Eunuchs in Antiquity and Beyond

284 Pages·2002·17.53 MB·English

by  Shaun Tougher (ed.)

EUNUCHS IN ANTIQUITY AND BEYOND
Frontispiece. Coin ofEumenes I showing the head of his uncle Philetairos, the
first Attalid dynast of Pergamum and reportedly a eunuch (3rd century Be).
Photo: British Museum.
EUNUCHS
IN ANTIQUITY AND BEYOND
Editor
Shaun Tougher
Contributors
Ra' anan Abusch, Ruth Bardel, Vern L. Bullough,
Niels Gaul, Shelley Hales, J .L. Lightfoot,
Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, Margaret Mullett,
Georges Sideris, Walter Stevenson, Shaun Tougher,
Shih-shan Henry Tsai, Richard Witt
The Classical Press of Wales
and
Duckworth
First published in 2002 by
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Printed and bound in the UK by Gomer Press, Llandysul, Ceredigion, Wales
CONTENTS
Page
Introduction Shaun Tougher Vll
Acknowledgements lX
1. Eunuchs in history and society 1
Vern L. Bullough (University of Southern California)
2. Eunuchs and the royal harem in Achaemenid Persia
(559-331 BC) 19
Lloyd Llewellyn-jones (Open University, U.K.)
3. Eunuchizing Agamemnon: Clytemnestra, Agamemnon and
maschalismos 51
Ruth Bardel (Oxford)
4. Sacred eunuchism in the cult of the Syrian goddess 71
JL. Lightfoot (All Souls College, Oxford)
5. Looking for eunuchs: the galli and Attis in Roman art 87
Shelley Hales (Cardiff and Bristol Universities)
6. Eunuchs and gender transformation: Philo's exegesis of the
Joseph narrative 103
Ra'anan Abusch (Princeton University)
7. Eunuchs and early Christianity 123
Walter Stevenson (University of Richmond)
8. In or out? Origins of court eunuchs 143
Shaun Tougher (Cardiff University, University ofWales)
9. 'Eunuchs of light'. Power, imperial ceremonial and positive
representations of eunuchs in Byzantium (4th-12th centuries) 161
Georges Sideris (College de France, Paris)
10. Theophylact ofOchrid's In Defence ofEunuchs 177
Margaret Mullett (Queen's University, Belfast)
v
Contents
11. Eunuchs in the late Byzantine empire, c. 1250-1400 199
Niels Gaul (University of Bonn)
12. Eunuch power in imperial China 221
Shih-shan Henry Tsai (University of Arkansas)
13. The other castrati 235
Richard Witt (Foundation of the Hellenic World, Athens)
Index 261
INTRODUCTION
Shaun Tougher
This introduction will not seek to provide a general overview of eunuch
history, the times and places in which eunuchs are found and the roles
that they played. This ground is ably covered by the contribution ofVern
Bullough. Rather, I wish to indicate the purpose of the conference from
which this book descended, as well as to reflect on the history and state
of the study of eunuchs.
All but one of the papers in this volume derive from a conference
entitled' "Neither Woman nor Man": Eunuchs in Antiquity and Beyond'
held in Cardiff from 26 to 28 July 1999.1 The topic reflected the notable
flowering of interest in eunuch history in the last decade of the twentieth
century, but the conference also had a specific aim. Much of the study of
eunuchs in the 1990s was compartmentalized within individual cultures,
such as Beard on the Roman galli,2 Ringrose on Byzantine eunuchs,3 Tsai
on Chinese eunuchs in the Ming dynasty,4 and Nanda on the hijras of
India.5 These works also focused on particular issues of concern: traditional
political history in the case ofTsai, 6 cultural identity in the case of Beard,
and gender in the case of both Ringrose and Nanda. There was some
work that did take a broader view of eunuch history, but this could suffer
from a lack of expert knowledge.? Thus the conference was designed to
bring together scholars who were researching eunuchs in differing times
and cultures, as well as from differing points of view and with differing
approaches. It was hoped that this meeting would lead to the sharing of
information, views and experiences which would benefit and enrich the
study of the common subject-matter.
Those who attended the conference were happy to embrace this objec
tive. It was remarked upon how unusual (as well as rewarding) it was to
be able to discuss one's work with those who shared one's enthusiasm. It
must be said that eunuch studies have been slow to develop. There seems
to have been a tendency to avoid the subject, perhaps due to distaste
or embarrassment.8 In the field of ancient history, for instance, eunuchs
tended to surface in the study of religion rather than in their own right;
one thinks of the work ofNock9 and Vermaseren.10 In the case of political
history, Badian's study of the eunuch Bagoas (the favourite of Alexander
Vll
Introduction
the Great, and sensitively immortalised in Mary Renault's The Persian Boy
(1972) ), speaks volumes; whilst Badian argues against Tarn in favour of
the existence of Bagoas, his interest is squarely focused on the question of
sources rather than on the eunuch: the article has after all the sub-heading
'A study in method' Y A breakthrough seemed to come with the classic
work of Keith Hopkins on the court eunuchs of the later Roman empire.12
Taking a sociological approach, Hopkins investigated the reasons for the
use of eunuchs by later Roman emperors, as well as the nature of the court
eunuchs' power. For once, eunuchs were taken seriously. There followed
Orlando Patterson's own attempt to understand the usefulness of court
eunuchs, 13 as well as Peter Guyot's impressive survey of eunuchs as slaves
and freedmen throughout Graeco-Roman antiquity up until AD 395.14
The eunuchs of antiquity (notably those of the later Roman period) also
shared in the general upswing of eunuch studies in the 1990s.15 Despite
this, there still remains a certain tendency to overlook the subject generally.
Especially disturbing is that even two new 'guides' to late antiquity fail to
address eunuchs at all.16 Thus it is hoped that this volume will assist in
making such omissions unlikely in future.
The conference was intended to be diverse in periods, cultures and
approaches, and the papers in the final volume span from the earliest
recorded instances of castration and eunuchs to the present day. Focuses
of interest vary, and range across politics, religion, music, literature, art,
and of course gender. Specific periods and cultures covered are the Persian
empire under the Achaemenids, classical Greece, Republican and imperial
Rome, the later Roman empire, the Byzantine empire, and in;tperial China.
Other periods and cultures are covered generally by those chapters which
take either a broader or a comparative approach. Specific contributions
on Islamic eunuchs, the medieval west, Skoptsi, hijras and the famous
singing castrati would have been welcome, but these topics are fortunately
well served by other work.17
The volume commences with a broad introduction by Bullough, before
concentrating mainly on Greek evidence for eunuchs across the Persian,
Greek, Roman and Byzantine worlds. Llewellyn-Jones studies the eunuch
in the context of Persian 'harem' society. Bardel considers classical Greek
attitudes to castration, and mutilation generally. Lightfoot and Hales
explore the issue of eunuchs in the cult of mother goddesses (the Syrian
goddess and Cybele respectively), the former through literary evidence,
the latter through visual evidence. Abusch examines the treatment of the
eunuch in the thought of Philo of Alexandria, whilst Stevenson addresses
the question of the existence of eunuchs in early Christianity. Tougher,
investigating the ethnic origin of court eunuchs across a broad chronological
Vlll
Introduction
and cultural spectrum, focuses especially on the later Roman and Byzantine
empires. There follow three further chapters on the Byzantine empire,
Sideris and Mullett foreground positive treatments of eunuchs, whilst
Gaul turns the spotlight on the neglected eunuchs of the later Byzantine
empire. We then end with two chapters which highlight the cross-cultural
approach. In an overview of the history of the Chinese court eunuch, Tsai
emphasizes the hostility of the traditional accounts of Chinese history
towards eunuchs (which provides striking parallels with Greek prejudices),
and asserts the need for a revisionist history, whilst Witt (drawing on
evidence from ancient China to medieval Byzantium) makes the case for
the important role of eunuchs in music beyond the famous example of the
Italian castrati of the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries.
It can be reported that the growth of eunuch studies shows no sign of
abating. Recent conferences have included sessions on eunuchs, 18 whilst
further work has continued to be published from 1999 onwards,l9 and
more is promised. 20 As for the present volume, it is hoped that it is a
worthy reflection and justification of the burgeoning interest in eunuch
history, and also that it will assist and inspire future work.
Notes
1 The exception is Ruth Bardel's 'Eunuchizing Agamemnon: Clytemnestra,
Agamemnon and maschalismos'; this was a paper delivered at a day-school on
eunuchs also held in Cardiff, on 16 May 1998.
2 Beard 1994.
3 Ringrose 1994 and 1996.
4 Tsai 1996.
5 Nanda 1990. A second edition was published in 1999.
6 Note the more social interests of]ay 1993.
7 For instance Cheney 1995. See also my remarks on Grayson 1995 inch. 8.
8 There are of course exceptions, such as Millant 1908; Browe 1936. One
thinks especially of Byzantine studies with the work of Dunlap 1924 and Guilland
1943 (and also his subsequent studies).
9 Nock 1925.
10 e.g. Vermaseren 1977.
11 Badian 1958.
12 Hopkins 1963 and 1978, 172-96.
13 Patterson 1982, 314-31.
14 Guyot 1980.
15 e.g. Boulhol and Cochelin 1992; Schlinkert 1994; Scholten 1995; Stevenson
1995; Long 1996.
16 Bowersock, Brown and Grabar (eds.) 1999; Maas 2000.
17 On Islamic eunuchs see Ayalon 1999; Marmon 1995; Peirce 1993. On
lX