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A eunuch can be either a castrated man or, in ancient terms, any man who is impotent with women for a wide variety of reasons. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 21st century BCE. Over the millennia since, they have performed a wide variety of functions in many different cultures such as courtiers or equivalent domestics, treble singers, religious specialists, government officials, military commanders, and guardians of women or harem servants. They often served as male prostitutes to other men and were commonly known to engage in homosexual behavior and crossdressing.
History
The English word eunuch is from the Greek eune ("bed") and ekhein ("to keep"), effectively "bed keeper." Servants or slaves were usually castrated in order to make them a safer servant of a royal court where physical access to the ruler could wield great influence – seemingly lowly domestic functions such as making the ruler's bed, bathing him, cutting his hair, carrying him in his litter or even relaying messages, giving him "the ruler's ear" could impart de facto power on the formally humble but trusted servant, as reflected in the humble origins and etymology of many high offices (e.g. chancellor started out as a servant guarding the entrance to an official's study). Eunuchs supposedly did not generally have loyalties to the military, the aristocracy, or to a family of their own (having neither offspring nor in-laws, at the very least), and were thus seen as more trustworthy and less interested in establishing a private 'dynasty'. Because their condition usually lowered their social status, they could also be easily replaced or killed without repercussion. In cultures that had both harems and eunuchs, eunuchs were sometimes used as harem servants (compare the female odalisque) or seraglio guards.
The first mention of eunuchs was made in the Assyrian Empire (ca. 850 till 622 B.C.). Eunuchs were also familiar figures in the court of the Achaemenid emperors of Persia and the Egyptian Pharaohs (down to the Lagid dynasty known as Ptolemees, ending with Cleopatra).
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@safetybiz The heck with congress eunuchs, lets take care of all the men in general. http://bit.ly/BLGzy
safetybis (safety bis) Mon, 21 Dec 2009 00:43:23 -0000
@safetybiz The heck with congress eunuchs, lets take care of all the men in general. http://bit.ly/BLGzy
@safetybiz The Eunuchs Choir, ARE the members of Congress as they dont have the B%*&s to stand up for what their voters want/dont want #hc09
safetybis (safety bis) Mon, 21 Dec 2009 00:29:40 -0000
@safetybiz The Eunuchs Choir, ARE the members of Congress as they dont have the B%*&s to stand up for what their voters want/dont want #hc09
The Eunuchs Christmas Choir may be hired year after year to entertain during the Women's An
Castration: An Abbreviated History of Western Manhood - A review of the book by Gary Taylor which looks at eunuchs through the ages.
The Eunuchs of China - About the practice of using emasculated and castrated males to serve in the emperor's harem from the 8th century B.C. to 1912.
Meta Description: [ USRF - Eunuchs of China, the story of Androgren Deprivation Treatment dates as far back as 8th century B.C. when Chinese emperors used castrated males as servants for their harems. ]
The Pen(is), Castration, and Identity: Abelard's Negotiations of Gender - Paper about Abelard's narratives of emasculation and remasculinization .
The Story of My Misfortunes - Full text from Peter Abelard's Historia Calamitatum, which recounts his affair with Heloise and subsequent castration.
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