Eunuchs in Antiquity and Beyond
Edited by Shaun Tougher
Paperback (Published)
(April 2026)
ISBN: 9781914535697
6.06 x 9.21 inches
Price: $35.00
On back order
Eunuchs in Antiquity and Beyond examines the social, political, and cultural roles of eunuchs in Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Eastern societies. Thirteen interdisciplinary essays explore perceptions of eunuchism and reconstruct eunuchs’ lived realities across the ancient world.
Eunuchism was a subject which both intrigued and embarrassed the ancient world. The special virtue attributed to the castrated male at court, of undisputed 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 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.
Preface to the Second Edition – Shaun Tougher
Introduction – Shaun Tougher
Acknowledgements
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Eunuchs in History and Society – Vern L. Bullough
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Eunuchs and the Royal Harem in Achaemenid Persia (559–331 BC) – Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
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Eunuchizing Agamemnon: Clytemnestra, Agamemnon and maschalismos – Ruth Bardel
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Sacred Eunuchism in the Cult of the Syrian Goddess – J.L. Lightfoot
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Looking for Eunuchs: The galli and Attis in Roman Art – Shelley Hales
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Eunuchs and Gender Transformation: Philo’s Exegesis of the Joseph Narrative – Ra’anan Abusch
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Eunuchs and Early Christianity – Walter Stevenson
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In or Out? Origins of Court Eunuchs – Shaun Tougher
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‘Eunuchs of Light’: Power, Imperial Ceremonial and Positive Representations of Eunuchs in Byzantium (4th–12th centuries) – Georges Sidéris
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Theophylact of Ochrid’s In Defence of Eunuchs – Margaret Mullett
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Eunuchs in the Late Byzantine Empire, c. 1250–1400 – Niels Gaul
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Eunuch Power in Imperial China – Shih-shan Henry Tsai
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The Other Castrati – Richard Witt
Index
Shaun Tougher is Professor of Late Roman and Byzantine History at Cardiff University. He works especially on dynastic history (primarily the Constantinian and Macedonian dynasties) and gender and society (notably eunuchs, but also imperial women and questions of masculinity). His publications include The Reign of Leo VI (886–912) (Leiden, 1997), Eunuch in Byzantine History and Society (London and New York, 2008), and The Roman Castrati: Eunuchs in the Roman Empire (London and New York, 2021). He has also edited several volumes, including Approaches to the Byzantine Family (with Leslie Brubaker; Farnham and Burlington VT, 2013), The Emperor in the Byzantine World (Abingdon and New York, 2019), The Sons of Constantine AD 337–361 (with Nicholas Baker-Brian; Cham, 2020), and Constantine in Africa (with Richard Evans; Edinburgh, 2022). In addition, he is a series editor for Debates and Documents in Ancient History (Edinburgh University Press) and New Approaches to Byzantine History and Culture (Palgrave Macmillan).
- Edited by Shaun Tougher
“I read this volume because I am a teacher of a Humanities course on ‘love and sexuality’. The reader of these essays, aside from Boulhol’s introductory, will benefit from some familiarity with their context, be it Biblical, Byzantine, or Chinese history."
— D. Lateiner
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