Harry´s Blog

Herbert Kuhner

There was a cartoon in Paul Krassner’s Realist decades ago. A man lifts up the flap of a tent in which a man sits cross-legged on the ground. “Hey, Onan,” the man outside says, “ya’ made the Bible!”

Onan did indeed achieve notoriety, and his name became synonymous with the singular action.

Here’s the story, according to Genesis: The Guy Upstairs polished off Onan’s older brother, a guy named Er, for reasons unknown. Thus it was logical for the tribe bigwigs to tell Onan was to provide Tamar, who had been his sister-in-law, with offspring. Onan got down to brass tacks with the widow, but rather than carrying through to the sweet end, he committed the transgression of coitus interruptus. .

Apparently he had no objections the being part of a duo, but he didn’t want it to become a threesome. So the Guy Upstairs polished him off, just as he had done with his brother.

Onan comes into the picture after his brother’s death. The Bible didn’t keep tabs his past prior to his tryst with Tamar, but after it, poor Onan didn’t have a chance to engage in the act that bears his name. He was cast down before he could make a move. So he didn’t go on to engage in the activity her was noted for. A false myth was created.

Myths are seldom based on reality, if you can call the Good Book reality. At any rate Onan lent his name to singular act and became the patron Saint of duos consisting of one.

Speaking of myths, the Greeks never came up with anything as grim as the bards of the Good Book, and in Greek mythology there was never an act of cruelty that was presented as a good deed.