Ah, euphemisms:

I'm translating some Latin now and one of the sentences reads: "Oedipus duobus oculis se privavit," literally "Oedipus deprived himself of two eyes." I guess you could put it that way. It doesn't sound right somehow, though; there should be a difference between depriving oneself of one's eyes and gouging one's eyes out. Though I'm not sure how you could deprive yourself of your eyes without gouging them out. Ideas?