A Look at the Historical Practice of Castration as a Form of Punishment Essay

Castration is the deprivation of the power of generation by removing the testicles, and also represents the deprivation of vitality. It is a practice that has been present throughout history and is present even today. Depending on the culture and era, there have been many different reasons for castration. For some cultures, castration may have religious value, while in others it implies a renunciation of reproduction. Although castration has been viewed differently among different cultures, there are some prevailing similarities in the motive for castration. In whole, voluntary castration is an act to improve the life, whether spiritual or physical, of a mortal man.A eunuch is a man who has been castrated. For many ancient cultures, eunuchs were a symbol of holiness in a mortal world. Castration therefore served as a way to become more holy and god-like. In the years of Roman antiquity, the concept of the pneuma reinforced the idea that castration consecrated a man. Oribasius, doctor to the Emperor Julian during the fourth century AD, conveyed the idea that sperm contained a very concentrated and pure air that was the basis of the male vital spirit. The vital spirit formed the more elaborate pneuma, the purest form of spiritual vitality, and the loss of it therefore was detrimental to a man s spirituality. Castration served to prevent the loss of pneuma so that a man may have a spirit that was completely psychic, or holy (Rouselle, 13-15). During the fourth century AD, Sallustius, a friend of emperor Julian, wrote about castration, saying, But since it was necessary that the process of coming into being should stop and that what was worse should not sink to the worst, the creator who was making these things cast away generative powers into the world of becoming and was again united with the gods (Rouselle, 125). By castrating oneself, and also by ceasing fertility, (which will be discussed later in this essay), a man was able...

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