Eunuchs in Antiquity and Beyond

edited by Shaun Tougher

Book cover: Eunuchs in Antiquity and Beyond

Extent: 282 pages

Publisher: The Classical Press of Wales

Subjects: Classical Studies

Series: Greece, Rome, & Beyond

Language: English

Hardback (Out of print)

(December 2002)

ISBN: 9780715631294

6.1 x 9.17 inches

Price: $85.00

Out of stock

PDF (Published)

(December 2002)

ISBN: 9781914535062

Price: $68.00

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.

Introduction Shaun Tougher Acknowledgements 1. Eunuchs in history and society - Vern L. Bullough 2. Eunuchs and the royal harem in Achaemenid Persia (559-331 BC) - Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones 3. Eunuchizing Agamemnon: Clytemnestra, Agamemnon and maschalismos - Ruth Bardel 4. Sacred eunuchism in the cult of the Syrian goddess - J.L. Lightfoot 5. Looking for eunuchs: the galli and Attis in Roman art - Shelley Hales 6. Eunuchs and gender transformation: Philo's exegesis of the Joseph narrative - Ra'anan Abusch 7. Eunuchs and early Christianity - Walter Stevenson 8. In or out? Origins of court eunuchs - Shaun Tougher 9. 'Eunuchs of light'. Power, imperial ceremonial and positive representations of eunuchs in Byzantium (4th-12th centuries) - Georges Sideris 10. Theophylact of Ochrid's In Defence of Eunuchs - Margaret Mullet 11. Eunuchs in the late Byzantine empire, c. 1250-1400 - Niels Gaul 12. Eunuch power in imperial China - Shih-shan Henry Tsai 13. The other castrati - Richard Witt Index

  • Edited by Shaun Tougher