of American Indians.
As regards punitive castration, one may note its occurrence in
connection with accidents involving spirited stallions. I only need to
add that castration was also a common feature of lynchings-es-
pecially for sexual reasons-in the Deep South even in the 20th cen-
tury (Miller and Dollard 1941). During World War II, the corpse of
290 ETHOS

many an American flyer who had fallen into the hands of Japanese
troops was found with his penis cut off and stuck in his mouth--
which recalls a lynching in the Deep South reported in the
literature.
It must be noted, however, that, in most cases, castration was
controlled even in slave-keeping societies. The distinction of having
given castration a legal basis belongs to the modern Western world,
and particularly to the United States (Case 1, below). Few slave-
keeping societies gave slave-owners the unlimited right to castrate
their slaves. In the slave-keeping South, even the punitive castration
of slaves was limited by law. In the Rome of the Caesars, it does not
seem to have been customary to have one's own slaves castrated. If
one wanted to own a eunuch, one bought an already castrated slave.
This is confirmed, on the one hand, by Suetonius' indignant ac-
count of how Nero had his slave catamite, Sporus, castrated and
(allegedly) turned into a woman and also (as already noted) by a
number of imperial edits which, at various times, not only forbade
the self-castration of the priests of Kybele but also set strict limits to
the castration of slaves, though not to the purchase of already
castrated slaves.

THREE CASES

At this point the ground seems properly prepared for the presenta-
tion of my three principal cases.
Case 1. As late as the 1940s, the laws of the State of Kansas
authorized-though they did not, as I recall, make mandatory-the
castration (and not just sterilization) of oligophrenics. This bar-
barous law was implemented to the limit at the State School (for
defectives) at Winfield, Kansas, which, as a result, probably had the
largest population of eunuchs-many of them very small chil-
dren-in the world. This situation elicited more and more opposi-
tion, particularly in Topeka, which was at that time one of the big-
gest psychiatric training centers in the world.
Now, instead of keeping quiet, the medical director of Winfield
provocatively published a long and nightmarish defense and even
advocacy of castration, representing it almost as a panacea for the
prevention of various "degenerative" diseases such as baldness, and
so forth (Hawke 1950). Since I personally knew the sensible and
 ANXIETIES OF THE CASTRATOR 291

humane editor of the Kansas State MedicalJournal, I suspect that

he printed this paper (without comment), because he knew that it
would bring grist to the mills of those who were doing their utmost
to have this iniquitous law repealed, which is what did happen after
a fairly short time. If my memory does not deceive me, the author of
this (self-defeating) article died at about that time in an automo-
bile "accident." Comment seems unnecessary.
Case 2. I now propose to analyze, in some detail, an extraordinary
Icelandic saga entitled: Draumr Thorsteins Sithuhallsonar
(Kelchner 1934). For a reason which the saga does not mention,
Thorstein Hallson had his Irish thrall, Gilli (= thrall) Jathgodsson,
castrated.4 Apparently, shortly after having this done, Thorstein
twice dreamed that three women came to advise him to have his
thrall killed, because the slave meant to slay his master-apparently
for having had him castrated. Both times Thorstein woke up and
looked for his slave, but in vain. In the course of the third night the
vengeful thrall managed to sneak into Thorstein's chamber and to
slit his sleeping master's throat with a sword. At that point, as a
result of an efficient search, Gilli was hunted down, captured and
asked who had incited him to do this deed. This question was asked,
because free Icelanders occasionally used thralls as cat's-paws in the
commission of crimes, or in exacting vengeance from a foe. Gilli
Jathgodsson replied that he alone had planned and carried out the
murder. After this confession, a red-hot kettle was placed upon his
abdomen, causing it to burst; then he was thrust into a bog, until he
died.
There are many reasons, both external and internal, for accept-
ing this narrative as a correct account of what happened. As is well-
known, Icelandic literature is, in many respects, realistic and
records a number of plausibly dreamlike (Kelchner 1934) dreams.
There is also good internal evidence that the saga itself is realistic.
For example, there is no mention of a third dream, even though
stylistic conventions would cause one to expect one. Instead of a
third dream, the saga reports the actual murder. This is obviously
logical, and therefore not folklore. Indeed, Thorstein could not

4 Since the Irish of that

period were fierce fighters, it is possible that Thorstein had him
castrated in order to tame him, as some Boers formerly castrated newly captured Bushman
men.
 292 ETHOS

have reported a third dream, even if he had had one, since he was
presumably killed while dreaming it.5
This substitution of the murder for the third dream appearance
of three women, which one would expect in folklore, necessarily
comes as a shock to the reader who, in terms of literary conventions,
would expect a third warning dream. Hence, if one refuses to accept
his account as realistic, one would be obliged to credit the author of
this saga with something resembling genius, and the relatively
pedestrian style of this saga fails to substantiate this inference.
Another detail suggesting that this saga is an account of actual
events is the specification that Thorstein woke up both times im-
mediately after having had the warning dreams. This is just what
would happen after such an anxiety dream. An additional argu-
ment in favor of the authenticity of the dreams is the symbolism of
the three women, that is, of three "castrated" persons. The choice of
this symbolism fits the logic of the dream work perfectly, even if one
holds that the symbolism of the three women is rooted in Norse
mythology.6
It is evident that these are not simply-externally triggered--fear
dreams. They do not reflect only Thorstein's perhaps only precon-
scious fear that his castrated thrall might try to take revenge. They
appear to be authentic anxiety dreams, in which the primary threat
emanates from the guilt-laden dreamer's punitive superego. This in-
terpretation can be supported by objective considerations powerful
enough to be conclusive.
One of the most basic considerations is that a free Icelander -like
the free members of other slave-holding societies-particularly
dreaded death at the hands of a thrall, and especially of one of his
own abused thralls. In Icelandic thought, being murdered by a
thrall was almost the most horrible and degrading kind of death for
a free man. One would therefore expect a free Icelander, who had
such a dream, to try to forestall that calamity by doing his utmost to

5 I recall that the first two times he woke

up immediately after having the warning dream,
cf. below. By contrast, Rhesos' warning dream, which he dreamed just before being assas-
sinated, is reported in the Iliad (19.494ff.).
6 Two other
theoretically possible interpretations are too tentative not to be relegated to a
footnote. The first of these is that "three"often symbolizes the three parts of the male sex
organs. If so, three women may symbolize the mutilated, impotent organ, and their ap-
pearance in dream a partial identification of Thorstein with his castrated slave.
 ANXIETIES OF THE CASTRATOR 293

capture and kill the thrall at once. Yet, Thorstein's reaction to his
two warning dreams--of a type which average Icelanders took very
seriously indeed-was almost desultory. The saga says only that, on
awakening, he "looked" both times for the castrated thrall. Had
Thorstein made a real effort to find him-had he called out his re-
tainers, his other thralls and even his kinsmen, to help him look for
Gilli -the search would certainly have been described as fully as the
search for the murderer is described in the latter portions of the
saga, for scenes of bustling, dramatic activity are part of the basic
fabric of many Icelandic sagas. How casual Thorstein's "looking" for
the thrall must have been is best shown by the fact that the saga does
not record just where the thrall was hiding while Thorstein was
"looking" for him: whether he had hidden nearby, or had run away,
or whatever.
Equally striking is that, despite the warning dreams and his "look-
ing" for Gilli, Thorstein apparently failed to post guards or to bar-
ricade his bedchamber. Given the illogicality of Thorstein's
behavior-his psychoculturally atypical minimal reaction to a
repetitive warning dream (Devereux 1976)-which, moreover,
warned him of a danger which he could also have expected on
logical grounds,7 the only possible conclusion is that Thorstein felt
so guilty over having castrated Gilli, that, in a way, he unconsciously
"consented" to being murdered by him, by taking no adequate
precautions.
This inference is, in turn, further supported by the fact that, even
though the Icelander's treatment of slaves was harsh and brutal,
Williams (1937), who describes in detail the abuse of thralls, gives
no other example of the castration of a slave, nor any indication that
some other cruel master also experienced anxiety-or even a guilt-
laden anxiety dream- after subjecting to gross abuse one of his own
thralls. I therefore conclude that this saga reveals not only the guilt
feelings and anxieties of the castrator, but also his (unconscious) as-
sent to this thrall's vengeance.
Case 3. A psychologically related story was recorded by Herodotus
(8:105). A prisoner of war, Hermotimos of Pedasia, was sold to a
slave merchant, Panionios of Chios, who habitually castrated hand-

7 And which was doubly predictable if, as suggested in note 4, Gilli was castrated in order
to "tame" him.
294 ETHOS

some boy slaves, so as to be able to sell them to the barbarians for a

high price. After being made a eunuch, Hermotimos was bought by
someone and given as a present to Xerxes, whose most highly es-
teemed eunuch he eventually became.
Years later, Hermotimos met Panionios in Atarneus, and had fre-
quent and friendly talks with his castrator. He even "thanked" Pa-
nionios for having enabled him, by castrating him, to become
Xerxes' favorite eunuch and invited him to move to Sardis-that is,
into Persian territory-promising him to return the "great favor"
Panionios had done him.
Panionios fell into the trap and moved with his entire family to
Sardis, where Hermotimos repaid him in kind: first, he forced Pa-
nionios to castrate his own sons, and then he obliged the sons to
castrate their father, who had just castrated them.
Now, since Panionios was obviously a successful slave-dealer, with
a long experience in handling slaves, both castrated and other, his
credulous "naivete," which made him fall into Hermotimos' trap,
cannot be due either to mere stupidity or to inexperience. It can be
viewed only as a strictly self-destructive, pseudo-credulous "acting
out" of severe guilt and anxiety-in short, as an implementation of
self-punitive needs. This interpretation is reinforced by the fact
that, except for Periandros (Herodotus 3:48) no historical Greek8
before the oligarchical and pro-Spartan Xenophon (Cyropaedia
7.5.60ff.) ever recommended the castration of men, horses, and
dogs. I also note that, as a Chian Greek, the slave exporter Panionios
belonged to a civilization which, despite its many contacts with Bar-
barians, who did keep eunuchs slaves, probably condemned the
castration of men as much as the Samians did, who were also in con-
tact with Asia Minor, and perhaps as much as Herodotus himself,
who was also born in Asia Minor, at Halikarassos.

CONCLUSION

Facts have a paramount importance, for they generate theory,

while theory does not generate facts. They can even regenerate

8 Even in mythology the shadowy king Echetos and Odysseusare the only humans who ever
castrated anyone (Odyssey 18:85). Since Echetos is almost a mainland neighbor of Odysseus,
and Odysseus the only Greek hero known to have done what Echetos was alleged to do, it is
possible the Odysseus and Echetos are the same person. If so, this may explain why ar-
chaeologists were unable to find any trace of a palace in any of the island dominions of
Odysseus (Devereux 1973).
 ANXIETIES OF THE CASTRATOR 295

sound theories formulated in the past and subsequently forgotten.

But, in order to do so, facts must first be apprehended: there must
exist means for interrogating them-for listening to their "speech."
And it is at this point-where epistemology links fact with
theory-that a distinction must be made between theories that
generalize facts and theories that particularize themselves to the
point where, instead of being generated by facts, they produce a
sterile degeneration of facts.
Classical psychoanalytic theory and its discipline-specific
epistemology were, from the start, generated by facts. In turn, each
new development of classical theory brought further facts within its
purview and this, of course, generated by induction further efficient
operational theories. In short, at that stage of its development, in-
creasingly greater and newer segments of the realm of facts were
opened up to psychoanalytic investigation and, through the mere
existence of psychoanalysis, to other research as well.
The existence of the anxieties of the castrator was foreseeable all
along, in terms of the most rigorously conceived theory of psycho-
analysis. Indeed, every one of the mechanisms and states responsible
for their genesis is clinically commonplace: identification (including
that with the enemy and with animals), projection, ambivalence,
the lex talionis, feelings of guilt, the need to expiate which incites
the aggressor to elicit counter-aggression, and so forth. In fact, the
self-evident observation that the curse one hurls at one's foe and the
harm one chooses to do him is a reflection of the aggressor's own
dreads (Devereux 1951) makes it obvious that the castrator himself
dreads castration and unconsciously either facilitates the counter-
aggression of his former victim or else passes an appropriate
sentence upon himself and executes it.

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