Eunuch

The kizlar agha, head of the black eunuchs of the Ottoman imperial harem.

A eunuch is a castrated male. Throughout history, castration has been performed for a specific social function. The first reference to intentional castrations occurs in the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2nd millennium BC. The deprivation of the male external genitalia can be carried out partially (castration) or totally (emasculation).

By direct relation, the word eunuch can refer to men who are not very virile or effeminate, and was a common way of calling homosexuals during the Roman Empire.

Etymology

Eunuch comes from the ancient Greek εὐνοῦχος (eunoukhos), attested for the first time in a fragment of Hipponax, a poet and inventor of compound words in the VI BC. Orion of Thebes in the V after Christ offers two origins for this word: the first, to tēn eunēn ekhein, «bed guardian», referring to the title of eunuchs as cubiculars of the imperial palace, and the second, to eu tou nou ekhein, “behave well with respect to the mind”, which Orion explains based on his “deprivation of coitus (esterēmenou tou misgesthai)”.

The first option was cited at the end of the IX century by the Byzantine Emperor Leo VI in his New Constitution 98 in the which forbids the marriage of eunuchs, describing them as faithful guardians of the marriage bed and citing the word eunuch for this type of task. The emperor goes into more detail than Orion, and attributes the lack of male-female intercourse to castration, which he says is caused by it was carried out with the intention "that they not do what men do, or at least that everything that has to do with desire for the female sex be extinguished". The Byzantine monk Nikon of the Black Mountain bowed in the XI for the second meaning of Orion, stating that it comes from eunoein (eu «good» + nous «mind») with the meaning of «with good intentions, predisposed or favorable», although it differs with Orion by ensuring that p it comes from the trust that jealous rulers placed in their eunuch servants. Theophylact of Ohrid in his work In Defense of Eunuchs states that it comes from the words eupnoeic and ekhein "to have, to house", since they were always predisposed towards their lord who "housed" them.

In translations of the Bible into modern European languages, such as the Luther Bible or the King James Bible, the word eunuchs from the Vulgate has been translated as an officer or chamberlain, according to the idea that the original meaning of eunuch was bed-keeper, Orion's first choice. Modern religious scholars do not believe that castrated men existed in the courts of Israel and Judah, despite the original Greek translation of the Bible using the word eunoukhos.

17th century lowercase scholar and theologian Gérard Vossius explains that the word originally designated the task of bed-keeper, although later it was used for castrated men because they often did such work. Modern etymologists favor the former option of Orion.

History

Ancient Middle East

Relieve of limestone representing an Assyrian royal servant, an eunuch. Provider of the central palace of Nimrud, 744-727 B.C., currently at the Museum of the Old East of Istanbul.

Eunuchs were familiar figures in the Assyrian Empire (850-622 BC) and in Ancient Egypt, indeed, Egyptian Execration Texts from four millennia ago threaten the enemies of Nubia and Asia, intended to "all men, all eunuchs, and all women". Sometimes they became regents when the heirs were minors, as in the case of the Neo-Hittite state of Karchemish, while holding prominent political office in Achaemenid Persia and even at court. The eunuch Bagoas (not to be confused with the courtier of Alexander the Great) was vizier to Artaxerxes III and Artaxerxes IV and was the main power behind the throne during their reigns until his assassination by Darius III.

Ancient Greece, Rome and Byzantium

Although this practice was widespread in Ancient Greece and Rome, its position in royal courts did not begin to appear until the Byzantine Empire. The Gauls or priests of Cybele were eunuchs.

In the late Roman Empire, after the adoption of the model of the Eastern courts by the emperors Diocletian (r. 284-305) and Constantine (306-337), the emperors began to surround themselves with eunuchs for tasks such as washing, combing, dress and bureaucratic functions, acting as a shield between the emperor and his administrators from physical contact, and therefore enjoying great influence in the imperial court; an example of these eunuchs in Roman times was Eutropius. The Emperor Julian (r. 361-363) released the eunuchs from this service because he thought they were overpaid and realized the magnitude of their contributions to the running of the palace.

The Roman poet Martial charges against a woman who has sex with partially castrated eunuchs, only the testicles (VI, 67): «Why does your Celia only have eunuchs, you ask, Panic? Celia wants the flowers of marriage, not the fruits."

At the Byzantine imperial court there were a large number of eunuchs in charge of domestic and administrative functions, often organized in a separate hierarchy and with different careers. Archieunuchs, each in charge of a group of eunuchs, were among the top offices in Constantinople, below the emperors. Under Justinian's rule in the 18th century VI, the eunuch Narses served as a successful general in a number of campaigns.

The advantages of the eunuchs is that they prevented the positions from becoming hereditary, allowing access to these positions on their own merits; they devoted themselves more deeply to their tasks, avoiding family obligations; and they could not be eligible for the throne, which gave security to the emperor. Those who were deprived of their testicles and their penises were called carzimasia in Greek and were sold for very high prices.

Eunuch in a harem, painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme, centuryXIX.

Eunuchs in China

In China, eunuchs were employed in the Imperial Palace. Castration or becoming a eunuch was required to work at the Emperor's Court.

In the beginning, those delinquents or criminals who were sentenced to castration were enough to cover the traditional quota of eunuchs, but over time, as the size of the Chinese state increased and, consequently, its imperial bureaucracy and its diversified functions, the need arose for a greater quantity of these. Eunuchs reached their peak in the late Middle Ages, especially during the Ming dynasty.

It was then that new candidates from different origins had to be sought and accepted. Despite being servers in different positions, they were increasing their importance and acquiring some advantages (such as economic ease). In this way, in very poor villages, sometimes a few committed self-mutilation in the hope of achieving a better social and economic position. The cases in which the father, mother, brothers and sisters accompanied a member of the family to an appointment with the barber-surgeon were not uncommon. This, with rudimentary techniques based on the wisdom of that time, proceeded to the operation.

According to research and studies carried out by Europeans in the 19th and 20th centuries, the barber first wrapped the penis and testicles together from their base in a common bandage that fitted tightly, which caused pain and provided the shape of a kind of sausage. Next he would twist the bundle so formed to one side, take a curved knife and hold it up at a distance, calculating for a sharp and swift cut. At this point the barber asked once again if they were sure of a decision that would be irreversible, if the future eunuch was of legal age, he had to answer for himself, and if he was a minor then the answer corresponded to the family, present there. If the final answer was affirmative, then with a single movement he severed the genitals. Then, along with the immense pain, there would be profuse bleeding. The barber applied baths of salts and oils to stop it, paper and ashes, and inserted a small metal rod, usually tin, into the urethral orifice. Then the most difficult thing happened, the new eunuch had to walk slowly without much rest, and not consume any liquids for a few days. After time, the metal rod previously placed in the urethral orifice was removed. If he was able to urinate, then the operation had been a success and he could start to manage a job to serve in the Emperor's Court. If not, the conduit had been closed and excruciating agony awaited the new eunuch before his slow death.

Genital remains were sometimes claimed by whoever owned them, in which case the barber handed them over. But often these remains were not claimed and in this case the barber kept them in a vessel, carefully noting the date and who they belonged to. This behavior was due to the fact that if the eunuch was accepted in the Imperial Palace, and once there he managed to make a career, he would discover that for each promotion (and with it more money) tradition made it a requirement to show in a rite the remains of what It was his genitals. Then the eunuch hurried back to try to recover what he had abandoned in a bad hour, for which the barber was waiting for him, willing to give him his, after collecting a significant additional amount of money.

Eunuchs in other towns

In many other towns there was also the custom of castrating other men, turning them into eunuchs. They still exist today in India (known as hijras), and until recently there were skoptsy in Russia (they even survived until the middle of the Soviet regime); there were also them in the European baroque, used for singing and called castrati (in Italian, literally, 'castrated').

Bio-psycho-socio-cultural aspects

Historically, the eunuch-turned thus shifts to a new social gender status. It means that the culture in which the individual is immersed, once the physical mutilation of his external genitalia was produced, assigned him a differentiated treatment.^{[citation required]}

In the human species —as in primates and mammals in general— the female mainly has her genitalia hidden and protected towards the interior, while in the anatomical arrangement of the male his genitalia are mainly exposed and unprotected towards the exterior. It is the most vulnerable part, exposed to excruciating and agonizing pain, and death is even possible from the intense pain caused by the bursting or crushing of the testicles. For this reason, in the history of humanity —although in a very small percentage— there are many men who have accidentally lost their genitals. Real physical possibility that, if it comes true, is very probably the most traumatic experience in a man's life. The great fear of this possibility has been the reason for important studies, especially psychoanalytic studies by Sigmund Freud.^{[citation needed]}

For Freud, the feminine and masculine discovery of the opposite sex produces in women an initial feeling of loss or lack, and in men a fear or horror of loss. It is what Freud calls the castration complex.^{[citation needed]}

Illnesses, accidents or aggressions, for any male mammal represents the dangerous possibility of a castration that would turn them into eunuchs. Diseases that pose a serious threat include testicular cancer, penile cancer, and some sexually transmitted infections. Among the aggressions: wars, jealousy, accidents or moral and physical submission by another more dominant male are the most common reasons for involuntary castration.^{[citation required]}

Another different case would be voluntary castration. The most frequent case of voluntary castration is by medical order. The most common case is that of men of a certain age who have or are at risk of having prostate cancer. Testosterone —a hormone secreted by the testicles— can trigger and accelerate this cancer, so if the doctor considers that the man will no longer need his testicles to reproduce, or that said reproductive function is not worth more than the patient's life, can prescribe castration of the patient.^{[citation needed]}

Famous eunuchs in history

• Cai Lun, inventor of paper, imperial advisor to Emperor Han.
• Artoxares, courtier of Artaxerxes I and Darius II of Persia.
• Bagoas, Prime Minister of Artaxerxes III of Persia.
• Bagoas, eunuch related to Alexander the Great.
• Cen Hun, eunuch of the state of Wu during the period Three Kingdoms.
• Eutropio, contemporary eunuch of Arcadio.
• Farinelli, casstrate and opera singer, the most extraordinary in his genre of all time.
• Farnacias, contemporary eunuch of Lestanes.
• Ganymede, eunuch at the service of Cleopatra.
• Gao, faithful eunuch of Bai Pu, playwright of the Yuan dynasty.
• Haloto, a food catar during the Roman Empire.
• Heraclio, contemporary eunuch of Valentiniano III.
• Huang Hao, eunuch of Shu State; also appears in the Romance of the three kingdoms.
• John the Eunuch, Prime Minister with Constantine VIII and Roman III.
• Li Lianying, high despotism eunuch of Qing dynasty.
• Mitrídates or Aspamitres, an accomplice of Artabano in the murder of Jerjes I.
• Narsés, general of Justiniano I, counterpart of Belisario as the main Byzantine general.
• Origen, one of the three pillars of Christian theology.
• Potino, who decapitated Pompeyo in the name of Pharaoh Ptolomeo XIII.
• Shu Diao, responsible for a civil war for succession in the feudal state of Qi.
• Wei Zhongxian, the most powerful and notorious eunuch in Chinese history.
• Zhang Rang, the head of the infamous 10 Changshi (ten assistants) east of Han dynasty.
• Zhao Gao, the favorite of Qin Shi Huang, who intrigued against Li Si (death 210 BC).
• Zheng He, Chinese navigator and explorer of the centuryXV.