20:
161:, do not mention beavers castrating themselves. Ultimately, he concludes that the fable originates from Egyptian hieroglyphs which "became Mythologicall unto the Greeks, and so set down by Aesop". The fable reflects a moral value, however, and "the sagacity and wisdome of that animal; which indeed from the works it performs, and especially its artifice in building, is very strange, and surely not to be matched by any other".
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castrated themselves in order to devote themselves wholly to their goddess. A saying by Jesus that 'there are eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake' (Matthew 19.12) was taken by some in the early Church as seeming to recommend a similar practice, rather than
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comments on the beaver's behaviour that in a similar way "every man who heeds God's commandment and wishes to live chastely should cut off all his vices and shameless acts, and cast them from him". It is further mentioned in this bestiary that if a beaver, already castrated, encounters another
34:
was hunted for its testicles, which it was thought had medicinal qualities. The story that the animal would gnaw these off to save itself when hunted was preserved by some ancient Greek naturalists and perpetuated into the Middle Ages. It also appeared as a Greek fable ascribed to
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hunter, he stands on two legs to show that he no longer has what the hunter seeks and so is spared. A scene depicting this is incorporated into at least one example of Church architecture. The passage has also been set by the composer
54:
in a satire. There the merchant
Catullus jettisons his rich cargo from a ship caught in a storm 'in imitation of the beaver that in its desire to escape death, will bite off its testicles and render itself a
117:(1531) counsels, "By the example of this animal, learn not to spare your possessions but to give money to your enemies, in order to preserve your life". In England the fable appeared in
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Once the metaphorical nature of the saying of Jesus was established, the fable was looked on more favorably as a reference to
Christian renunciation. So the 12th century
216:
59:'. The moral that Juvenal and later fabulists drew from the story is that in order to preserve oneself it is better to sacrifice lesser considerations.
149:, who plainly affirms that this tradition is false". Additionally, Browne notes that more modern authors who wrote of American beavers, such as
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with the added political reflection that a politician pursued for peculation should buy himself off by sharing his gains with his prosecutors.
287:
275:
67:
The beaver's example was eventually to be recommended to good
Christians. In Classical times the priests of
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200:
154:
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had constantly to argue that this had to be taken metaphorically. It was in this context that
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145:. Other ancient authorities disagree, he adds: Sestius (a physician mentioned by Pliny) "and
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189:
142:
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tradition as the type of self-preservation. The Latin poem beneath the illustration in his
8:
213:
The Manly Eunuch: Masculinity, Gender
Ambiguity, and Christian Ideology in Late Antiquity
118:
47:
250:
239:
302:
Browne, Thomas (1977). "Pseudodoxia
Epidemica (selections)". In Patrides, C.A. (ed.).
150:
95:
89:
36:
227:
138:
122:
106:
73:
30:
317:
128:
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with a reference to the fable, asking "Is any beaver more self castrating?"
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110:
177:
146:
40:
23:
A 13th-century manuscript illustrating a hunted beaver castrating itself
261:
77:
19:
81:
51:
121:'s collection with the same interpretation and later in that of
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56:
131:, writing of this supposed behaviour of the beaver in his
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In Latin literary sources, the fable was versified by
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137:(1646), cites not only Aesop and Aristotle but
18:
316:
301:
238:In the 13th century entrance porch to
105:The fable was later reinterpreted by
306:. London: Penguin. pp. 205–206.
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188:Translation by Henry Thomas Riley
80:scorned the celibate followers of
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14:
340:
295:
280:
269:
255:
244:
240:the cathedral of Sessa Aurunca
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221:
205:
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182:
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1:
215:, University of Chicago 2001
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7:
39:and is numbered 118 in the
10:
345:
72:abstinence, and the early
289:A Classical Dictionary
24:
201:Satire 12, lines 34ff
134:Pseudodoxia Epidemica
50:and is alluded to by
22:
100:A Medieval Bestiary
27:In ancient times,
25:
251:Castor the Beaver
211:Matthew Kuefler,
96:R. Murray Schafer
90:Aberdeen Bestiary
336:
308:
307:
299:
293:
286:John Lempriere,
284:
278:
273:
267:
259:
253:
248:
242:
236:
230:
225:
219:
217:ch. 8, pp. 245ff
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186:
180:
175:
119:Roger L'Estrange
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343:
339:
338:
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335:
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314:
313:
312:
311:
304:The Major Works
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285:
281:
274:
270:
260:
256:
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237:
233:
226:
222:
210:
206:
199:
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187:
183:
176:
172:
167:
109:as part of the
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63:Interpretations
17:
12:
11:
5:
342:
332:
331:
326:
324:Aesop's Fables
310:
309:
294:
279:
268:
254:
243:
231:
220:
204:
193:
181:
169:
168:
166:
163:
123:Samuel Croxall
107:Andrea Alciato
74:Church Fathers
64:
61:
16:Fable by Aesop
15:
9:
6:
4:
3:
2:
341:
330:
327:
325:
322:
321:
319:
305:
298:
291:
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258:
252:
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241:
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202:
197:
191:
185:
179:
178:Bestiary site
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162:
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152:
148:
144:
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136:
135:
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129:Thomas Browne
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108:
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85:
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49:
44:
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38:
33:
32:
21:
329:Emblem books
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173:
132:
127:
114:
104:
99:
88:
86:
66:
45:
28:
26:
151:Aldrovandus
147:Dioscorides
41:Perry Index
318:Categories
165:References
78:Tertullian
263:Emblemata
228:Folio 11r
159:Bellonius
155:Mathiolus
115:Emblemata
276:Fable 62
102:(1996).
48:Phaedrus
143:Solinus
98:in his
82:Marcion
52:Juvenal
292:(1839)
190:p. 451
111:emblem
69:Cybele
57:eunuch
31:beaver
139:Pliny
37:Aesop
157:and
141:and
29:the
265:153
320::
153:,
43:.
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