Eunuch

A eunuch is a castrated man. His genitals are removed. This can be cutting off the testicles or removing the penis and the testicles.

Over the millennia since, eunuchs had a lot of different functions in different cultures such as domestics, treble singers, religious specialists, government officials, military commanders, and guardians of women or harem servants. When eunuchs ran a harem a monarch could be sure he was the one who fathered his wives children since real eunuchs were always infertile.

Sources and references

• English translation of Rudople Guilland's essay on Byzantine eunuchs "Les Eunuques dans l'Empire Byzantin: Étude de titulature et de prosopographie Byzantines", in 'Études Byzantines', Vol. I (1943), pp. 197-238. with many examples]

Other websites

• The Perfect Servant: Eunuchs and the Social Construction of Gender in Byzantium
• Eunuchs in Pharaonic Egypt
• Hidden Power: The Palace Eunuchs of Imperial China
• "Born Eunuchs" Home Page and Library