• Finnish: eunukki
• German: Eunuch
• Russian: eвнух

• Finnish: eunukki
• German: Eunuch
• Russian: eвнух

• ttbc Arabic: ,
• ttbc Chinese: 太监 (tàijiān), 宦官 (huànguān)
• ttbc Dutch: eunuch
• ttbc French: eunuque
• ttbc Greek: ευνυχός (eunukhós)
• ttbc Hindi: हिजड़ा (hijra)
• ttbc Italian: eunuco
• ttbc Japanese: 宦官 (かんがん kangan)
• ttbc Korean: 내시 (內侍, naesi), 환관 (宦官, hwangwan)
• ttbc Latin: eunuchus
• ttbc Polish: eunuch
• ttbc Serbian: uškopljenik
• ttbc Spanish: eunuco
• ttbc Swedish: eunuck

  hadım

• ttbc Urdu: (hijra) g Urdu

Adjective

eunuch

1. Referring to someone or something which has been emasculated. (very rare)
2. Referring to a castrato, or boy castrated to retain soprano or alto voice.

See also

• castrate
• castratism
• castrato
• desex, de-sex
• gelding
• neuter
• sterilize

A eunuch () is a castrated man, in particular one castrated early enough to have major hormonal consequences; the term usually refers to those castrated in order to perform a specific social function, as was common in many societies of the past. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the twenty first century BC. 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. In some translations of ancient texts, individuals identified as eunuchs seem to include men who were impotent with women, those we would now call transsexuals or homosexuals, and those who were simply celibate.

Origins

Some other famous eunuchs

• Shu Diao Intrigant eunuch who was responsible of a successor civil war in the feudal state of Qi
• Zhao Gao Favourite of Qin Shihuangdi, who plotted against Li Si (died 210 BC)
• Zhang Rang Head of the infamous "10 Changshi" (Ten attendants) of Eastern Han Dynasty
• Huang Hao Eunuch in the state of Shu; also appears in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms
• Cen Hun Eunuch in the state of Wu during the Three Kingdoms Period
• Gao Lishi A loyal and trusted friend of Tang emperor Xuanzong
• Le Van Duyet Famous eighteenth century Vietnamese eunuch, military strategist and government official
• Li Fuguo The Tang eunuch who began another era of eunuch rule
• Yu Chao'en Tang eunuch who began his "career" as army supervisor
• Wang Zhen First Ming eunuch with much power, see Tumu Crisis
• Gang Bing Patron Saint of Eunuchs in China who castrated himself to demonstrate his loyalty to emperor Yongle
• Liu Jin Another "famous" eunuch despot
• Wei Zhongxian Most infamous eunuch in Chinese history
• An Dehai Corrupt eunuch of Qing Dynasty - Favorite of Empress Dowager Cixi
• Li Lianying Another despotic eunuch of the Qing Dynasty
• Sun Yaoting (1902–1996) last surviving imperial eunuch of Chinese history
• Boston Corbett, who killed John Wilkes Booth, castrated himself to avoid temptation from prostitutes
• Robert Steven 'Fingers' Kenning castrated himself to avoid the temptation of butter (2005).
• Mike Ricketts, e-commerce project manager (1980)

Eunuchs in fiction

• The Eunuch; a comedy by Roman playwright Terence.

• The Pardoner in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" is referred to in the General Prologue as either a "geldynge" or a "mare" (a gelding is a castrated male horse; a mare is a female horse). Neither the literary pilgrims nor modern scholars know whether he is a eunuch or a homosexual, as the text can be interpreted either way.

• In Sondheim's musical "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," there are several eunuch characters as guards to the local house of Courtesans.

• In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night Viola disguises herself as a man and asks to be introduced to Duke Orsino as a eunuch.

• In The Country Wife, the main character, Mr. Horner, pretends to be a man turned eunuch by impotence caused by syphilis in order to gain access to the bedrooms of married women, with interesting consequences.

• In Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, the character Mardian is a eunuch, in attendance on Cleopatra. She tells him: "I take no pleasure in aught an eunuch has."

• Eunuchs appear often as villains in Hong Kong kung fu and wuxia films set in ancient China. For example, the films "Dragon Inn (Xin long men ke zhan)", "Butterfly Sword (Xin liu xing hu die jian)", and "A Touch of Zen (Hsia nu)" all feature a eunuch or a group of eunuchs as the main villain. A popular eunuch villain used in ancient China stories is Eunuch Wei, who is based on a historical figure named Wei Zhongxian. Eunuch villains are usually in charge of powerful political posts, such as being the leader of the East Chamber.

• The Queen Salmissra, in David Edding's The Belgariad and The Malloreon, is only allowed to be served by eunuchs. Her Chief Eunuch Sadi becomes a principal character in the Mallorean, and is referred to in "The Prophecy" as "The Man who is no Man."

• There is a song by The Mars Volta called "Eunuch Provocateur" in their 2001 Tremulant EP.

• The character and narrator Taita in Wilbur Smith's "Egyptian" (1991-) series of novels is a eunuch (performed as a punishment while a slave).

• Varys, the spymaster, is a eunuch and a character in George RR Martin's, epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire. There are also many other eunuchs of minor importance. There is also an army of eunuchs called the Unsullied, led by the Dragon Princess Daenerys Targaryen.

• Bagoas was the eunuch favorite of Alexander the Great (referenced above). Bagoas is the main character and narrator of The Persian Boy, a 1972 historical novel by Mary Renault.

• In the Dune series, Count Hasimir Fenring was a genetic eunuch and the Emperor's closest friend and adviser.

• Eunuchs feature prominently in Montesqieu's 1722 novel Lettres persanes, supposedly about Persian visitors to eighteenth-century France.

• Anne Rice wrote of castrati in her 1982 novel "Cry To Heaven". The story is centered on the castrati characters of Guido Maffeo and Tonio Treschi, teacher and student.

• In Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006), Johnny Depp's character Jack Sparrow refers to Orlando Bloom's character Will as being a eunuch several times. These lines were apparently improvised by Johnny Depp.

• In Aladdin from the Arabian Nights, Princess Badroulbadour has several eunuchs as servants as well as woman servants.

• Fiona McIntosh's "Percheron" series centers on a harem, guarded by Eunuchs.

• In the book "Everworld: Realm of the Reaper" which is the fourth book in the Everworld series by K.A. Applegate Eunuchs guard the City of Hel (also known as "Her City").

• In the 1988 movie, The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen, the Sultan sings a song about the tougher parts of a eunuch's life.

• In the Blackadder episode Born to be King, Edmund Blackadder is mistaken for a eunuch by Dougal McAngus, Fourth Duke of Argyll.

• In the 1981 film written, produced and directed by Mel Brooks, History of the World, Part I, during The Roman Empire segment, Josephus and Comicus are assisted in their escape from Caesar's Palace by Miriam and Empress Nympho, who hides Josephus as a eunuch in her rooms, but he is foiled by an erotic dance performed by the priestess of Venus.

• In the 1984 movie, The Ice Pirates, after being captured the two main heroes Jason (played by Robert Urich) and Roscoe (played by Michael D. Roberts) pretend to be eunuchs in order to obtain freedom.

• The Alteration a 1976 alternative history novel by Kingsley Amis is set in a parallel universe in which the Reformation did not take place. The main plot is the proposal to turn the boy chorister Hubert Anvil into a castrati singer to preserve his voice.

• In the 2006 film One Night With the King, Hadassah's (Esther's) would-be boyfriend, Jesse, is captured by the Persian empire and castrated.

• In Family Guy, episode Chitty Chitty Death Bang, Meg wants to know if a guy likes her, but finds out that he is a eunuch.

• In the book Candide by Voltaire one of the characters Candide encounters is a eunuch who was castrated and made to become a singer.

• The 2002 historical science fiction novel The Years of Rice and Salt features many eunuchs in its opening section, including the character Kyu and the historical Chinese admiral Zheng He.

• In the British sitcom Red Dwarf, Rimmer tells Lister that a hypnotherapist once told him he was Alexander The Great's Chief Eunuch in a previous life.

• Olympia, WA band Frumpies have a song called "Eunuch Nights".

• Two best selling novels by Jason Goodwin, The Janissary Tree and The Snake Stone, chronicle the investigations of Yashim Togalu, a Turkish eunuch detective to the Sultan's royal court, in 1830's Ottoman Empire.

• The historical novel Memoirs of a Byzantine Eunuch, by Christopher Harris (2002 Dedalus Books, ISBN 1 903517 03 6)

• In Michael Moorcock's novel The Dreaming City, the royal palace of Imrryr is guarded by eunuchs.

• In Valve's Half life 2 series, the Combine turns humans into Eunuchs for use in military purposes.

See also

• Genital modification and mutilation
• Female genital cutting
• Transwoman

Notes

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]

External links

• 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