“Y vino a consentir, aunque no por su voluntad, que tuviese sus ayuntamientos libidinosos con ella”: On Female Abductions Performed by Animals in the Spanish Literature

Abstract

There are plenty of literary sources that render the abductions of maidens carried out by animals, in which as a result of monstrous births, children receive qualities from their father-animal as much physically as in character, although they sometimes retain their anthropomorphic appearance. This kind of stories spread during the XVth and XVIth centuries in books of miscellany and strange cases, and they remain alive in the following centuries, when they acquire new shapes and variations through folklore, narrative and popular lyrical poetry. In particular, we will analyze the abductions performed by the bear and the monkey, two animals in which lust was especially present, according to the medieval man.