Death erection
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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A death erection, angel lust, or terminal erection is a post-mortem erection, technically a priapism, observed in the corpses of human males who have been executed, particularly by hanging.
Overview
The phenomenon has been attributed to pressure on the cerebellum created by the noose. Spinal cord injuries are known to be associated with priapism. Injuries to the cerebellum or spinal cord are often associated with priapism in living patients.
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.
Cultural references
- According to the 1983 scholarly work, The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion by art historian and critic Leo Steinberg, a number of Renaissance era artists depicted Jesus Christ after the 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.
- The "Cyclops" section of James Joyce's Ulysses makes multiple use of the terminal erection as a motif.
- 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).
- Also a recurrent theme in Naked Lunch, 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.
- In the HBO television series In Treatment, in the second episode of the first season,a patient tells his psychiatrist that when he had a heart attack, all he was afraid of was 'angel lust'. They then discuss the phenomenon in detail.
See also
