Wulffen's thesis is not confirmed as some writers assume by a study of the mating habits of many animals. Cocks during the act of mating peck cruelly the back of the hen's head. Tomcats bite the necks of their mates. Toads, at times, choke the female to death in their clinging embrace.
In those acts of animal "cruelty" there is probably another element to be considered. The tomcat, digging his teeth into the female cat's neck, may not so much relieve his sadistic impulses as produce in his mate some welcome sensation of pleasurable pain. We know how willingly the most rebellious cats allow any one to grab them by the backs of their necks, making no effort at freeing themselves and apparently enjoying that partial strangulation. (Remember the aphrodisiac influence of hanging.)
Atavism. Eulenburg considers that sadism is an atavistic trait. "Not only animals," he says, "but primitive races associate mating with violence."
The caveman is supposed to have beaten the female he captured into insensibility before dragging her to his cave.
We do not know, however, whether it was THE caveman or SOME cavemen who indulged in that practice, the existence of which may be merely a subject for speculation. It goes without saying that whenever females were carried off by victorious tribes after armed conflicts the "wooing" of the captives must have been synonymous with violence and rape.
Old documents offer many examples of the combination of love and violence. There is the old legend of Griseldis in which a sadistic man tested in the cruellest way the woman who was to be his life mate.
The epic poem Gudrun recites one of the prehistoric struggles between male and female. The unfortunate male in this case is overpowered by the Nordic Valkyrie who binds him with her girdle and keeps him lashed to the wall till morning.
The modern honeymoon trip is undoubtedly a survival of the primeval habit of carrying off the bride.
Primitive Religions constantly associate sadism with love. In fact the Goddess of Love, in the Greek mythology, owed her existence to an act of sadism. Kronos' male organ, cut off by his Zeus, fell into the sea, fertilized it, and Aphrodite was born.
Many primitive gods demanded the sacrifice of virgins, primitive goddesses decapitated or castrated men with whom at times they consorted. The priests and priestesses of certain religions could only please their gods by submitting to sexual indignities, the priestesses of Cybelea prostituting themselves to every one, the priests castrating themselves.