Another Phegor drawing. German, 1930s. Anyone know anything about him?
I’ve been sent another Phegor drawing. It’s got some things in common with his other drawing, which I featured in the post “Radclyffe Hall with a whip”.
He (I’m assuming Phegor was a man) put boots on his dommes, and drew those boots in some detail. He liked stockings, too. And, obviously, he really liked drawing whip marks. The title, “Die Geisel der Freundin” (“The Girlfriend’s Whip”), suggests that he was German, but it may just be that this post card, or book illustration, was printed in Germany.
Thanks to the donor of this other Phegor drawing. Does anyone know any more about this artist? Actual name, other pseudonyms, anything?
You’ve got the only two Phegor images that have ever been on the internet, afaik. The artist usually signed himself “Z. Phegor”. You’re right about his being German and active in the 1930s. There’s a little bit of information about him in Dr Ernest Schertel’s “Der Flagellantismus als literarisches Motiv”, but it doesn’t add much to this.
Actually the Germans title Die Geisel der Freundin means : The Girlfriend’s Hostage …
Glockenvogel
I shouldn’t argue with a Glockenvogel, but “Geisel” does mean “whip”. Or more specifically, a scourge, a multi-thonged whip with the lashes connected to a short, inflexible handle. Exactly the kind shown in the drawing. It also means “hostage”, which is probably the more common meaning these days. But I thought “whip” might be the key meaning here, because there’s a whipping going on, and the whip in the picture is a Geisel, a scourge.
I got most of my German, such as it is, from opera. So I learned “Geisel” from the whipping scene in “Das Rheingold”. (Alberich whips his brother Mime, M/M, non-consensual. Warning: fairy-tale themes, some invisibility.) A bit later, Alberich sings:
“Dass keiner mir müssig,
bürge mir Mime,
sonst birgt er sich schwer
meiner Geisel Schwunge!”
Mind you, in the previous scene, the giant Fasolt took the sex-goddess, Freia, as a hostage, or Geisel.
Could it be a pun? Both meanings at once?
Hang on, on third or fourth thoughts, that looks to me like an Esset, the double S symbol, in the middle of the word. So it’s Geissel, not Geisel. Which means it’s more likely to be “whip”.