Eunuchs in Antiquity and Beyond
S Tougher; Bullough Vern L.; Llewellyn-Jones Lloyd; Ruth Bardel; Hales Shelley; Ra’anan Abusch; Sideris George; Mullett Margaret; Niels Gaul; Shih-Shan Henry Tsai
Classical Press of Wales
2002
Nidottu
Eunuchism was a subject which both intrigued and embarrassed the ancient world. The special virtue attributed to the castrated male at court, of undistracted loyalty to his ruler, aided the promotion of numerous eunuchs to positions of great power. A literary discourse developed, reviling and sometimes defending the eminence of these 'half-men'. Here, thirteen new studies from an international cast explore how eunuchs were perceived, and also reconstruct the realities of eunuchs' lives in Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Eastern culture.