Death erection

A death erection, angel lust, or terminal erection^[1] is a post-mortem erection, technically a priapism, observed in the corpses of human males who have been executed, particularly by hanging.^[2]

Overview

The phenomenon has been attributed to pressure on the cerebellum created by the noose.^[3] Spinal cord injuries are known to be associated with priapism.^[4] Injuries to the cerebellum or spinal cord are often associated with priapism in living patients.^[2]

Death by hanging, whether an execution or a suicide, has been observed to affect the genitals of both men and women. In women, the labia and clitoris will become engorged and there may be a discharge of blood from the vagina. In men, "a more or less complete state of erection of the penis, with discharge of urine, mucus or prostatic fluid is a frequent occurrence ... present in one case in three." Other causes of death may also result in these effects, including fatal gunshot wounds to the brain, damage to major blood vessels, and violent death by poisoning. A postmortem priapism is an indicator that death was likely swift and violent.^[5]

It was common folklore in some countries that the ejaculate of a hanged man, dripped on the ground below, would seed the growth of a mandrake plant, to which various healing or magical powers were ascribed.

Cultural references

• According to the 1983 scholarly work, The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion [1] by art historian and critic Leo Steinberg, a number of Renaissance era artists depicted Jesus Christ after His crucifixion with a post-mortem erection. The artwork was suppressed by the Roman Catholic Church for several centuries.
• The second episode of Six Feet Under features a dead body displaying symptoms of angel lust.
• The 2003 Channel 4 documentary on the Jack Sheppard case, The Georgian Underworld, Part 4: Invitation to a Hanging noted that his hanging caused an erection.^[6]
• The "Cyclops" section of James Joyce's Ulysses makes multiple use of the terminal erection as a motif.^[7]
• In The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon relates an anecdote attributed to Abulfeda that Ali, on the death of Muhammad, exclaimed, O propheta, certe penis tuus cælum versus erectus est (O prophet, thy penis is erect unto the sky).^[8]
• Also a recurrent theme in Naked Lunch and Cities of the Red Night, by William Burroughs.
• In Thomas Harris's novel Hannibal, one of Hannibal Lecter's victims has this condition after Lecter throws him out of a window with a noose around his neck.
• Death-erections and orgasm from hanging are mentioned multiple times in the Marquis de Sade's works, for example in Justine the title character undergoes several scenes of a torture called "cut-the-cord" while in the keep of the villain Roland.
• In the HBO television series In Treatment, in the second episode of the first season, a patient tells his psychotherapist that when he had a heart attack, all he was afraid of was "angel lust". They then discuss the phenomenon in detail.
• Kurt Vonnegut mentions this phenomenon in his novel Mother Night.
• The main characters in Waiting for Godot contemplate hanging themselves in order to achieve this.
• In Arthur C. Clarke's The Songs of Distant Earth, character Kumar presents this condition after his death by being hauled into space by the Magellan ship.
• In the 1985 movie Flesh & Blood, set in the year 1501 there is a scene (at about 30 min) in which Steven (Tom Burlinson) and Agnes (Jennifer Jason Leigh) come upon two hanged men. Steven recounts that hanged men ejaculate, and where their semen falls, a mandrake plant grows. Agnes has read about the magic powers of the mandrake in the convent library. She digs up a mandrake that she finds beneath one of the hanged men, and says that if they each eat part of the root, they will love each other forever.
• It is mentioned in American Gods, a novel by Neil Gaiman in which the sacrifice of a scraeling is described. The dead body is described as having a blackened face, an engorged tongue, and protruding eyes and genitals, on page 68.

See also

• Lazarus sign
• Livor mortis

References

1. ^ Helen Singer Kaplan & Melvin Horwith (1983). The Evaluation of Sexual Disorders: Psychological and Medical Aspects. United Kingdom: Brunner Routledge. http://books.google.com/books?visbn=0876303297&id=WCqMzcAka54C&pg=PA167&lpg=PA167&dq=priapism+hanging+date:1950-2007. Retrieved 2007-01-26.  "Men subjected to capital punishment by hanging and laboratory animals sacrificed with cervical dislocation have terminal erections. The implication is that either central inhibition of erection is released and erection created or that a sudden massive spinal cord stimulus generates an erectile response. There is ample experimental and clinical evidence to support the former supposition."
2. ^ ^{a b} Willis Webster Grube (1897). A Compendium of practical medicine for the use of students and practitioners of medicine. Hadley Co.. http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC02395549&id=2fQSJLwOgy0C&pg=RA3-PA455&lpg=RA3-PA455&dq=priapism+hanging. Retrieved 2007-01-26.  "Erection has long been observed to follow injuries to the cerebellum and spinal cord. Out of eleven cases of cerebellar hemorrhage, erection of the penis was noted six times by Serres. Death by hanging is often accompanied by partial erection."
3. ^ George M. Gould and Walter L. Pyle (1900). Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine. http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC29165096&id=VeoIAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA5-PA683&lpg=RA5-PA683&dq=priapism+hanging. Retrieved 2007-01-26.  "Priapism is sometimes seen as a curious symptom of lesion of the spinal cord. In such cases it is totally unconnected with any voluptuous sensation, and is only found accompanied by motor paralysis. It may occur spontaneously immediately after accident involving the cord, and is then probably due to undue excitement of the portion of the cord below the lesion, which is deprived of the regulating influence of the brain... Pressure on the cerebellum is supposed to account for cases of priapism observed in executions and suicides by hanging. There is an instance recorded of an Italian castrata who said he provoked sexual pleasure by partially hanging himself."
4. ^ David Levy, DO. "Neck trauma". eMedicine.com. http://www.emedicine.com/EMERG/topic331.htm. Retrieved 2007-01-26. 
5. ^ William Augustus Guy (1861). Principles of Forensic Medicine. London: Henry Renshaw. http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC36308102&id=n0YJAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA3-PA246&lpg=RA3-PA246&dq=priapism+hanging#PRA3-PA245,M1. Retrieved 2007-01-26. 
6. ^ Thomas Sutcliffe (2003-04-25). "Lock, Stock and Two Yards of Hemp". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2008-02-12. http://web.archive.org/web/20080212162024/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20030425/ai_n12683349. Retrieved 2007-01-26. 
7. ^ Yann Tholoniat. "Joyce's Cyclops". Archived from the original on 2006-11-16. http://www.eleves.ens.fr/home/tholonia/joyce.html. Retrieved 2007-01-26.  Yann Tholoniat is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Strasbourg.
8. ^ Edward Gibbon (1776). The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. 9. Archived from the original on 2007-04-17. http://web.archive.org/web/20070417133412/http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/HTML.php?recordID=0214.09. Retrieved 2007-01-26. 

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