Ouch!

Ouch!

This is of course a rather touchy subject—castration!  Yet,—and I know that I am just scratching the surface of any sort of relevant discussion—this theme of castration seems to be prevalent enough in literature, myth, and religion to warrant a blog.  So, with that said, let me start this blog by completing my last one—for it tailed off right where this blog starts.

In the blog that I wrote prior to this one, I searched for Freudian psychosexual themes in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.  What I failed to do, however, was find a story in Ovid that mirrored Freud’s phallic phase:

“4-7 years of age. Finally, you entered the phallic phase, when the penis (or the clitoris, which, according to Freud, stands for the penis in the young girl) become your primary object-cathexis. In this stage, the child becomes fascinated with urination, which is experienced as pleasurable, both in its expulsion and retention. The trauma connected with this phase is that of castration, which makes this phase especially important for the resolution of the Oedipus complex. Over this time, you began to deal with your separation anxieties (and your all-encompassing egoism) by finding symbolic ways of representing and thus controlling the separation from (not to mention your desire for) your mother. You also learned to defer bodily gratification when necessary. In other words, your ego became trained to follow the reality-principle and to control the pleasure-principle, although this ability would not be fully attained until you passed through the latency period. In resolving the Oedipus complex, you also began to identify either with your mother or your father, thus determining the future path of your sexual orientation. That identification took the form of an "ego-ideal," which then aided the formation of your "super-ego": an internalization of the parental function (which Freud usually associated with the father) that eventually manifested itself in your conscience (and sense of guilt).”

Ok, now that this information is textually fresh in my mind, and the mind of the reader, let’s discuss its relationship to Ovid. 

Perhaps one of the most vivid images in the whole text, is that of Adonis getting gored by a boar in the groin:  “The youth, in fear of his own life, runs hard,/ but he is caught: the boar sinks his long tusks/ into Adonis’ groin; he fells him—and/ the boy lies prone along the yellow sands.” 

Ok, now that this information is textually fresh in my mind, and the mind of the reader, let’s discuss its relationship to Ovid. 

Perhaps one of the most vivid images in the whole text, is that of Adonis getting gored by a boar in the groin:  “The youth, in fear of his own life, runs hard,/ but he is caught: the boar sinks his long tusks/ into Adonis’ groin; he fells him—and/ the boy lies prone along the yellow sands.” 

Let’s analyze this story in the context of Freud so we can come to a short conclusion about how this story resolves the Oedipus complex. 

First, let’s think of the circumstance of Adonis’s birth: he is born of a mother who had a discreet sexual relationship with her father.  When her father finds this out (Myrrha’s identity is unveiled by light) she is exiled from the kingdom, and turns into a tree.  After this tree begets Adonis, Venus accidently brushes up against cupid, her son’s arrow, and falls in love with Adonis.

  This theme of family intimacy is of course obvious, but what is really interesting in a Freudian reading of the origin of Adonis, is that this story, Myrrha and Cinyras, seems to anticipate the fatal outcome of Adonis.  And here is why: since Myrrha and Cinyras is the cornerstone of the Oedipal Complex which exists in Adonis, droning the oral phase,--and let’s certainly keep in mind that this is a story within a story, Mise en abyme--it makes sense that castration is an appropriate narrative motif that ends Adonis.  While there are certainly complications with this argument, for there are two Oedipus complexes at foot in this discussion: Adonis’s, and Myrrha’s, not to mention that the full development of the Oedipus complex can only exist for men, not women—this method of textual dissection, while complicated, is still relevant.   For example, Freud, in the brief article I read on Wikipedia, feels women experience a penis envy during the phallic stage, and develop sexual feelings for their father, yet prior to this stage, all individuals have a draw toward their mothers.  So yes, all individuals experience an oedipal complex in the oral phase, but some women’s sexual feelings manifest into a drive for their fathers—for example, Myrrha’s.

  Ok, so now that this is partially cleared up, let’s return to why this is an appropriate outcome for Adonis.  To clarify my opinion, I think Ovid is well aware that these stories are not to be taken literally, but figuratively.  One could even argue, allegorically—refer to Eliade, chapter 9, in Myth and Reality.  Because this story is not supposed be taken literally let’s refer to its characters as metaphors for states of consciousness, or to keep with the theme of this blog: memories that exist in everyone’s consciousness of psycho-sexual development.  Since this seems to be the case, and let’s keep in mind that this is a story being sung by Orpheus, written by Ovid, the narrative is infinitely complex, one could argue that since it is a story, and all stories end, and all family lineages end, this complex string symbols also needs come to an end with some resolution.  So here is what I believe to be happening, by castrating Adonis, and letting him die, the poets not only reflect this theory of psychological separation, they also correct the societal immoral.  This myth of castration is not only powerful for its grotesque imagery; it also plays with the structure of our consciousness, and reminds us: control your pleasure principle (refer to Phalic phase), or else your figurative castration will be much more painful.