In ancient times, castration was common. Who is a eunuch? The history of the origin of these people has always interested historians and anthropologists. Castrati and eunuchs were in demand not only in harems, but also in military service and religious spheres.
Eunuch - who is it?
Eunuchs are a phenomenon originally widespread in the countries of the East: Assyria, Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, China, and then picked up by the Roman Empire and other European countries. Who is a eunuch? A person who has undergone castration surgery as a child, teenager or adult. Officially, operations to deprive a man of his reproductive organ were universally prohibited and yet widespread. Castration in the ancient and Middle Ages was a barbaric process that pursued the following goals:
- providing harems with guardians of order (eunuchs served as “guardians of the Sultan’s bed”;
- a fashion trend among Roman nobles (in the manner of Eastern rulers);
- providing servants to the ruling stratum of society in various countries;
- the fight against carnal temptations (in religious sects);
- preserve a pure male soprano before boys' voices mutate;
- the manner in which criminals who abuse women or children are punished.
The operation itself was very painful and crippling to the body and psyche. Different countries had their own methods and devices for removing male dignity. In China, the patient was placed on a hot couch, the abdomen and thighs were tightly bandaged to avoid massive blood loss, the genitals were washed with water and pepper, and the penis or testicles were cut off with a sharp movement using a curved instrument similar to a sickle. In Egypt, castration looked even more bloody and terrifying: the priest pulled the genitals tightly with a stiff woolen thread and pulled them out. Mortality was high.
Who is a eunuch in a harem?
Ancient harems numbered thousands of concubines, beautiful women who, in their entire lives, might never have the honor of spending the night with the Sultan. The women's territory was rife with intrigue and chaos, requiring guardians of order. This role was played by eunuchs; the Sultan could not fear sexual assault from the eunuchs, since they, for the most part, were indifferent to female charms, were emasculated in childhood before puberty, and carnal desires were unknown to them. What a eunuch looks like can be seen in photographs of the 19th-20th centuries:
- special clothing;
- complete absence of hair on the face and body (smoothness);
- flabby body and facial features;
- disproportionately high growth compared to others.
Other features:
- cruel, cunning, heartless character;
- thin, like a woman's voice.
Eunuch and castrato - what's the difference?
What is the difference between a eunuch and a castrato, different sources give conflicting information. It is more often stated that these concepts are identical. According to other sources, it depends on the type of castration. How eunuchs or castrati were made:
- Black castration is the complete removal of the penis along with the scrotum and testes. The man became a castrato.
- White castration - removal of the testes, preserving the penis - this is how a man passed into the category of eunuchs.
Can a eunuch sleep with a woman?
Was sex with a eunuch possible, and do eunuchs have erections? Strange as it may sound, but yes, sex is also possible. Eunuchs of the categories spadone (absence of testicles with a preserved penis) and tlibia (penis and testicles in place, but the latter were subject to strong compression) could copulate and even experience orgasm, but could not have offspring. Sex with eunuchs was popular among libertines, and women of high society did not shun this. Eunuchs served as servants, masseurs, and pleasured women...although not for long. Potency quickly weakened and the life of white castrati was fleeting.
Eunuch in Christianity
Is the eunuch baptized with the Holy Spirit? Christian eunuchs or eunuchs, in order to gain purity of thoughts and complete dedication of their lives to God, often castrated themselves with their own hands. This was started by the theologian Origen, who interpreted the words of Jesus that there are eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of God - in the literal sense, calling his followers to this. Valerius, Bishop of Jerusalem, who lived at the same time as Origen, founded the castrati sect, which was later banned in 325 at the Council of Nicaea, recognizing castration as a revival of pagan cults.
Famous eunuchs
Castrati and eunuchs were strange and interesting to ordinary people. Thus, posters with castrati actors and singers mentioned on it attracted a huge number of curious people to the performance. Famous castrati:
Since ancient times, as soon as the first powerful eastern rulers appeared, the number of women who belong to him became a sign of the wealth of a real man. So, often the number of which was. Harems, like everywhere else, had their own strict rules: it was always necessary to maintain order, observe morality, and integrity. Who kept order in the harem, who could be trusted with this important and difficult task?
Women were second-class people; it was believed that they were not allowed anything at all. It is unthinkable to let a man into a harem; few can resist the temptation of so many beautiful women.
How did eunuchs appear?
A solution was found - eunuchs (from the Greek eunuchos - “guardian of the bed”), castrated men who can be trusted with the most important thing that the padishah has - his beautiful women. They tried to take eunuchs with dark skin color (blacks) into harems, in the hope that if suddenly one of them, by some chance, was able to have sexual intercourse with a concubine at the birth of a child, it would be clear that there had been treason.
Three types of castration.
Before becoming a eunuch, a boy or man was castrated. There were three types of this painful operation. The first involved complete castration: the man was deprived of both his penis and testicles. The second consisted of removing only the penis. The third is testicular deprivation. During any castration, when the wound around the edges had healed, a treated metal or bamboo tube was inserted into the resulting cavity for urination. Later they came up with an artificial penis made of rubber.
Eunuchs, who were completely castrated at a young age, before puberty, often had feminine manners; their voice did not break and remained youthful throughout their lives.
The suffering and pain of the eunuchs.
At the end of the 19th century, the English scientist Carter Stent, an expert on China, spoke in detail about the suffering eunuchs experienced during the operation. He wrote in 1877: “The operation is performed as follows. The lower abdomen and upper thighs are tightly bandaged to prevent excessive bleeding. Then the body parts to be removed are washed three times with hot pepper water and cut off at the very base with a small curved knife resembling a sickle. Upon completion of the case, the wound is covered with paper soaked in cold water and bandaged thoroughly. The patient, supported by two operators, is forced to walk around the room for 2-3 hours, after which he is allowed to lie down, but is forbidden to drink anything for three days. On the fourth day, the bandage is removed, and the sufferer can finally get relief. If this turns out to be the case, it means he is out of danger; if not, he is doomed to a painful death, since his passages are already swollen and nothing will save him.”
Harem games
Meanwhile, castration, especially partial, often did not deprive a person of male hormones, and sometimes eunuchs experienced torment because they were in the company of beautiful women. This is how one sufferer described his torment: “I entered the seraglio, where everything made me regret my loss. Every minute I felt an excitement of feelings; thousands of natural beauties unfolded before me, it seemed, only to plunge me into despair... Every time I accompanied a woman to my master’s bed, every time I undressed her, I returned to myself with rage in my heart and with terrible hopelessness in my soul... I remember how once, putting a woman into the bath, I felt such excitement that my mind became clouded, and I dared to touch a certain place on her body with my hand... Having come to my senses, I thought that my last day had come. However, I was lucky and escaped the most severe punishment.”
However, the absence of a penis did not at all prevent the eunuchs from caressing the beauties, and while the rulers were busy with their affairs, the eunuchs were not at all bored in the company of their wives.
Moreover, there was a legend among castrati that as a result of constant sexual contacts, the genitals would grow back. And the eunuchs caressed other people’s concubines, however, while being terribly afraid of the ruler’s revenge. The Chinese eunuch Li Guo was careless, and the concubines were left with bites and bruises on their bodies. His owner discovered these traces, and since entry into the harem was prohibited to everyone except the emperor and the eunuch, it was not difficult to identify the culprit. A terrible punishment fell on Li Guo: he was sentenced to be cut into small pieces.
Eunuch Wei was in charge of the Qianlong Emperor's harem. Wei became so confident in his power that he quarreled with the chief minister and stopped noticing him. In response, the chief minister informed the emperor that his eunuchs were frolicking in the harems. The minister proposed to immediately subject the eunuchs to a second operation, and, naturally, first of all, the chief eunuch, Wei, was subjected to painful torture...
Career of a castrato and who could become a eunuch?
Who became a eunuch? Oddly enough, many went to this work voluntarily - the eunuchs lived comfortably, in luxurious palaces, and ate well. Some were sold by their parents, and sometimes the children later thanked them - often the eunuchs made a career for themselves and became officials, military leaders or advisers to the owner.
For example, the eunuch Taijiang planned the entire irrigation system in China. The castrate Guo Shoujing built a large canal near Beijing for the Great Khan Kublai Khan. The eunuch Liu Chin even ruled the entire Middle Empire - from 1505 to 1510 - under the young Emperor Wi-Tsu.
The most famous Chinese eunuch was Admiral Cheng He. In the 15th century, he made sea voyages to India, Sri Lanka, Arabia, and sailed along the coast of East Africa. Was close to the discovery of Europe. He commanded a huge fleet of three hundred ships and thirty thousand sailors. In China, eunuchs were a respected and authoritative part of society. They united into special clans, sometimes very powerful, and the rulers were forced to reckon with them.
Humiliated pride and the inability to have sex made eunuchs sometimes extremely warlike and cruel, which their masters skillfully used. Emperor Xuan Zong, owner of a harem with five hundred concubines, appointed the eunuch Gao Lishi as his bodyguard and security advisor. One day, the emperor ordered Gao Lishi to undertake a punitive operation against Buddhist monks. The eunuch, having captured the monks, dealt with them in a sophisticated way. He ordered the monks to be castrated, their genitals boiled and fed to the nuns. The nuns, in turn, had their breasts cut off, boiled and fed to the monks.
The executioner-eunuch came up with other tortures. They placed bags filled with quicklime over the eyes of the unfortunate people, crushed their fingers, and finally wrapped their naked bodies in soft metal pipes in the shape of snakes and poured boiling water into their open “mouths.”
Another eunuch of Xuan Zong was a certain Wang Feyen, who erected the “Palace of Desired Monsters.” It was inhabited by the ugliest and ugliest women, collected from all over the Celestial Empire: dwarfs and giantesses, hunchbacked and defoliated, covered with scabs and bleeding pus... And even, as historical chronicles testify, a woman with two heads, distinguished by her particular passion. It was this idea with the “palace” that contributed to the rise of Wang...
Many have probably heard the word eunuch. However, not everyone knows its exact meaning. Who is a eunuch? What does he do? The word comes from the Greek enuchos, which denotes the ancient profession or court position of keeper of the bed. That is, a eunuch is an observer of the concubines in the harem of the eastern ruler.
A eunuch is always a castrato. Yes, these unfortunate people, by the will of fate, found themselves in such a terrible situation. What's wrong with that? Surely many not only do not know who a eunuch is, but also do not understand the meaning of the word castrato. This word refers to men who have had either their penis or testicles removed, or both. According to some sources, eunuchs first appeared in Assyria, Persia and Byzantium, but other evidence suggests that castrated servants also served in the courts of Chinese nobles from time immemorial. By the way, in the Far East, these courtiers performed not only the role of overseer of the emperor’s harem, but also a number of important tasks and assignments from their master. Eunuchs in the Ottoman Empire, present-day Turkey, appeared later. Since they could not think about higher power due to their emasculation, they were involved in many important state affairs, and under minor rulers they even became the most influential persons in the state.
Who are the eunuchs in the sultans' harem?
Since prehistoric times, royalty was expected to have many wives. Naturally, they needed servants who would restore order in this female kingdom. This required a strong man's hand. However, in order to avoid temptation in front of women, they were deprived of their male nature.
The transformation into a castrato took place both by force and by choice. Sometimes boys from poor families were brought to the Sultan's palace by their own fathers. The teenagers didn’t even know what was going to happen to them and who the eunuch was. Having gone through a painful and humiliating procedure, they learned the duties of the guardian of the Sultan's bed and often reached great heights in managing not only the royal harem, but the entire state.
Concubines and eunuchs
Many inhabitants of harems ended up within its walls against their own will. In addition, there was fierce competition between the women of the seraglio for the favor of the ruler. A variety of tricks were used to harm each other, and only thanks to the wisdom and insight of the eunuch it was possible to avoid tragedies. The responsibilities of the eunuch included guarding the harem, training the concubines, caring for them, escorting them to the master’s chambers, etc.
In harems, there were also frequent situations when girls began to have tender feelings for their guards. And what a disappointment they felt when they realized who the eunuch was! But some women still retained sympathy for unhappy men and even tried to brighten up their lives, thereby putting themselves at risk.
But among the eunuchs there were also servants who, because of their male impotence, came up with various tests for the poor concubines, turning their lives into real hell.
Who is a eunuch
From the point of view of a representative of modern Western civilization, the social institution of eunuchs seems savage and barbaric, but the widespread spread of this phenomenon at a certain historical stage in a number of countries, and countries professing different religions, obviously has more serious grounds than someone’s barbaric whim.
The word "eunuch" has Greek roots and literally means "guardian of the bed." From this it follows that eunuchs belonged to the category of servants and guards of private chambers.
Their distinctive feature was that they were all subjected to castration, that is, surgery to remove the gonads. The castration operation was carried out, as a rule, in childhood, before the onset of rapid hormonal changes.
Contrary to popular belief, eunuchs did not lose their penis, that is, they had no problems with urination, could experience erections and have sex. The only thing they could not do in principle was have children.
In this bizarre way, nobles and royal families saved their dynasties from the threat of the birth of bastards. There was also forced conversion to eunuchs. Thus, in China, captured soldiers were subjected to castration.
In this case, castration had a derogatory meaning, however, the task of preserving the purity of the nation was also respected: the castrated former enemy could not impregnate a representative of the victorious people. Castration took place not only in the world, but also in religious cults, but there it had an exclusively symbolic meaning. The eunuch, in monastic obedience, denied his flesh, sinful thoughts and aspirations and completely devoted himself to serving the religious cult.
The word eunuch has several meanings. The first is a man who is deprived of the opportunity to have children. The second is a high-ranking official at court. There is also a definition of a eunuch monk. Let's take a closer look at who a eunuch is and in what sense this word is used.
Bedkeeper is the literal translation of the word eunuch from the Greek language. I wonder who a eunuch is and what beds he should guard? The Bible describes how pagan peoples castrated captive children and appointed them as servants at court. These courtiers guarded the bedrooms of the rulers. They looked after the royal harem, where there were several dozen women. Castration of eunuchs protected the royal dynasty from illegitimate children from lower class people. Eunuchs were often called guards of wives, guards of concubines, or servants of the queen.
But, men born with mutilated genitals were also called eunuchs. In ancient Israel they could only participate to a limited extent in the worship of God. They were prohibited from entering the Israelite congregation. We can imagine how humiliated they felt because they were deprived of the opportunity to have children.
Oh, someone deliberately went for castration. This is common among some religious cultures. The eunuch monk devoted himself entirely to serving God, denying his sinful flesh pleasures.
So, no matter whether a man became a eunuch or was born one, he always felt inferior in society.
Who are the eunuchs?
Skoptsy is a religious sect that believes that in order to serve God and save the soul it is necessary to castrate oneself, now considered extinct. Men had several degrees, or as they called seals, castration:
Women had three seals; amputation of the labia, clitoris, breasts and again a mysterious triangle on the side.
It was possible to move on to the next seal only after passing the previous one. Castrated men naturally could not produce offspring, but women could still give birth, and if they did not pass the third seal, then even feed babies.
Castration was done in different ways, depending on the beliefs of the helmsman - the leader of the sect; they practiced: cauterization, amputation with cutting instruments, as well as piercing, cutting, twisting and tying the genital canals.
As a result, only platonic love could exist between a man and a woman eunuchs. Due to the fact that the eunuchs could not have children, and after the revolution of 17, they lost the opportunity to recruit new members into the sect through economic enslavement or purchase and propaganda of religious purity, and the uncasted young relatives quickly ran out. By now, the eunuchs have most likely transferred out of the sect.
If someone has a desire to resurrect the sect of eunuchs, then he must remember that in Deuteronomy it is written: “Whoever has his yatras crushed or his reproductive member cut off cannot enter the community of the Lord.
The culture of eunuchs in China has an ancient history. The first cases of castration of harem employees date back to the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. Since the penis and testicles were considered symbols of male power, their loss was shameful. Therefore, the first eunuchs were prisoners of war. Subsequently, boys from poor families, who were sold to this service by their parents, became eunuchs.
According to beliefs, a person had to appear before his ancestors with an intact body. Therefore, eunuchs kept separated body parts so that they would later be buried with the eunuch.
The position of the eunuch was twofold. On the one hand, the loss of male organs was a personal tragedy and damage to the status of a man, but on the other hand, the eunuch had the opportunity to make a career at court. First of all, castrati were entrusted with work in the imperial harem. But the possible functions of eunuchs were much broader. They could serve the emperor and his family, guard the imperial chambers and perform other work in the palace. Some of the eunuchs were engaged in household affairs, others were in charge of receiving foreign guests, and others were in the medical service of the palace.
During the Ming Dynasty - in the late Middle Ages - the duties of eunuchs became even broader. They could work as officials or even command troops.
Most of the eunuchs lived on the territory of the Forbidden City, as did all the imperial servants. However, eunuchs were more free to choose their place of residence - often, having saved money, they bought housing in the city. Despite their disability, eunuchs retained the right to marry. In this case, they usually adopted children to whom they could pass on their name and wealth.
Eunuchs and Muslim harems
Judaism and Christianity prohibited castration for religious or other purposes. However, in Muslim countries, as in China, the practice of using eunuchs arose. This is due to the spread of harems since the 10th century. A rare exception for Christian countries was the presence of eunuchs at the Byzantine court.
The functions of eunuchs in these countries were much narrower than in China. The eunuch was in charge of the affairs of the harem, and he could serve both the ruler and a private individual. Also, eunuchs were often involved in the slave trade and searching for concubines suitable for the ruler or dignitaries. The status of eunuchs in Islamic countries was more modest than in imperial China, but under a number of conditions they could also achieve influence at court.
Sources: fb.ru, znayuvse.ru, elhow.ru, www.bolshoyvopros.ru, www.kakprosto.ru
James Klug. History of the harem in the cultures of the world. Smolensk, 2004, p. 27-39.
The first documented case of the use of eunuchs to guard the harem is found in Xenophon’s description of the palace life of the Persian king Cyrus. This description dates back to the time of Cyrus’s conquest of Babylon in 539 BC. e. However, most likely, this practice was then widespread throughout the civilized world. It is absolutely certain that it existed in China long before the fall of Babylon.
Long before the reign of Cyrus II, the custom arose in Persia to castrate prisoners captured in battle for use as harem guards. It seems that the founders of this custom were the very first Persian kings, who wanted to ensure the chastity of their concubines and avoid damage to the dynastic bloodline.
Cyrus noted, writes Xenophon, that “the eunuchs were indifferent to any family affections, and therefore he thought that most of all they would respect and value those who had the greatest ability to reward them generously and could protect them if someone offended them.” , and appoint them to an honorary position, and no one, he thought (Cyrus), could surpass him in distributing favors of this kind. Moreover, since eunuchs were the subject of contempt and ridicule from all other ordinary people, for this reason alone they needed a master,
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Who would be their patron. For there is no person who would not think that he has the right to lord it over the eunuch at every opportunity to do so, unless he is prevented from doing so by the one who has the highest authority. However, there is no reason why even a eunuch could not surpass all others in loyalty to his master. However, he did not believe, as many may have been inclined to believe, that eunuchs were weak creatures. And he drew this conclusion also on the example of other animals. For example, restive stallions, being groomed, stop biting and rearing, that’s for sure, but despite this, they do not lose their suitability for service in war. And bulls, when they are castrated, lose much of their proud spirit and rebellion, but their strength or working abilities do not become worse because of this. And in the same way, dogs, when they are castrated, stop running away from their owners, but nevertheless are also suitable for guard duty and hunting.
Likewise, men, if they were treated in a similar way, became more meek, being deprived of this desire, but showed no less care and diligence for what was entrusted to them. They in no way become less skillful horsemen, or less skillful spearmen, or less ambitious men. On the contrary, both in war and in hunting, they show that the spirit of competition still remains in their souls. As for their loyalty, the best proof of it is their behavior at a time when their masters are in distress. For no one has ever served their master in misfortune more selflessly than eunuchs. And if they think, and there is some reason for this, that they are inferior in physical strength, all the steel on the battlefield makes the weak just as strong. Having recognized all these facts, Cyrus selected eunuchs for all positions at his court, starting with the gatekeepers.”
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This high opinion of the great king about eunuchs as a class is not often confirmed in other sources. In fact, there is every reason to believe that the operation to which the eunuchs were subjected had a negative effect on their characters. Of course, it cannot be denied that this rule had many exceptions. In the end, after examining many contradictory facts, one can come to the conclusion that eunuchs, taken as a whole, are no worse or better than ordinary human beings. And if they feel deprived of happiness, it is no more so than others. What they lost in one sphere of human life is more than compensated for - more precisely, it was compensated, since this breed of people is dying out - in other spheres. At this stage of the narrative, two such compensations can be mentioned.
The first was the enormous political influence which they enjoyed due to the confidence placed in them by their masters, as Cyrus suggests. The second compensation was the obvious, but extremely strange fact that the women they protected often developed feelings for them that were not sisterly or daughterly. For, firstly, eunuchs were not necessarily completely deprived of the ability to experience sexual desire and the associated joys of sexual intercourse. And, secondly, eunuchs acquired sophisticated skills in extraordinary sexual intercourse, which some women prefer to ordinary sex, since only it gives them the opportunity to achieve orgasm.
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The plot and characters of Montesquieu's novel “Persian Letters” are, of course, a figment of the author’s imagination, but it is quite obvious that he was quite well informed about the state of affairs in this area. The novel contains a scene, an analogue of which is not difficult to find in works written by Eastern authors. In Letter IX, where the narrative is told on behalf of the eunuch, Montesquieu writes: “I entered the seraglio, where everything seemed to deliberately make me deeply grieve for what I had lost. And the worst of my misfortunes was that I was forever forced to contemplate a man who was happy. During this period, when my feelings were so excited, every time I had to take a woman to my master’s bed and undress her, I returned to myself with rage in my heart and terrible despair in my soul.”
“I remember how once, when I was helping a woman into the bath, I lost control of myself so much that I dared to put my hand on the most intimate part of her body. And the thought immediately flashed through my mind that this day would be the last of my life. However, I was lucky and was able to avoid thousands of deaths. Nevertheless, I had to pay a considerable price for the silence of the beauty who witnessed my weakness. I lost all power over her, and she forced me to make concessions to her, as a result of which I found myself on the brink of death a thousand times.”
This fictional correspondent adds that now, in old age, he hates women.
One of the tales in the collection “A Thousand and One Nights,” told from the perspective of a black eunuch, says that he was “castrated” at the age of twelve, that is, his testicles were removed. At that time he was a slave in the house of an influential and wealthy Arab. The reason for the operation was the careless behavior of a teenager and his girlfriend, the owner’s daughter, who was
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Ten years. While playing with each other, these two completely healthy children with hot blood suddenly felt an irresistible desire to copulate and did not
resist, surrendering to the will of your instincts. In the East, such cases are not something extraordinary. They immediately rushed to marry the girl off to a local barber, and special measures had to be taken to convince this honest artisan that his bride had retained her virginity. At the request of the little bride and with the consent of her husband, since he knew nothing about her previous intimate relationships, the boy was allowed to stay with her.
ex-girlfriend as a eunuch.
However, the narrator then calmly adds: “I continued to kiss and squeeze her in my arms and enjoy her body as before, until everyone died: her husband, mother, father and finally herself.” (From a physiological point of view, such a phenomenon could well have occurred even in the absence of testicles in the main character of this story.)
Thus the eunuch, who was such an important figure in pre-Christian times and for a long time after the establishment of Christianity, but only in eastern countries, could indeed, as already assumed, be generous, prudent and enlightened, as, however, he could also be the complete opposite of these qualities. For while complete castration led to the emergence of such “demi-humans,” as the Romans called them, greedy, intolerant and ignorant, like the too ascetic personalities of our time, partial emasculation, often used in certain periods of history and in certain countries, especially in antiquity, resulted in people quite good-natured. Considering their characteristic features, which allowed them to have intimate relationships with women, it can be argued that they experienced feelings
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A quality close to self-satisfaction, which was based on complete sexual satisfaction, making a man flexible. Both in ancient times and in modern times, eunuchs, white and black, often showed a tendency towards boasting, narcissism, had a passion for decorative animals, birds and flowers, and were also not averse to noisy, almost childish amusements. In other words, many traits of an artistic rather than a mercantile temperament were typical of them.
There were about four hundred black eunuchs in the service of the sultans of the Ottoman Empire. Many of them held high administrative positions at court and enjoyed enormous influence. Among these high eunuchs, the most powerful was considered the one who looked after the concubines of the reigning sultan, and not the previous monarch. Next after him in the hierarchy of eunuchs was the chief of the eunuchs of the Sultan's mother, or, as she was called, the Valide Sultan. Then came the eunuch, who was in charge of the servants of the Sultan’s sons; the treasurer, the caretaker of the main harem room, the caretaker of the small rooms surrounding the main room, and two imams or clerics of the harem mosque. According to tradition, the chief of all eunuchs, no matter how absurd it may seem at first glance, had his own personal harem.
The palm in defining the three categories of despicable “demi-humans” should be given to the ancient Romans, an energetic and courageous people, not too inclined to charity and treating the crippled with much greater disdain than most peoples of the East. They included castrates in the first category, those who were deprived of all external reproductive organs. These creatures deserved the most complete trust, since they were literally unable to
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Seduce the wards, and therefore in the slave market they were given the most money for them. Of all the eunuchs, they were considered the most quarrelsome and were usually distinguished by bad manners and a tendency to cheat. They had beardless faces, raspy, thin voices and a long life expectancy. If an ugly appearance was added to all this, the cost of castrati increased even more. They were examined regularly to make sure that their lost organs had not begun to regrow, just as the limbs and tails of lizards regrow.
The second category included spadone. They kept their penis, but both testicles were amputated. The third category was thlibiae, in which the testicles remained in place, but were subjected to severe compression. Eunuchs of the last two categories did not lose the ability to have sexual intercourse and showed interest in them. The secretion of the prostate gland that remained in them allowed them to achieve orgasm. This quality made them especially valuable in the eyes of dissolute women of high society. And yet, since spadone and tlibia quickly lost their potency, and cases of conceiving children from them were extremely rare, those who could not afford to buy a castrato had to be content with the services of eunuchs of these two categories. Both of them wore beards and spoke in normal voices. They were distinguished by higher intelligence than castrati, but they usually did not live long. White eunuchs were much more susceptible to various diseases than black ones.
At the beginning of the XIX chapter of the major work “The History of the Decline and Destruction of the Great Roman Empire,” the famous English historian Edward Gibbon describes the situation of eunuchs in Rome in the middle of the 4th century AD. BC after the death of the first Christian emperor Constantine the Great and the accession to the throne of his vicious son Constantius.
Gibbon writes: “The ruined provinces of the empire were again united into one through the victories of Constantius; but since this weak-hearted monarch did not have any personal talents for either peaceful or military pursuits, since he was afraid of his generals and did not trust his advisers, the success of his weapons only led to the establishment of the rule of eunuchs over the Roman world. These unfortunate creatures - the ancient product of Oriental jealousy and Oriental despotism - were introduced into Greece and Rome with the contagion of Asian luxury. Their successes were very rapid; in the time of Augustus they were looked upon with disgust, as the ugly retinue of the Egyptian queen, but after that they little by little wormed their way into the families of matrons, senators and the emperors themselves.
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The strict edicts of Domitian and Nerva prevented their reproduction, the pride of Diocletinus favored them, and the prudence of Constantine reduced them to a very humble position; but in the palaces of the unworthy sons of Constantine they soon multiplied and little by little acquired first acquaintance with the flock thoughts of Constantius, and then control over them.
The disgust and contempt with which everyone treated these ugly people seemed to have corrupted them and given them that incapacity for any noble feeling or noble deed, which the general opinion of them attributed to them. But the eunuchs were skilled in flattery and intrigue, and they controlled Constantius, sometimes with the help of his cowardice, sometimes with the help of his laziness, sometimes with the help of his vanity. While the deceptive mirror presented to his eyes a pleasant picture of public well-being, he, out of negligence, did not prevent the eunuchs from intercepting the complaints of the oppressed provinces, amassing enormous wealth by selling justice and honors, humiliating the most important offices by distributing them to those who bought from them despotic power, and satisfying their hatred of those to the few independent people who, out of pride, did not seek the protection of slaves. Among these slaves, the most outstanding was Eusebius, who ruled both the monarch and the court with such unlimited power that, according to the sarcastic expression of one impartial historian, Constantius enjoyed some credit from his arrogant favorite.
From the book of the great English historian it is clear that he did not share the opinion of the Persian king regarding eunuchs. To the above passage
Gibbon "adds the following note: "But long experience did not justify the expectations of Cyrus. Indeed, there were such cases that eunuchs were distinguished for their devotion, their courage and their talents; but if we consider the history of Persia, India and China, we will find that the power of the eunuchs always signified the decline and death of all dynasties."
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According to the ancient Roman poet Claudian, who lived at the turn of the fourth and fifth centuries AD. e. and may have been a Christian, in politics eunuchs showed treachery and complete unprincipledness. In one of the satires, the poet sharply attacked Eutropius, a eunuch who enjoyed enormous influence at the court of the Roman emperor Arcadius, and at the same time expressed his disgust at the entire practice of using eunuchs.
These verses were written at a time when many Armenians and Jews were working in the medical field. “The Armenian hurries up,” writes Claudian, “experienced in handling a merciless and precise scalpel, which makes men feminine, and with such loss they become even more disgusting creatures. He dries up the liquid that flows from two sources and gives life, and with one blow deprives his victim of the ability to be a father and a husband.”
An article by Carter Stent, published in 1877 in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, describes the practice of castration operations common in China at that time. In this extremely conservative part of the world, with medical traditions dating back to almost prehistoric times, castration surgery had its own specificity.
“The operation is carried out as follows. Tight white bandages are placed over the lower abdomen and upper thighs to prevent excessive bleeding. The limbs to be operated on are washed three times with hot pepper infusion. The man who is to become a eunuch takes a horizontal position. After the desired parts of the body have been sufficiently washed, they are cut off as close to the body as possible with a small curved knife, sometimes shaped like a sickle. After castration, the wound is covered with paper soaked in cold water and carefully bandaged. After dressing the patient is forced to
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Walk around the room for two to three hours. At the same time, he is supported on both sides by two people. After the specified time, the castrated person is allowed to lie down. The patient is not allowed to drink anything for three days, and during this time he often experiences terrible torment. Moreover, it is not only thirst that torments him. He also suffers from the inability to perform natural needs at this time. After three days, the bandage is removed, and the sufferer can finally get relief. If this process proceeds satisfactorily, the patient is considered out of danger and is congratulated on successfully completing the operation. However, if the poor fellow cannot relieve himself of little need, he is doomed to a painful death, for the ducts swell, and nothing can save him.”
The article goes on to describe some of the particularly intimate duties of Chinese eunuchs. “When the emperor wishes to see a particular concubine in his bedchamber, he gives the eunuch on duty a label and tag on which the name of this woman is written, and he takes this thing to her, after which the eunuchs carry it to sedan chair for the emperor's bedroom. Having arrived there, the lady does not dare to lie down in the emperor's bed in the usual manner, that is, from the head or side. Etiquette requires that a woman crawl up from the foot gradually until she is level with her royal partner. Outside the entrance to the bedroom are guarded by two eunuchs, and before dawn they wake the concubine and carry her in a sedan chair back to her own chambers. The fact that a concubine visited the emperor’s bedroom and shared a bed with the latter is recorded in a special book where the lady’s name and the date of the visit are entered. Then the emperor himself signs the record in case he needs to confirm the legality of the birth of a child from a concubine who became pregnant that night.”
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In other regions of the East, castrates, after removing the reproductive organs with one stroke of a razor, inserted a tube into the urethra. The wound was then cauterized with boiling oil and the patient was then placed in a pile of fresh manure. During the recovery period he was kept on a dairy diet. Patients who had not reached puberty most often successfully tolerated this radical course of treatment. However, for the rest of their lives they had to urinate through a straw.
In ancient times, castration was used not only for the purpose of obtaining reliable guards. In Egypt and Rome, this operation was often just a measure of punishment. It was carried out as a public act of justice for rape and similar crimes. Often in this way, deceived husbands took revenge on their wives' lovers. In addition, on large estates where significant housework was required, eunuchs were used to assist female slaves. From an economic point of view, this was beneficial, since the latter did not neglect their duties for the sake of frequent copulation. Slaves also did not have to be released from work for long periods due to pregnancy and childbirth, which could not have been avoided if the servants consisted of physically capable men.
Semiramis, the queen of Assyria, castrated physically weak men so that they would not give birth to their own kind. In this way, she intended to improve the gene pool of her population.
In addition, in all countries where sodomy was widespread, primarily in pagan Greece, Rome and the East, the trade in castrated boys flourished. However, the increase in the number of eunuchs, caused by the above reasons, not related to the protection of harems and the implementation
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The administrative functions in them naturally led to the fact that the supply on the relevant market increased, and those who purchased eunuchs for their own gratification now had the opportunity to have a much wider choice. And a man who became a victim of judicial retribution or personal revenge had considerable chances of ending his days in a harem, in an environment that was usually envied by men who had not lost their genitals and functions.
In the eastern monarchies, great importance was attached to the purity of dynastic blood, which legitimized the monarch's claims to descent from the gods and to supreme power. To exclude even the hypothetical possibility of infidelity, monarchs did not allow mature men into the chambers of their wives and concubines.
The courtly importance of eunuchs could be converted into political authority. Unable to continue the family line and establish their own dynasty, eunuchs were not considered by monarchs as political competitors and served as obedient executors of the royal will, which is why they often enjoyed the trust of the ruler and influence at court.
Eunuchs are characterized by their tall stature and plump physique. The collected statistical data suggests a greater (within the margin of error of 14-17 years) life expectancy of eunuchs compared to men of comparable social status.
In the ancient world
The first information about the presence of eunuchs (partially castrated) comes from Assyria. In the 19th century BC. Assyrian kings began to appoint eunuchs, previously employed exclusively in the palace and in the royal guard, as governors of the conquered lands, for they were not afraid that they would try to organize a separatist rebellion and found their own dynasty. The Assyrian practice of castration of future courtiers was adopted by the Persians and some other peoples of the Middle East. One of the Persian eunuchs, named Bagoi, usurped the reins of government during the interregnum. Another Persian eunuch with this name became famous for his love affair with Alexander the Great.
In Rome and Byzantium
In the Eastern Roman Empire, the main purpose of eunuchs remained serving the Byzantine emperor and empress in the chambers of the Grand Palace. Thanks to unhindered access to the emperor, eunuchs for a long time had influence on state affairs; the Armenian Narses became famous as a commander. It is known about courtier eunuchs in Norman Sicily.
In the Ottoman Empire
If Byzantine eunuchs were often “supplied” to the court by their own parents in the hope that, having become rich, the son would lend a helping hand to distressed relatives, the eunuchs who served the harem of the Ottoman emperor, all in the same Constantinople, were recruited from among captive boys of foreign origin, mostly blacks . White eunuchs were brought from the Balkan Peninsula, black eunuchs from Africa. At the court there were positions of chief white and chief black eunuchs. The latter, called kizlyar-aga in Turkish, led an extensive network of spies and had great weight at court. A similar position existed in the Crimean Khanate.
In imperial China
Completely castrated eunuchs served each and every ruler of the empires and kingdoms of China for more than two thousand years. Many emperors used eunuchs not only to work in their harems, but also to perform various kinds of responsible economic and administrative tasks, as a counterweight to learned mandarin officials. During the minority of the emperors, some eunuchs actually headed the entire vertical of power; naval commander Zheng He became a true national hero. In the 18th-19th centuries, eunuchs were allowed to adopt other people's children. The last Chinese eunuch died in December 1996.
There were many eunuchs among the courtiers in other countries of the “Chinese world” - Vietnam, Burma, Siam.
Other castrati
Castration was often used in history not only to obtain future courtiers-eunuchs, but also as a measure of punishment. Self-castration was practiced by some Christian sects to combat “temptations of the flesh” (see eunuchs).
The castrati rebelled,
Enter dad's chambers:
“Why aren’t we married?
How are we to blame? etc.
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Notes
Literature
- Usov V.N. Life and deeds of eunuchs. // Asia and Africa today. 1998.No. 9. P.56-60; No. 10. P.54-59
- Usov V.N. Eunuchs in China. M., 2000.
- Usov V. N. Eunuch. // Spiritual culture of China. Encyclopedia in 6 volumes. Institute of Far Eastern Studies RAS. Volume 4. Historical thought, political and legal culture. M., 2009, p. 498-501.
- Voskresensky D. N. Usov V. N. The Book of Palace Intrigues. Eunuchs are at the helm of power. M., 2004.
- // Klug J. History of the harem in the cultures of the world. Smolensk, 2004, p. 27-39
- // Maslov A. A. China: bells in the dust. The wanderings of a magician and an intellectual. M., 2003, p. 157-163
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Excerpt characterizing the Eunuch
This person is also needed to justify the last collective action.The action is completed. The last role has been played. The actor was ordered to undress and wash off the antimony and rouge: he would no longer be needed.
And several years pass in which this man, alone on his island, plays a pathetic comedy in front of himself, petty intrigues and lies, justifying his actions when this justification is no longer needed, and shows the whole world what it was like what people took for strength when an invisible hand guided them.
The manager, having finished the drama and undressed the actor, showed him to us.
- Look what you believed! Here he is! Do you see now that it was not he, but I who moved you?
But, blinded by the power of the movement, people did not understand this for a long time.
The life of Alexander I, the person who stood at the head of the countermovement from east to west, is even more consistent and necessary.
What is needed for that person who, overshadowing others, would stand at the head of this movement from east to west?
What is needed is a sense of justice, participation in European affairs, but distant, not obscured by petty interests; what is needed is a predominance of moral heights over one’s comrades—the sovereigns of that time; a meek and attractive personality is needed; a personal insult against Napoleon is needed. And all this is in Alexander I; all this was prepared by countless so-called accidents of his entire past life: his upbringing, his liberal initiatives, his surrounding advisers, Austerlitz, Tilsit, and Erfurt.
During a people's war, this person is inactive, since he is not needed. But as soon as the need for a common European war arises, this person at that moment appears in his place and, uniting the European peoples, leads them to the goal.
The goal has been achieved. Since the last war of 1815, Alexander is at the height of possible human power. How does he use it?
Alexander I, the pacifier of Europe, a man who from his youth strove only for the good of his people, the first instigator of liberal innovations in his fatherland, now that he seems to have the greatest power and therefore the opportunity to do the good of his people, while Napoleon exile makes childish and deceitful plans about how he would make humanity happy if he had power, Alexander I, having fulfilled his calling and sensing the hand of God on himself, suddenly recognizes the insignificance of this imaginary power, turns away from it, transfers it into the hands of those despised by him and despised people and says only:
- “Not for us, not for us, but for your name!” I am a man too, just like you; leave me to live as a human being and think about my soul and God.
Just as the sun and each atom of the ether is a ball, complete in itself and at the same time only an atom of a whole inaccessible to man due to the enormity of the whole, so each personality carries within itself its own goals and, at the same time, carries them in order to serve common goals inaccessible to man. .
A bee sitting on a flower stung a child. And the child is afraid of bees and says that the purpose of a bee is to sting people. The poet admires a bee digging into the calyx of a flower and says that the bee’s goal is to absorb the aroma of flowers. The beekeeper, noticing that the bee collects flower dust and brings it to the hive, says that the bee's goal is to collect honey. Another beekeeper, having studied the life of a swarm more closely, says that the bee collects dust to feed young bees and breed the queen, and that its goal is to procreate. The botanist notices that, by flying with the dust of a dioecious flower onto the pistil, the bee fertilizes it, and the botanist sees the bee’s purpose in this. Another, observing the migration of plants, sees that the bee promotes this migration, and this new observer can say that this is the purpose of the bee. But the final goal of the bee is not exhausted by either one, or the other, or the third goal, which the human mind is able to discover. The higher the human mind rises in the discovery of these goals, the more obvious to it is the inaccessibility of the final goal.
Man can only observe the correspondence between the life of a bee and other phenomena of life. The same goes for the goals of historical figures and peoples.
The wedding of Natasha, who married Bezukhov in 13, was the last joyful event in the old Rostov family. That same year, Count Ilya Andreevich died, and, as always happens, with his death the old family fell apart.
The events of the last year: the fire of Moscow and the flight from it, the death of Prince Andrei and Natasha’s despair, the death of Petya, the grief of the Countess - all this, like blow after blow, fell on the head of the old count. He did not seem to understand and felt unable to understand the meaning of all these events and, morally bending his old head, as if he was expecting and asking for new blows that would finish him off. He seemed either frightened and confused, or unnaturally animated and adventurous.
Natasha's wedding occupied him for a while with its external side. He ordered lunches and dinners and, apparently, wanted to appear cheerful; but his joy was not communicated as before, but, on the contrary, aroused compassion in the people who knew and loved him.
After Pierre and his wife left, he became quiet and began to complain of melancholy. A few days later he fell ill and went to bed. From the first days of his illness, despite the doctors' consolations, he realized that he would not get up. The Countess, without undressing, spent two weeks in a chair at his head. Every time she gave him medicine, he sobbed and silently kissed her hand. On the last day, he sobbed and asked for forgiveness from his wife and in absentia from his son for the ruin of his estate - the main guilt that he felt for himself. Having received communion and special rites, he died quietly, and the next day a crowd of acquaintances who had come to pay their last respects to the deceased filled the Rostovs’ rented apartment. All these acquaintances, who had dined and danced with him so many times, who had laughed at him so many times, now all with the same feeling of inner reproach and tenderness, as if justifying themselves to someone, said: “Yes, be that as it may, there was a most wonderful Human. You won’t meet such people these days... And who doesn’t have their own weaknesses?..”
It was at a time when the count’s affairs were so confused that it was impossible to imagine how it would all end if it continued for another year, he unexpectedly died.
Nicholas was with the Russian troops in Paris when news of his father's death came to him. He immediately resigned and, without waiting for it, took a vacation and came to Moscow. The state of financial affairs a month after the count's death became completely clear, surprising everyone with the enormity of the amount of various small debts, the existence of which no one suspected. There were twice as many debts as estates.
Relatives and friends advised Nikolai to refuse the inheritance. But Nikolai saw the refusal of the inheritance as an expression of reproach to the sacred memory of his father and therefore did not want to hear about the refusal and accepted the inheritance with the obligation to pay debts.
