Why eunuchs in the real world?

From: Andrew Barton <AndrewBarton_at_...>
Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2001 17:10:13 -0500

The way I heard it, Byzantines had eunuchs in court positions because they could never succeed to the throne themselves, being physically blemished. By a similar principle dynastic rivals could be removed from contention by blinding them, which was more humane than killing them.

Eunuch harem guards were used by the Turkish rulers of Istanbul.

More recently, choristers were castrated so that they remained sopranos.

None of these have anything to do with female rule. The idea that women being in positions of power has anything to do with castrating males seems to be a psychological quirk of our own era.

Andrew