Thesis: Eunuchs are Gay Men

(with a listing of secondary sources)

by Mark Brustman

One day I read in the Bible that Jesus said there were
eunuchs who were born so from their mother's womb.1 To my
knowledge, a eunuch was a man who had been castrated, so
how could he be born that way? As a translator by profession,
I was aware that ideas are sometimes distorted in translation,
and that this was particularly a problem in the Bible. In this
case, the context was about men's obligation to marry, and
these and other kinds of eunuchs were said to be exempt. As
a proud gay man and, at that time, a Christian, I was intrigued
by this. Since I firmly believed (and still do) that I was born
gay and that, on this basis, it would be a bad idea for me to
marry a woman, it occurred to me that a so-called born
eunuch might mean a gay man like myself.2
The common denominator in gay men and castrated men,
which could be the basis for categorizing both groups under
the term eunuch, is that neither one is suitable for marriage.
This indeed was the point of the gospel verse. But in order to
prove beyond a doubt that born eunuchs were gay men, I had
to prove that, like gay men:
(1) born eunuchs could have complete genitals,
(2) they had no lust for women, and
(3) they had lust for men.
There is little agreement nowadays about what causes
sexual orientation and what it consists of. Some say it is a
matter of genetics, others that it is caused by psychological
influences in early childhood. Still others say that it is fluid and
changeable over the course of a person's life. To my mind,
the best way to accommodate all of these ideas within one
system is to say that most people are born bisexual, but a few
are not. Most of the born bisexuals learn to avoid homosexual
interaction. Europeans and Americans are raised to suppress
homosexual erotic impulses, and direct their sexual attention
exclusively to the opposite sex, so their so-called straight
orientation is a result of environmental factors, which can
change over time. Some resist the indoctrination and express
both sides of their sexual nature freely -- these are what our
society calls bisexuals. But a small percentage of people
genetically just don't have the capacity to feel attraction to the
opposite sex. These are the people who say they were born
gay. I am one of them. By the same token, just as few people
lack the capacity to feel attraction to their own sex. In this
culture, these people simply blend in with the majority.
A bisexual in my terminology is anyone who genetically is
able to feel lust for men and women. This describes the
majority of people. What we call a "straight person" is, in most
cases, a bisexual who has been conditioned to avoid acting
on his or her homosexual side. Gay people are monosexuals
who are genetically unable to feel lust for their respective
opposite sex. A few straights are monosexual like gays, in
that they are genetically unable to feel lust for people of their
own sex. I believe this inability has something to do with some
people lacking sexual pheromone receptors for one sex or the
other. The argument I am making in this essay is that men
who were genetically unable to feel lust for women, i.e. what
we call gay men today, were called eunuchs by our pre-
Christian ancestors.
Almost all current dictionaries define a eunuch as a man
missing a crucial part of his reproductive anatomy, either due
to castration or birth defect. But I will show in Section 1 of this
essay that most so-called "eunuchs" in the ancient world were
not anatomically deprived and were able to procreate.
Moreover in Section 2, I show that one of the central defining
characteristics of a eunuch in the ancient world was his lack
of a sexual drive for women, something which is not true of
castrated men. Men who lust after women will continue to do
so even if they are genitally mutilated. Castration may prevent
a straight man from impregnating a woman, but it will not
change his desires. In Section 3, I show that eunuchs were
stereotyped as lustful sex objects for men.

When I began my research back in 1991, I set out to define

the category Jesus had called the "born eunuch," which was
something different from a castrated man, or "man-made
eunuch."
The oldest available version of Matthew is a translation
probably from Aramaic or Hebrew into Greek,3  and the word
used in the Greek translation is eunouchos, from which we
get our word eunuch. Most scholars state that the word
eunouchos comes from eune (bed) and echein (to have), and
claim that it means "one who guards the bed." [Note in 2015: I
have recently become convinced that the real etymology of
eunouchos is not from eune, but rather from eunous ("good-
minded") and echein, and is a contraction of a Greek
expression meaning "to be good in mind; to be loyal, good-
natured."] But Jesus would not have used the Greek word,
since he spoke Aramaic. The Hebrew and Aramaic word for
eunuch is saris, an Assyrian loan word that has been
interpreted to mean "at the head."4  None of these
etymologies ruled out my hypothesis that born eunuchs were,
in general, anatomically whole like gay men. Later I learned
that an ancient Syriac translation of the Bible used the word
mu'omin for eunouchos and saris. Mu'omin means "person of
faith" or "person of trust."
I began a search lasting several years to find proof, either
that a born eunuch was born missing some male reproductive
parts, or that he simply lacked desire for women. The field of
evidence I had to search through consisted of dozens, even
hundreds, of ancient texts in which eunuchs were mentioned.
By analyzing what each author or text said about an individual
eunuch or about the category of eunuchs, I could put all the
texts together and observe the common trends in the way
ancient authors defined eunuchs.
An ancient Roman novel I had read in college, Petronius's
Satyricon, raised an initial theoretical problem for my thesis,
however. The Satyricon is a comic novel about two men
lusting after a teenage boy. Most people today, at least in
Europe and America, would identify them as gay men
because of their homosexual lifestyle, but none of the main
characters called themselves eunuchs. In fact, there are
scads of homosexually active men throughout Greek and
Roman literature who are not called eunuchs. This can be
explained in two ways.
First, homosexual behavior, though disapproved of
particularly for the passive partner, was tolerated a lot more in
ancient Greece and Rome than it has been in modern Europe
and the United States. Significant numbers of Greek and
Roman men appear to have been actively bisexual: having
sex with other men, but also fulfilling their marriage duties. I
hear that is still the custom today in those countries. So it is
possible and even likely that many younger Roman men,
without actually being born gay, avoided the responsibilities of
marriage by pursuing a wholly homosexual lifestyle. This
would certainly fit the carefree character of the protagonists in
the Satyricon. Nothing prevents bisexuals from getting
married, though, so they would not be eunuchs.
On the other hand, unless you wanted a job as a domestic
servant for women or at the imperial court, being known as a
eunuch in Rome entailed no special advantage. On the
contrary, eunuchs were ridiculed in ancient Greece and Rome
like gays are today. Xenophon, the Greek historian of the fifth
century BCE, wrote: "There is not a man in the world who
would not think he had the right to overreach a eunuch." So
even if a man was a born eunuch (and the first-person
narrator of the Satyricon does betray some anxiety about his
own ability to perform with women), he might very well not
want to carry that label.

The first place I looked for evidence about born eunuchs

was a religious reference work called the Theological
Dictionary of the New Testament. The article on the word
eunouchos by Johannes Schneider stated that the Greek
word appeared in two chapters in the New Testament, and
the Hebrew word saris occurred 40 times in the Old
Testament5 (which latter figure I later discovered was an
underestimate). Moreover, Schneider asserted that many men
were called saris in the Old Testament who were not actually
eunuchs, by which he meant to say they were not castrated.
Schneider also mentioned a discussion in the Talmud
concerning differences between born versus man-made
eunuchs.6  Of course, this was just the kind of source text I
was looking for: ancient scholars arguing over what a born
eunuch was. I will present and analyze the evidence that I
found below, but for now I am merely retracing my steps in my
research.
From Schneider I learned of an article  published in
Germany just before World War I, concerning the attitudes of
the early church fathers to eunuchs, and their interpretations
of Matthew 19:12.7 On the "eunuch" shelf at the library, I
found a recent German book on eunuchs in classical Greece
and Rome which provided a list of names of eunuchs. That
book cited another German article concerning the word
eunouchos and related terms in secular Greek and Latin
sources.8  This article referred me to a still another German
article  on eunuchs, with extensive references to ancient
sources, in a nineteenth-century encyclopedia of classical
Greek and Roman historical figures and literature.9  I
compiled a list of over 500 classical references to eunuchs
from these German secondary sources, and I determined to
look up as many as I could get hold of.
Thank goodness, German is my second language. I could
never have gotten off the ground with this project if I did not
know German. Whatever else you might say about Germany,
it has produced some thorough and conscientious scholars. I
am grateful that some of them chose to direct their attention to
eunuchs. Thank goodness, too, that I took Greek and Latin in
college, and that my alma mater is U.C. Berkeley, which has
one of the world's greatest libraries and grants borrowing
privileges to its alumni.
I collected references to eunuchs in the Bible using
Young's Analytical Concordance to the Bible, finding forty-five
rather than forty Old Testament verses containing the word
saris,10  in addition to the two New Testament chapters
referring to eunuchs.11 Later I also found eight apocryphal
verses using the word eunouchos.12 I had to learn a little
Hebrew to look up the Old Testament references.
None of the Bible verses indicated that eunuchs were
castrated. And a verse about castration, Deuteronomy 23:1,
said nothing about eunuchs. What's more, looking in the
concordance, I discovered something very strange. The King
James Version translates saris variously as chamberlain,
eunuch, officer, or as a proper name Rabsaris (literally "chief
eunuch"). As a translator, I was appalled at the inconsistency,
which to me smacked of a cover-up of some kind. I checked
Martin Luther, who translated the German Bible. He was more
consistent in his mistranslation, using Kämmerer or
Erzkämmerer (chamberlain or head chamberlain) in every
single case except Isaiah 56:3-5 and Matthew 19:12. In
Matthew, Martin Luther translates the born eunuch category
as "es sind etliche verschnitten, die sind aus Mutterleibe also
geboren" or in English, "there are some cut (!) who are born
so from their mother's womb." Ouch!
Schneider's article offered an explanation, albeit somewhat
implausible, for the inconsistency in translation. He said that
the term saris had a dual meaning, with the other being
"palace official." Apparently, sarisim had participated in
religious rites (Jeremiah 34:19), which would be impossible if
they were castrated. Deuteronomy 23:1 says castrated men
cannot enter the congregation of the Lord. Therefore, modern
religious scholars, assuming all eunuchs were castrated,
concluded that a saris must not necessarily be a eunuch. But
Isaiah 56:3-5 and Matthew 19:12 clearly imply that the
procreative ability of a saris is compromised somehow. It
sounds unlikely to me that a term that implies one is not fully
male would also be used to cover ordinary men, especially
when there were other perfectly good words for palace
officials. I see no reason why those sarisim participating in
religious rites could not be uncastrated, born eunuchs.

From Greece, Rome, and the Bible, I expanded my search

for eunuchs to other ancient cultures and spiritual traditions,
and some of my most helpful resources were the following.
A friend of mine who studies ancient Egypt turned me on
to a book about the Egyptian mythical figure Seth,13  which
provided several references to articles about homosexuality
and eunuchs in ancient Egypt.
Bernadette Brooten's Love Between Women provided
references to ancient astrologists who wrote about eunuchs
and other homosexuals.14
David Greenberg's The Construction of Homosexuality
referred to a French-language article on homosexuality in an
encyclopedia about the Sumero-Babylonian and Assyrian
cultures.15 That and another article  from the same
encyclopedia, on eunuchs,16 provided important references.
Greenberg's book, an exhaustive cross-cultural history of
homosexuality, also contained references to eunuchs and
third-gender roles in traditional African communities which
paralleled the understanding of eunuchs in ancient Middle
Eastern cultures.17 [Since composing this website, I found a
great new book on Africa edited by Stephen O. Murray and
Will Roscoe, Boy-Wives and Female Husbands: Studies in
African Homosexualities, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998.]
In addition, while studying circumcision rituals (which I
have come to believe are derived from a primeval association
between holiness and a diminished capacity for sexual
pleasure), I came across an anthropological report of a
spiritual role reserved for unmanly men among the Mbo
people of Zaire.
[Also since first posting this website, I was introduced to
the work of Malidoma and Sobonfu Somé, a married couple
who both come from the town of Dano in Burkina Faso and
write about Dagara rituals and spirituality for a broad
audience. Sobonfu Somé's book The Spirit of Intimacy:
Ancient Teachings in the Ways of Relationships contains a
chapter on "Homosexuality: The Gatekeepers," in which she
writes, "Gatekeepers are people who live a life at the edge
between two worlds -- the world of the village and the world of
the spirit."]
Murray and Roscoe's Islamic Homosexualities and Shaun
Marmon's Eunuchs and Sacred Boundaries in Islamic
Society, as well as the Encyclopedia of Islam, provided
references to eunuchs in Islam.
Zia Jaffrey's recent study of eunuchs currently living in
India,18 and a psychological study called The Life Style of the
Eunuchs,19 provided insight into the lives of contemporary
Indian eunuchs as well as references to traditional Indian
sources.
An early twentieth-century book by Richard Millant, entitled
Les Eunuques à travers les Ages or "eunuchs across the
ages," gave some juicy anecdotes, but not enough references
to primary sources. Like most modern scholars, Millant was
operating from an assumption that being a eunuch meant
being castrated. Without being able to check his sources for
myself, I could not challenge his interpretations. Eventually,
though, I found many of Millant's sources through the German
articles and other secondary sources.
Taisuke Mitamura's Chinese Eunuchs: The Structure of
Intimate Politics was also stingy with footnotes, and anyway I
could not check its references for lack of translations of the
original sources into European languages. Mitamura did
mention a nineteenth-century article on Chinese eunuchs by a
European named G. Carter Stent ("Chinese Eunuchs," in
Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic
Society, New Series No. 11, Shanghai, 1877, pp. 143-184),
who, like Millant, provides lots of interesting references, but
also assumes that eunuchs are defined by castration.

From these works, I have gathered several hundred

ancient references to eunuchs, and over the course of seven
years, I have assiduously looked up the primary sources in
order to determine whether eunuchs, or born eunuchs, met
my three definitive criteria for gay men. I checked primary
sources in their original languages whenever my language
skills permitted, that is in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and to
some extent Egyptian and Akkadian. For ancient Indian
sources, I relied on translations,20 but they supported my
findings in Middle Eastern and Western sources.
Most of the references neither proved nor disproved my
hypothesis. The pre-Christian ancient writers were never
specific in defining a eunuch as lacking a penis and/or
testicles. Many of them made vague allusions to an
imperfection, lack of power, femininity, or impotence, which
did not exclude either genital deformity or a gay man's kind of
impotence with women. A lot of them merely mentioned that a
particular person was a eunuch, period. Although I was
sometimes discouraged during the first few years because of
not finding definitive proof that eunuchs and gay men shared
the same characteristics, the very fact that hundreds of
references did not exclude my hypothesis was cumulatively
encouraging. With the overwhelming number of sources
failing to specify that eunuchs were castrated, it seemed that I
only needed to find one eunuch with a full set of genitals to
throw the burden of proof off of my hypothesis and onto the
opposite view.
The evidence I eventually found was tailor-made to prove
my hypothesis. Eunuchs as a category were able to procreate
(except "if someone is a eunuch in such a way that he lacks a
necessary part of his body"), and they had a sexual aversion
to women and an attraction to men. Moreover, the early Indo-
European cultures attacked them with the same kind of
negative stereotypes that are inflicted on gay men today. But
even more interesting was the reverence and appreciation
enjoyed by eunuchs in many non-Indo-European ancient
cultures, for which eunuchs/homosexuals assumed priestly
roles.
In the following I will bring the citations that were most
relevant to proving my thesis. First, I will present quotes from
ancient works indicating -- and even stating categorically --
that eunuchs could procreate. Then I will present quotes to
the effect that eunuchs avoided sexual interaction with women
or were impotent with them. This abstinence with respect to
women was actually what defined the eunuch in the ancient
mind, so the category covered not only gay men but any man
who was unable or unwilling to have sex with women. Thirdly,
lest the religious homophobes try to insist eunuchs are simply
impotents and sexual abstainers, I also bring quotes
demonstrating that eunuchs were known for sexually pursuing
and accommodating other men. Thus eunuchs are gay men,
and gay men are eunuchs.
Think about it. Jesus spoke specifically about gay men in
Matthew 19:12. He even said people might become eunuchs
for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He did not anywhere
say eunuchs should avoid their own kind of sexual
expression. The church's condemnation of gay sexuality thus
falls into the same category as its former hatred of straight
sexuality, namely the category of irrelevance. In fact, you
could even call it complicity in genocide, given the number of
gay people who have been tortured and killed, either by the
church or with its condonation.
A lot of the ancient authors and works mentioned on this
website are unfamiliar even to well-educated people who are
not specialists in religious history, the Greek and Roman
classics, and ancient multicultural literature. I would like for
this research to be meaningful to a broad spectrum of people,
and for that to be possible, it has to be easy for people of all
walks of life to follow. The argument I am making is dividing
into three sections. As stated above, the first section includes
quotes that show their authors felt eunuchs could procreate.
The second section contains quotes showing that their
authors felt eunuchs were impotent with or sexually turned off
to women. The third section includes quotes from authors
attesting to the frequent sexual interaction between eunuchs
and other men.
What I intend to prove with these quotes is that people
living thousands of years ago all across Europe and Asia
acknowledged a certain category of men as different from the
norm; that their difference consisted in the fact that they had
no sex drive toward women, while they did enjoy sex with
other men; and that their difference was conceived of as
natural and inborn. I will bring also evidence that some
cultures recognized that there were women who by nature
had no lust for men. In sum, I intend to prove that gay men
and women existed in the ancient world as categories
distinguished from the norm.
I welcome any questions that readers may have. You can
direct them to my email address at <aquarius@well.com>.
Please read on!
Go on to Section 1: Eunuchs are Able to Procreate --- Table
of Contents --- Home

Footnotes
1 Matthew 19:12. "For there are some eunuchs who are born
so from their mother's womb, and some eunuchs who are
eunuchized by men, and some eunuchs who eunuchize
themselves for the sake of the kingdom of the heavens. Let
him who is able to receive it, receive it." Greek: "Eisin gar
eunouchoi hoitines ek koilias mêtros egennêthêsan houtôs,
kai eisin eunouchoi hoitines eunouchisthêsan hupo tôn
anthrôpôn, kai eisin eunouchoi hoitines eunouchisan
heautous dia tên basileian tôn ouranôn. ho dunamenos
chôrein chôreitô."
2 During my research I found that John J. McNeill had put
forth the same idea in a book which ultimately resulted in his
expulsion from the Catholic priesthood. He said about
Matthew 19:12: "The first category -- those eunuchs who have
been so from birth -- is the closest description we have in the
Bible of what we understand today as a homosexual." (John
J. McNeill, The Church and the Homosexual, Fourth edition,
Boston: Beacon Press, 1993, p. 65. First edition: 1976.) Later
in the spring of 1996, in the midst of a scandal at my
mainstream Baptist church when some gay members came
out, I finally wrote out a version of my thesis to show to some
of my ministers. They were intrigued but not convinced. Within
a couple months, I came across a book by Rev. Nancy Wilson
of MCC-LA that put forward almost exactly the same
arguments as I had put in my essay at the time (Rev. Nancy
Wilson, Our Tribe: Queer folks, God, Jesus, and the Bible,
San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1995).
3 For the Greek text of Matthew, I used The NRSV-NIV
Parallel New Testament in Greek and English, with interlinear
translation by Alfred Marshall, Grand Rapids: Zondervan,
1990. This book uses the Greek text of the 21st edition of
Eberhard Nestle's Novum Testamentum Graece.

4 Bruno Meissner and Wolfram von Soden, Akkadisches

Handwörterbuch, Vol. II, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz,
1965, p. 973b, under the word resu. This is a dictionary of
Akkadian, the parent language to Assyrian and Babylonian.
5 Johannes Schneider, "Eunouchos, Eunouchizo," in
Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Vol. II, Gerhard
Kittel, ed., Geoffrey W. Bromiley, tr., Grand Rapids: Wm. B.
Eerdmanns, 1985, p. 766.
6 Yebamoth VIII, folios 79b-84a. Yebamoth is one of the
books of the Talmud. The Talmud is a collection of legal
pronouncements, called the mishnah, made by certain
authoritative ancient Jewish rabbis, as well as interpretations
of these pronouncements, called the gemara, made by later
rabbis.
7 Walter Bauer, "Matth. 19:12 und die alten Christen," in
Neutestamentliche Studien Georg Heinrici zu seinem 70.
Geburtstag (14. März 1914) dargebracht, Leipzig: J.C.
Hinrick'sche Buchhandlung, 1914, pp. 235-244. Available in
translation on this website by clicking here. Use "back" button
to return here.
8 Peter Guyot, Eunuchen als Sklaven und Freigelassene in
der griechisch-römichen Antike, Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1980.
Ernst Maass, "Eunouchos und Verwandtes," in Rheinisches
Museum für Philologie 74 (1925), pp. 432-476.
9 Arnold Hug, "Eunuchen," in Pauly-Wissowa,
Realencyclopaedie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft,
Supplement III, Stuttgart: Metzler, 1958, cols. 449-455.
Available in translation on this website by clicking here. Use
"back" button to return here.
10 Robert Young, Analytical Concordance to the Bible,
Hendrickson Publishers, p. 42 of Index-Lexicon (saris), p. 791
of Analytical Concordance (Rabsaris). The forty-five verses
are: Genesis 37:36, 39:1, 40:2, 40:7; 1 Samuel 8:15; 1 Kings
22:9; 2 Kings 8:6, 9:32, 18:17, 20:18, 23:11, 24:12, 24:15,
25:19; 1 Chronicles 28:1; 2 Chronicles 18:8; Esther 1:10,
1:12, 1:15, 2:3, 2:14, 2:15, 2:21, 4:4, 4:5, 6:2, 6:14, 7:9; Isaiah
39:7, 56:3, 56:4; Jeremiah 29:2, 34:19, 38:7, 39:3, 39:13;
41:16; 52:25; Daniel 1:3, 1:7-11, 1:18. Available on this
website by clicking here. Use "back" button to return here.
11 Matthew 19:12; Acts 8:26-39.
12 Judith 12:11; Additions to Esther 12:1, 12:3, 12:6; 3
Maccabees 6:30; Wisdom of Solomon 3:14; Wisdom of Sirach
20:4, 30:20.
13 H. Te Velde, Seth, God of Confusion: A Study of his Role
in Egyptian Mythology and Religion, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1967,
especially Chapter 2: Seth, the Enemy and Friend of Horus.
14 Bernadette J. Brooten, Love Between Women: Early
Christian Responses to Female Homoeroticism, Chicago:
University of Chicago, 1996, especially Chapter 4:
Predetermined Erotic Orientations: Astrological Texts.
15 J. Bottero and H. Petschow, "Homosexualität," in Erich
Ebeling and Bruno Meissner, eds., Reallexikon der
Assyriologie und vorderasiatischen Archäologie, Vol. 4. Berlin:
Walter de Gruyter, 1975, pp. 459-68. Although the
alphabetization of this encyclopedia is in German, this
particular article is in French. Available in translation on this
website by clicking here. Use "back" button to return here.
16 G. Meier, "Eunuch," in ibid., Vol. 2, pp. 485-486. This
article is in German. Available in translation on this website by
clicking here. Use "back" button to return here.
17 David F. Greenberg, The Construction of Homosexuality,
Chicago: University of Chicago, 1988. The reference to the
article by Bottero and Petschow is on page 126. Greenberg
discusses Assyrian and Babylonian eunuchs in Chapter 3:
"Inequality and the State: Homosexual Innovations in Archaic
Civilizations" and Chapter 4: "Early Civilizations: Variations on
Homosexual Themes." He discusses homosexuality in Africa
on pp. 60-62 in Chapter 2: "Homosexual Relations in Kinship-
Structured Societies."
18 Zia Jaffrey, The Invisibles: A Tale of the Eunuchs of India,
New York: Pantheon, 1996. This is a very interesting book by
an Indian-American woman from New York who went to live
and study in India for a period of time. One day at a wedding
there, she became intrigued by some strange men dressed in
women's clothing who showed up on the doorstep of the
reception and sang songs for money. She began researching
their lives and cultural heritage, and wrote this book about
what she discovered.
19 Yogesh Shingala Vyas, M.D., The Life Style of the
Eunuchs, New Delhi: Anmol Publications; Delhi: Distributed
by Anupama Publishers and Distributors, 1987. This is a
study intended to inspire social policy initiatives to help Indian
eunuchs, who are called hijras. Hijras are gay men and
transgenders usually from rural areas, who join or are brought
by their parents to houses of eunuchs in nearby urban areas.
By tradition they let themselves be castrated, which is a
holdover from the requirement of medieval royal courts that all
eunuchs be man-made eunuchs. Both this book and Jaffrey's
book indicated that the younger generation of hijras has
grown resistant to the castration tradition, and it is being done
less and less.
20 The Laws of Manu, with an introduction and notes,
translated by Wendy Doniger with Brian K. Smith, New York:
Penguin, 1991. Vatsyayana, Das Kamasutram des
Vatsyayana, Dr. Ferdinand Leiter und Dr. Hans H. Thal, eds.,
Vienna: Verlag Schneider & Co., 1929. Dr. Magnus
Hirschfeld, the founder of the Institute for Sexual Research in
Berlin and an early leader in the German gay rights
movement, wrote a foreword to this "first complete German
edition" of the Kamasutra.

Section 1: Eunuchs are able to

procreate
In the section of the ancient Roman Digest of Laws
dealing with women's claims on their dowries, the Roman
jurist Ulpian faces the issue of marriages between women and
eunuch slaves. He says: "If a woman marries a eunuch, I
think that a distinction must be drawn whether he has been
castrated or not, because in the case of a castrated man,
there is no dowry; if the person has not been castrated, then
there can be a marriage, and so there is a dowry, and a claim
on it."21  I suppose the reason a non-castrated eunuch can
get married is because he can procreate.
As helpful as this statement is, Ulpian ultimately provided
an even more explicit, in fact indisputable, proof of the first
point of my argument, namely that eunuchs had complete
genitals. Two sentences of Roman law, by themselves, prove
that typically eunuchs were able to procreate; they prove that
they were not missing any "necessary parts." This was the
proof I was looking for. It took me seven years to find, yet it is
available on any law school library's reference shelf.
In a discussion of defects in slaves that must be reported
to buyers in advance by slave dealers, Ulpian states that "to
me it appears the better view that a eunuch is not diseased or
defective, but healthy, just like a man with one testicle who is
also able to procreate."22 The issue here is whether a
eunuch slave is capable of performing all the normal
functions, in this case producing offspring. Ulpian states that a
eunuch's imperfection, like that of a man with one testicle,
does not prevent him from procreating. Just to make sure
everything is perfectly clear, another jurist Paulus states right
afterward: "If someone is a eunuch in such a way that he
lacks a necessary part of his body, even internally, then he is
diseased."23 Therefore, the undiseased, undefective form of
eunuch mentioned by Ulpian, who is able to procreate just like
a one-testicled man, is not missing any necessary parts of his
body.

These distinctions reflect the fact that, as Ulpian states,

"eunuch is a general designation: the term encompasses
eunuchs-by-nature, then thladiae and thlibiae, and any other
kind of eunuch."24 Thladiae and thlibiae are derived from
words for crushing or abrading,25 so those words are
standing in for the man-made eunuch. Then in another
section on murderers, Paulus states that "those who make
thlibiae are in the same position [i.e. subject to the penalty for
murder] as those who castrate."26  So Ulpian has listed the
three types of eunuchs almost exactly in parallel to the way
Jesus did: born, man-made, and other, with the typical -- born
-- eunuch being able to procreate.
Despite the misinterpretations of Western historians, the
eunuch type, considered impotent and safe with women, has
been known nonetheless since earliest times to be technically
capable of procreating.
Three provisions in the Code of Hammurabi refer to
adoption involving "the son of a girsequ" (eunuch) or "the son
of a salzikrum" (a compound word "male woman", probably
signifying a butch lesbian).27  Geoffrey Driver28 and D.D.
Luckenbill29  both interpret this to mean the adopted son of a
eunuch or male woman. But while the word for adoptee
(tarbitum) is used in adjacent legal provisions, the standard
word for son (dumu) is used for the child of the eunuch and
the child of the male woman. Therefore the child is the natural
child of the eunuch or of the male woman, which means the
eunuch and the male woman are able to procreate. The law
states that, unlike the case for some other children, the
adoption of a son of a eunuch or male woman is irreversible,
and it places severe corporal punishments on adoptees who
attempt to circumvent these laws by contesting their
adoptions. This is likely because the social roles of the
eunuch and the male woman hinged on their not having
families.

In the Kamasutra and the Laws of Manu, a type of man is

mentioned who is said to be a "member of the third sex."30 
He is called a klibá. In the index to her translation of the Laws,
Wendy Doniger defines a klibá as "a sexually dysfunctional
man, who might be, according to the context, impotent,
homosexual, a transvestite, or, in some cases, a man with
mutilated or defective sexual organs."31 In Laws IX, 201-203,
a klibá is excluded from inheritance rights, although a wise
father is encouraged to provide clothing and food for a son
who is a klibá, in order to keep him from "falling." However, it
is said that if a klibá "should somehow desire" a wife, then
"the children of those of them that produce offspring have a
right to an inheritance." Here Doniger adds a note: "Unless
kliba is taken to mean 'homosexual,' 'somehow' might indicate
appointing another man to produce a child in the husband's
field."32 I find it implausible that a stranger's child would have
a right to an inheritance that a man's own son was excluded
from. The klibá has to be a homosexual: capable of
procreating, but unlikely to desire a wife. The Kamasutra
provides evidence that klibá status could be denied and thus
was not verifiable by inspection, that it connoted non-male
status, and that klibás enjoyed performing oral sex on men.33
Moreover, klibás came in two varieties, effeminate and
masculine, with the effeminate klibás imitating women in
everything including clothing and speech, while the masculine
klibás "kept their practices secret."34 Klibás were known to
have intercourse with female prostitutes if they wanted to
"pass for male."35
In the Talmud, Rabbi Eliezer asserts that eunuchs by
nature (saris chmeh) can be cured, as opposed to man-made
eunuchs (saris adam), who cannot.36  This would seem to
rule out an anatomical birth defect. The later rabbis discuss
how a natural eunuch can be identified, and the discussion is
really quite funny. Lateness or absence of pubic hair, the fact
that his urine does not form an arch, the absence of a beard,
the softness of his hair, the smoothness of his skin, the lack of
froth in his urine, the wateriness of his semen, the lack of
fermentation of his urine, the fact that his body does not
steam after bathing in the wintertime, and finally the fact that
his voice is so abnormal that one cannot distinguish whether it
is that of a man or a woman: these are all the characteristics
of a natural eunuch the rabbis could think of.37 None of their
tests involves checking for the presence of anatomical defects
in reproductive organs. In fact, the eunuch is said to produce
semen, albeit watery. Moreover, the tests seem calculated to
prevent the identification of any natural eunuchs. After all,
whose body does not steam after a bath in the wintertime?

The Greek fabulist Babrios relates the story of a eunuch

who went to a fortune teller to ask about his prospects for
having a child. The fortune teller examines the sacrificial liver
and scoffs: "When I look at this, it tells me you'll be a father;
but when I look into your face, you seem to be not even a
male."38 The point of the fable is that eunuchs, even though
effeminate, can become fathers -- in spite of popular
misconceptions.
Clement of Alexandria warned Christians against the evils
of eunuch servants being placed in charge of women,
because they will act as pimps for the women, and moreover,
"the true eunuch is not unable, but unwilling to have sex."39
In other words, the women might get the eunuchs to sleep
with them, as seen in Juvenal40  and Martial41 and at the
beginning of the Arabian Nights.42
The astrologer Firmicus Maternus said that "if the Moon is
with Venus in earth signs, and Venus exchanges terms with
Saturn, still with the influence of Jupiter lacking, eunuchs will
be produced, but they will have intercourse with women."43
Japanese author Taisuke Mitamura mentioned that some
Chinese eunuchs tried to regain their male powers:
"There were also bold eunuchs who tried to regain
sexual potency. Eunuch Lao Ts'ai
whose name was cursed by the people of Fukien
Province because he was extremely
harsh in collecting taxes, illustrates this. At the
advice of a necromancer, he reportedly
killed virgin boys and ate their brains in a desperate
attempt to reproduce his genitals.
This method was apparently popular among
eunuchs of high rank, for ... arch-villian
Wei Chung Hsien did the same after executing
seven criminals."44

Such a practice is bizarre enough without the characterization

of its motive, namely that he wanted to "reproduce" his
genitals. This may be more an illustration of ignorance, either
on the part of Mitamura or of Pomeroy the translator, about
what constituted a eunuch. If I could look at the original text, I
might well find it says something like "in an attempt to enliven
his genitals" or something similar. To a believer in magic, a
mysterious affliction like impotency would seem much more
amenable to cure than an anatomical mutilation. For example,
the Atharvaveda gives various methods using herbs and
incantations for curing impotency or causing it in a rival.45
Citing a late nineteenth century article on Chinese eunuchs
by G. Carter Stent, Mitamura also notes that:
"There was a distinction between those who were
deprived of their sex in childhood and
those who gave it up in their manhood. The latter
were called ching or cheng, both words
meaning 'pure of body,' and the former were called
t'ung cheng, which meant 'pure from
birth.' Favored by the court ladies, the t'ung cheng
had no work assigned to them and
behaved like young girls."46
If the t'ung cheng were castrated little boys, then far from
acting like young girls, I would think they would behave like
depressed trauma victims. I also fail to see why they would be
called pure from birth. Modern mistranslations and
misinterpretations in texts involving eunuchs are rampant, as I
discovered in my research. This is why I always look at
primary source texts whenever possible. What is most
interesting here is that the Chinese also conceived of a born
eunuch.
In his article "Chinese Eunuchs" (p. 177), Stent says the
t'ung cheng are "boys who are made eunuchs when under ten
years of age." Accordingly, he translates t'ung cheng as
"thoroughly pure" rather than "pure from birth." I do not speak
Chinese and cannot judge which translation is more literally
correct, but I do give Mitamura more credit than the late
nineteenth-century British colonialist, who had claimed at the
start of his essay that "eunuchs are only to be found in
eastern despotic countries, the enlightening influence of
Christianity preventing such unnatural proceedings being
practiced in the countries which profess it." His perhaps willful
ignorance of Christian history shows Stent to be unreliable as
an interpreter. In any case, even Stent notes that the t'ung
cheng "are supposed to be free from the least licentiousness
-- even in thought; -- in fact, they are considered to be devoid
of all feeling of that kind whatever."

Go on to Section 2: Eunuchs Have No Lust for Women --

Table of Contents -- Home

Footnotes
21 Digest, Book XXIII 3.39.1. Latin: "Si spadoni mulier
nubserit, distinguendum arbitror, castratus fuerit necne, ut in
castrato dicas dotem non esse: in eo qui castratus non est,
quia est matrimonium, et dos et dotis actio est." For English
translations of Roman and Byzantine laws, see Samuel
Parsons Scott, The Civil Law, 17 volumes in 7, New York:
AMS Press, 1973; or Theodor Mommsen, Paul Krueger, and
Alan Watson, eds., The Digest of Justinian, Philadelphia,
1985.
22 Digest, Book XXI 1.6.2. Latin: "Spadonem morbosum non
esse neque vitiosum verius mihi videtur, sed sanem esse,
sicuti illum, qui unum testiculum habet, qui etiam generare
potest."
23 Digest, Book XXI 1.7. Latin: "Sin autem quis ita spado est,
ut tam necessaria pars corporis et penitus absit, morbosus
est."
24 Digest, Book L 16.28. Latin: "Spadonum generalia
appellatio est: quo nomine tam hi, qui natura spadones sunt,
item thlibiae thlasiae, sed et si quod aliud genus spadonum
est, continentur."
25 Maass, ibid., pp. 450-452.
26 Digest, Book XLVIII 8.5. Latin: "Hi quoque, qui thlibias
faciunt ... in eadem causa sunt, qua hi qui castrant."
27 Code of Hammurabi, §§ 187, 192, 193.
28 G.R. Driver and John C. Miles, eds., The Babylonian Laws,
with translation and commentary, Vol. II, Oxford: Clarendon,
1955, pp. 74-77, 245. (Driver uses the word epicene, which is
an intersexed person, for salzikrum. But I will use the phrase
"male woman", as a more literal and unprejudicial translation.)

29 "Appendix 2: The Code of Hammurabi," tr. by D.D.

Luckenbill, edited by E. Chiera, in John Merlin Powis Smith,
The Origin and History of Hebrew Law, Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1931, 1960 printing.
30 Kamasutra, II 9. The German translation by Leiter and
Thal, p. 78, gives: "...dieser Angehörigen des dritten
Geschlechts." English: "...of these members of the third sex."
31 Doniger, ibid., p. 328.
32 Doniger, ibid., p. 220, note 203.
33 Kamasutra, II 9. "Eunuchs get particular pleasure from oral
sex, as well as their livelihood." German: "Die Eunuchen
finden an dem Mundkoitus ein eingebildetes Vergnügen wie
ihren Lebensunterhalt."
34 Kamasutra, II 9. "Eunuchs of the masculine type keep their
practices secret." German: "Die Eunuchen männlichen Typus
halten ihre Praktiken geheim."
35 Kamasutra, VI 1. "Men with whom a courtisan should have
intercourse only for money are the following: ... A eunuch who
wants to be considered a male." German: "Männer mit denen
eine Kurtisane nur wegen des Verdienstes Umgang haben
soll, sind diese: ... Ein Eunuche, der für einen Vollmann gelten
will."
36 Yebamoth, VIII 79b. The translation I referred to was
Yebamoth, tr. by Dr. Israel W. Slotki, vol. II, London: Soncino
Press, 1936.
37 Yebamoth, VIII 80b. The parallel to the saris among
females is the ailonit. Her identifying marks, according to the
rabbis, are: lateness or absence of pubic hair growth, lack of
breasts, pain during copulation, lack of a mons veneris, and
finally, the fact that her voice is so deep that one cannot
distinguish whether it is that of a man or a woman.

38 Babrios fable 54, in Babrius and Phaedrus, newly edited

and translated into English by Ben Edwin Berry, Cambridge,
Harvard University Press, 1965, pp. 70-71. Greek: "hotan
men taut' idô, patêr ginê, hotan de tên sên opsin, oud' anêr
phainê."
39 Clement of Alexandria, Paedagogus, III 4.25. Greek:
"Eunouchos de alêthês, ouch ho mê dunamenos, all' ho mê
boulomenos philêdein." See the translation by Simon P.
Wood in Christ the Educator, New York: Fathers of the
Church, 1954. Anyone interested in reading some hilarious
ancient expressions of homophobia will get a kick out of
Clement. In Chapter 3 of Book III, Clement castigates the
customs and morals of effete men who try to beautify
themselves by, among other things, shaving their beards. For
Greek texts of early Christian writers, see Jean Paul Migne,
Patrologia Graeca. The sections of Clement which I quote
herein are in volume VIII.
40 Juvenal, Satires, VI 366-380. English: "There are women
who like the ineffective eunuchs because their kisses are
always soft and they don't have beards and because an
abortive drug is not necessary." Latin: "Sunt quas eunuchi
inbelles ac mollia semper oscula delectent et desperatio
barbae et quod abortivo non est opus." These stereotypes
about eunuchs (and gay men) as being beardless and sterile
persist to this day. A biology teacher in high school told me
and my classmates that a lack of male hormones would make
a man "fruity."
41 Martial VI 67. English: "You ask, Pannychus, while your
Celia has so many eunuchs? Celia wants to have sex without
appearing to." Latin: "Cur tantum eunuchos habeat tua Caelia
quaeritis, Pannyche? Futui velut Caelia nec parere."
42 In the first chapter of the Arabian Nights, the brother of a
king witnesses from a window twenty slaves in women's
clothing, ten white and ten black, remove their clothing to
reveal ten black men and ten white women, who begin having
sex; meanwhile the king's wife begins having sex with a black
slave as well. The Arabian Nights, translated by Husain
Haddawy, New York: W.W. Norton, 1990, p. 5.
43 Julius Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis, VII 25.17. Translated
in Ancient Astrology: Theory and Practice = Matheseos libri
VIII, translated by Jean Rhys Bram, Park Ridge, NJ: Noyes
Press, 1975.
44 Taisuke Mitamura, Chinese Eunuchs: The Structure of
Intimate Politics, tr. by Charles A. Pomeroy, Rutland, VT: C.E.
Tuttle Co., 1970, p. 123.
45 Book VI 138. Atharva-Veda Samhita, tr. by William Dwight
Whitney, vol. I, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1962, p. 384.
"Thou art listened to, O herb, as the most best of plants; make
thou now this man for me impotent (klibá), opaça-wearing.
[The opaçá is some head-ornament worn distinctively by
women.]" Also in VII 90: "Hew on, after ancient fashion, as it
were the knot of a creeper; destroy the potency of the
barbarian. We, by Indra's aid, will share among us that
collected treasure of his. By Varuna's law, I enfeeble the
vigour of thy member. So that the penis may go off, and may
not be enjoying among women, of one who is not at ease,
confounded with trouble, peg-like, penetrating. What is
stretched up, that do thou stretch down." And for regaining
virility, see IV 4 : "Here we dig thee, a penis-erecting herb! For
Varuna whose virility was lost the Gandharva dug thee. Let
the Dawn be up, up be the Sun, and let these words of mine
be up. Let the virile Creator, the bull, be up with invigorating
energy. As art thou [the patient] being healed up, forsooth this
(penis) stirs as if heated (with passion) -- more full of energy
than that let this herb make for thee. Let it (the penis) be up,
(in the name of) the potency of herbs -- the quintessence of
bulls; O Indra, do thou put together in this person the virility of
men. Thou art (the plant) the first-born sap of the waters,
likewise of the forest tress; also Soma's brother art thou; also
virility art thou of the stag. I make thy penis taut, like a bow-
string on a bow; ride, as thou wert a stag a doe, always
unrelaxingly. Now, Agni! now, Savitar! now, goddess
Sarasvati! now, Brahmanaspati! make (this) member taut like
a bow. O body-charming (herb)! do thou put in this person the
vigours what are of the horse, of the mule, of the he-goat and
of the ram, moreover of the bull." The translations of the last
two citations came from Dr. P.K. Agrawala, tr., The Unknown
Kamasutras, Varanasi: Books Asia, 1983, pp. 219-223.
46 Mitamura, p. 37. The article is G. Carter Stent, "Chinese
Eunuchs," in Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal
Asiatic Society, New Series No. 11, Shanghai, 1877, pp.
143-184.

Section 2: Eunuchs Have No Lust

for Women

The next question is, if natural eunuchs can procreate,

what makes them eunuchs? Perhaps it is because they are
naturally disinclined to have sex with women. The quotations
from ancient authors listed below are intended to demonstrate
that eunuchs were sexually turned off by women.
Before I give the ancient sources about eunuchs' lack of
sexual drive toward women, I would like to support my view of
homosexuality as an absence of desire by quoting the
definitions offered by the late nineteenth century homosexual
advocates and sex researchers. For the early identifiers of a
homosexual type, a consistent sexual aversion to the opposite
sex was perhaps more important a symptom of homosexual
identity than was attraction to one's own sex, because until
homosexual attraction in itself was made an indicator of
mental illness, homosexual desire was assumed (in the West)
to be part of a grab bag of sexual transgressions that any
person might fall for. Homosexual attraction alone did not
make one homosexual -- it was when the attraction was
overwhelming and irresistible (because it was the person's
only option for sexual fulfillment) that the person was defined
as a homosexual.
In his 1869 pamphlet in which he coined the term
homosexual, Karl Maria Benkert described the "homosexual
drive" as follows:
... along with the normal-sexual drive of all of
humanity and of the animal kingdom,
Nature appears in its sovereign caprice to have also
provided, in both man and
woman, the homosexual drive to certain male or
female individuals at birth; to have
conferred on them a sexual constraint which makes
the one afflicted by it both
physically and mentally incapable of achieving a
normal-sexual [i.e. heterosexual]
erection, even with the best of intentions, thus it
implies a sheer horror of the opposite
sex, and it makes it likewise impossible for those
afflicted by this passion to escape
the impression that certain individuals of their own
sex exert upon them.
[Magnus Hirschfeld, Die Homosexualität des
Mannes und des Weibes, (Berlin,
1914), p. 1.]
Benkert, who was a lawyer, not a psychologist, was not
bound by rules of scientific precision, and he excessively
generalized the "horror" felt by some gay men and lesbians
concerning heterosexual intercourse. Many gay men can
obtain erections with women if they try, and many lesbians
have had satisfying sexual relationships with men in their
lives. Moreover, although another German lawyer and pioneer
theorist of homophilia, Karl Ulrichs, also considered a feeling
of horror about sexual contact with women to be a sufficient
defining trait for one of his "urnings" (Ulrich's term for
homosexual men), in a footnote he admitted that "this horror
is apparently not always to be found. But where it is present, it
is defining." [Karl Ulrichs, Memnon: Die Geschlechtsnatur des
mannliebenden Urnings (Schleiz, 1868), p. 63.]
Still, the basic idea is affirmed also by more systematic
observers in the psychological sciences. In an 1892 article on
the "Explanation of Contrary Sexual Feeling," Richard von
Krafft-Ebing stated that:
In its full expression ... each one is attracted to
persons of their own sex and
possesses an inclination to have sexual intercourse
with them, while persons
of the other sex have a psychosexually repulsive
effect.
[Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Der Conträrsexuale vor
dem Strafrichter. Eine Denkschrift
von R. Freiherr v. Krafft-Ebing, second expanded
edition (Leipzig and Vienna, 1895).]
In 1898, Havelock Ellis found that "a certain proportion [of
homosexually active adolescent boys] remain insensitive to
the influence of women, and these may be regarded as true
sexual inverts." [Havelock Ellis, "Sexual Inversion," Part IV of
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, vol. I (New York, 1942), p.
81.]
Meanwhile Sigmund Freud, in a 1905 work Drei
Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie, described the "absolutely
inverted," i.e. homosexual, type (as opposed to the
"amphigenously inverted," i.e. bisexual, and the "occasionally
inverted," such as prison inmates) in the following terms:
They are absolutely inverted; i.e. their sexual object
must always be of the same sex,
while the opposite sex can never be to them an
object of sexual longing, but leaves
them indifferent or may even evoke sexual
repugnance. As men they are unable, on
account of this repugnance, to perform the normal
sexual act or miss all pleasure in
its performance.
[Sigmund Freud, Three Contributions to the Theory
of Sex, fourth edition,
authorized translation by A.A. Brill (New York, 1930),
p. 2.]
Some have argued that the word homosexual and the
definition given to it created the phenomenon that it was
created to describe. It appears true that the creation of the
word homosexual resulted in the conceptualization of its
purported opposite, "heterosexuality," as the norm. By
identifying sexual attraction to one's own sex as a symptom of
an "abnormal" psychological or genetic affliction, this
conceptualization intensely reified the denial of homosexual
feelings in the majority group. The turn-of-the-century man
either altogether denied sexual feelings for his own sex, or
risked being diagnosed as one of Freud's inverts. The
temptation to commit sodomy, which at one time all men were
obligated to resist, suddenly did not even exist in "healthy,
normal" individuals. Thus one might justifiably argue that
heterosexuality is a nineteenth-century invention.
But homosexuality, namely the inability to feel attraction to
the opposite sex while experiencing lust for others of the
same sex, is attested to in eunuchs throughout history. Now
we will take a look at some of the ancient characterizations of
eunuchs' sexual indifference to or impotence with women.

The Sumerian myth of the creation of eunuchs, called in

one version kurgarru and kalaturru,47 and in other versions
assinnu or kulu'u,48  says these figures "do not satisfy the lap
of the woman."49 They are specifically created, according to
the myth, because they can resist the otherwise irresistible
temptations of the queen of the underworld,50  and so rescue
the goddess Ishtar from the land of the dead without
becoming imprisoned there themselves. Eunuchs have long
been associated with the worship of the mother goddess in
the ancient world and were among the earliest temple priests
from the beginning of recorded history.
Wisdom of Sirach, one of the apocryphal books included in
the Catholic Bible, says that embracing a girl makes a eunuch
groan with nausea.51 It also says that a eunuch has no more
desire to have sex with a girl than a righteous man has to use
violence.52
In a Roman play of the second century BCE titled The
Eunuch, about a young lover who changes places with a
eunuch in order to get access to a girl in whom he is
infatuated, the playwright has his main character utter these
lines in a case of foreshadowing: "From this moment, I erase
all women from my mind. These vulgar beauties make me
sick."53
As stated in Section 1 previously, the Laws of Manu
indicated that klibas would not ordinarily desire wives, which
is why they are generally excluded from inheritance.
Ovid laments that his married lover's guard, a eunuch,
"would be amenable and accessible to my pleas" for access
to her, if the eunuch's "love had ever glowed warm for any
female."54

Eunuchs such as the one who bought Joseph in the

Bible55 and in the Qur'an,56  and the attacker of Evagoras in
Aristotle's Politics,57  had wives, but their wives chased or ran
off with other men. Juvenal was led to quip that "when a
eunuch takes a wife, it is hard not to write satire."58
Martial tells a funny story about a eunuch and an old man
trying to have sex at the same time with a lusty young lady,
but neither was able to follow through: "one was unable due
to lack of male powers, the other due to having past the age
of potency." The frustrated woman was left "praying to you,
Aphrodite, for help for herself and the two wretches, that you
would make the one a youth, the other a male."59
Roman jurist Ulpian, who we know considered eunuchs to
be strictly speaking able to procreate, still mentions them
along with those who cannot "easily" procreate [Digest
28.2.6].
Clement of Alexandria relates the beliefs of the followers
of Basilides, a Gnostic leader, about Matthew 19:12: "Some
men, from their birth, have a nature to turn away from women;
and those who are naturally constituted in this way do well not
to marry. These, they say, are the eunuchs from birth."60 As
noted previously, Clement himself stated that a eunuch is
unwilling (not unable) to perform sexual intercourse.
Lucian said a eunuch would have as little use for a female
concubine as a deaf man for a flutist, or a bald man for a
comb, a blind man for a mirror, a farmer for an oar, or a sailor
for a plough.61 Obviously Lucian was not thinking of the
Kamasutra, which says a eunuch might hire a prostitute in
order to pass for male.62 But then, in Greek society, an
undercover eunuch would have no need to prove his
manhood. No man was presumed to be a eunuch unless he
either declared that he was, or acted or looked like a woman;
the same is true for gay men today. However, in one case
where an effeminate man had claimed to be a eunuch, but
later wanted to deny that he was one, Lucian also noted that a
test for whether the man was a eunuch was to get some
female prostitutes and observe whether he could have sex
with them.63

Among the orthodox Christians, Tertullian said that

eunuchs "repudiate marriage."64 Jerome felt that eunuchs
from their mother's womb were "those of a colder nature, who
do not seek lust."65 Gregory of Nazianzos (Oration 37:16-17)
warned born eunuchs against being arrogant about their
abstinence (with women, presumably) and at the same time
against committing ritual prostitution, which had probably
been a tradition among eunuchs since Babylonian times:
"Be not proud, you who are eunuchs by nature. Your
abstinence is practically
involuntary. You are not tempted, and your
abstention is not tested by trials.
That which is good by nature is spurious; that by
deliberate choice, is laudable.
 What praise is due to fire for burning? Burning is in
its nature. What praise is
due to the rain for falling down? It is the Creator who
makes it do so. What praise
to snow for being cold? or to the sun for shining? It
shines without wanting to.
I praise that which desires what is better. Praise to
you, if, born flesh, you become
spirit; if, weighed down like lead by the flesh, you
take wing by the word; if, born
low, you find heaven; if, bound by flesh, you rise
above the flesh.
"Since your abstention is not laudable, I ask
something else of eunuchs. Do not
commit prostitution in divine matters. Having yoked
yourself to Christ, do not
dishonor Christ. Perfected by the Spirit, do not make
yourselves equal to the Spirit.
'If I yet sought to please men, says Paul, I would not
be the slave of Christ.'
If I serve a creature, I will not be called a Christian."
This text is from the fourth century CE, a period of intense
fighting between the supporters of the Arian doctrine, many of
whom were eunuchs, and the forces supporting what was to
become Christian orthodoxy, namely the belief that Jesus was
fully and eternally God as well as human. During this time,
eunuchs were highly influential as servants to the Roman
emperors, who from the fourth century on were (almost)
always Christian. Within two centuries, however, the concept
of a born eunuch all but disappeared from western European
culture.
Turning now to the Islamic world, the Qur'an refers to
"attendants who lack the primary skills of males"66  in a list of
men before whom women may bare their ornaments. In one
of the sayings of the Prophet (peace be upon him), one of
these attendants, here called a mukhannat or "effeminate," is
prohibited from entering the women's apartments anymore,
however, after he betrays too much sensitivity to women's
attractiveness.67 This means that as long as a servant is
insensitive to women's attractiveness, he can see her naked,
for instance to bathe her or dress her. This insensitivity is an
expected trait of a eunuch servant. When a certain one acted
as though he noticed women's charms, he was banned from
the house.
A ninth-century Arabic paraphrase of Hippocrates's Airs,
Waters, Places, condensed a section on some ancient Black
Sea dwellers in a very telling way. An original sentence "Many
Scythians ... become like eunuchs, doing the work of women
and talking like women"68  became, in the Arabic version,
"Many Turks ... become like eunuchs, being unable to have
intercourse with women, doing work and speaking
effeminately like women."69 The translator was led not only
by his own perceptions of eunuchs, but by Hippocrates's
statement that these particular Scythians had caused
themselves to become impotent (by inadvertently cutting
certain vessels behind their ears):
Consequently, when they come into the presence of
their wives and find themselves
impotent, they do not perhaps worry about it at first,
but when after the second and
third and more attempts, the same thing happens,
they conclude that they have sinned
against the divinity whom they hold responsible for
these things. Then they accept
 their unmanliness and dress as women, act as
women, and join women in their toil.70
Hippocrates also said the Scythians were "the most
eunuchoid [eunouchoeidestatoi] of all human beings for the
reasons stated."
So there is a pervasive identification of eunuchs with an
aversion to sex with women or to a kind of impotence,
specifically in the context of sex with women, which is not
caused by an anatomical defect in the genitals. Thus we have
proof of the first two legs of my thesis. The third will be a bit
more fun, as it concerns the area where eunuchs' lust is
found.

Go on to Section 3: Eunuchs are Sexually Attracted to Men

--- Table of Contents --- Home

Footnotes
47 Samuel Noah Kramer, "'Inanna's Descent to the Nether
World' Continued and Revised. Second Part," in Journal of
Cuneiform Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1 (1951), p. 10, lines 219-220.
48 Bruno Meissner, Assyriologische Forschungen, Vol. I.1,
Leiden: Buchhandlung und Druckerei, 1916, p. 50.
49 Samuel Noah Kramer, "'Inanna's Descent to the Nether
World' Continued and Revised. First Part," in Journal of
Cuneiform Studies, Vol. 4, No. 4 (1950), p. 200, lines 24 and
80. Akkadian: "úr-dam níg-dùg-ge-és nu-si-ge-me-és."
Kramer's rendering, which I have converted into plain English,
was "sates not pleasurably the lap of the wife."
50 Cf. the myth of Nergal and Ereshkigal in Myths from
Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others, tr.
by Stephanie Dalley, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989,
pp. 163-181. Nergal, a god, did fall prey to Ereshkigal's
enchantments.
51 Wisdom of Sirach 30:20. The context is about how a rich
man who is ill is worse off than a healthy poor man, because
his illness makes him turn off to the good things in life like
food. "He sees things with his eyes, and groans, like a eunuch
embracing a girl groans." Greek: "Blepôn en ophthalmois kai
stenazôn hôsper eunouchos perilambanôn parthenon kai
stenazôn."

52 Wisdom of Sirach 20:4. Literally, "A man who exerts justice

by force of arms is like the desire of a eunuch to take a girl's
virginity." I take this to mean that in both cases there is an
internal contradiction or paradox. Greek: "Epithumia
eunouchou apoparthenôsai neanida houtôs ho poiôn en bia
krimata."
53 Terence, Eunuchus, II 3.292-296. Latin: "Deleo omnis
dehinc ex animo mulieres: taedet cotidianarum harum
formarum."
54 Ovid, Amores, II 3.5-6. Latin: "Mollis in obsequium
facilisque rogantibus esses, si tuus in quamvis praetepuisset
amor."
55 Genesis 39.
56 In the Qur'an 12:28-29, the Egyptian realizes his wife tried
to sleep with Joseph and then cast the blame on him, and he
chastises her for her lying, but not for her betrayal of him.
57 Aristotle, Politics, V 8.10. In a list of political assassinations
motivated by revenge rather than ambition, Aristotle includes
"... [the attack] of the eunuch against Evagoras of Cyprus,
because his son had taken the eunuch's wife; he killed him
because of the insult." Greek: "hê tou eunouchou Euagora tô
Kupriô, dia gar to tên gunaika parelesthai ton huion autou
apekteinen hôs hubrismenos."
58 Juvenal I 22. Latin: "Cum tener uxorem ducat spado ...
difficile est saturam non scribere."

59 Martial XI 81. Latin: "viribus hic, operi non est hic utilis
annis: ergo sine effectu prurit utrique labor. supplex illa rogat
pro se miserisque duobus, hunc iuvenem facias, hunc,
Cytherea, virum."
60 Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, III 1.1. Greek: "Phusikôn
tines echousi pros gunaika apostrophôn ek genetês, hoitines,
tê phusikê tautê sugkrasei chrômenoi, kalôs poiousi mê
gamountes. Houtoi, phasin, eisin hoi ek genetês eunouchoi."
61 Lucian of Samosata, Adversus Indoctum, 19, in Lucian,
Vol. III, tr. by A.M. Harmon, Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1969, pp. 196-97. These are all examples of absurd
purchases, intended to illustrate how odd it was for a certain
ignorant man to have a huge library. Greek: "Zêtôn de aei
pros emauton oupô kai têmeron heurein dedunêmai, tinos
heneka tên spoudên tautên espoudakas peri tên ônên tôn
bibliôn. ôpheleias men gar ê chreias tôn ap' autôn oud' an
oiêtheiê tis tôn kai ep' elachiston se eidotôn, ou mallon ê
phalakros an tis priaito ktena ê katoptron ho tuphlos ê ho
kôphos aulêtên ê pallakên ho eunouchos ê ho êpeirôtês
kôpên ê ho kubernêtês arotron."
62 See note 35.
63 Lucian of Samosata, Eunuchus, 12, in Lucian, Vol. V, tr. by
A.M. Harmon, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1936,
pp. 342-345. Greek: "tinas tôn ex oikêmatos gunaikôn
keleuein auton suneinai kai opuiein."

64 Tertullian, Monogamy, 1. "Heretics repudiate marriage;

Sensualists encourage it. Not even once do the former marry,
not only once the latter. What, then, do you enjoin, O Law of
the Creator? Between heretical eunuchs on the one hand and
your own extremists on the other, you have as much cause to
complain of the libertinism of your household as you have of
the puritanism of those who do not belong to you." Translation
in Tertullian, Treatises on Marriage and Remarriage: To his
wife, A Exhortation to Chastity, Monogamy, translated and
annotated by William P. Le Saint, Westminster, MD: Newman
Press, 1951. Latin: "Haeretici nuptias auferunt, psychici
ingerunt. illi nec semel, isti non semel nubunt. Quid agis, lex
Creatoris? Inter alienos spadones et aurigas tuos tantumdem
quereris de domestico obsequio, quantum de fastidio
extraneo."
65 Jerome, Commentary on Matthew, 19.12. Latin: "Eunuchi
sunt ex matris utero qui frigidoris naturae sunt nec libidinem
adpetentes..."
66 Qur'an 24:31. Arabic: "wat- tabi'iuna ghair ula il-irbati min
ar-rijali." Richard Bell writes: "One might suggest that the
phrase indicates eunuchs if there were evidence that these
were common in Medinah at that time." (A Commentary on
the Qur'an, Vol. I, Manchester: University of Manchester,
1991, 24:31.) I would say gay men are common everywhere
at every time. In any case, Prophet Muhammad and the
companions referred to eunuchs according to several sayings
of the Prophet, which I will speak of in the sections on sexual
relations between eunuchs and other men.
67 Sahih al-Bukhari, LXII 114.
68 Hippocrates, Airs, Waters, Places, 22. Greek: "Eti te pros
touteoisin eunouchiai ginontai hoi pleistoi en skuthaisi kai
gunaikeia ergazontai kai hai gunaikes dialegontai te
homoiôs."

69 Kitab buqrat fil-amrad al-biladiyya. Hippocrates: On

endemic diseases (airs, waters and places); edited and
translated with introduction, notes and glossary by J. N.
Mattock and M. C. Lyons, Cambridge: published for the
Cambridge Middle East Centre by Heffer, 1969, p. 150. Arabic
(consonants only): "Ann ktir mn altrk m' ma dhkrna fihm yku
shbh alkhsian la yqdrun 'li alnsa, w y'mlun a'm alnsa, w
ytkllmun balkhnth mthl alnsa."
70 Hippocrates, Airs, Waters, Places, 22. Translation from
The Medical Works of Hippocrates, translated by John
Chadwick and W.N. Mann, Oxford: Blackwell, 1950, p. 108.
Greek: "Hoi de meta tauta epeid' an aphikôntai para gunaika,
kai mê hoioi te ôsi chrêsthai sphêsin autais, to prôton ouk
enthumeuntai. all' hêsuchiên echousi ho kotan de dis kai tris
pleonakis auteoisi peirômenoisi mêden alloioteron apobainê
nomisantes ti hêmartêkenai tô theô hon epaitiôntai, enduontai
stolên gunaikeiên. katagnontes heôuteôn anandreiên.
gunaikizousi te kai ergazontai meta tôn gunaikôn ha kai
ekeinai."

Section 3: Eunuchs are Sexually

Active with Men
The final piece in the puzzle is to prove that eunuchs
enjoyed sex with men, and so were not entirely unacquainted
with lust as Jerome implied or unwilling to perform sexual
intercourse as Clement put it.
The Kamasutra has an entire chapter on klibas seducing
men to allow them to perform oral sex on them. In fact, "klibas
get particular enjoyment from oral sex, as well as their
livelihood."71
A Sumerian list of dream omens from the seventh century
BCE states that "if a man submits himself sexually to males
[in a dream], like an assinnu he will develop a strong yearning
to be a sex object for other males [in waking life]."72  This
association between eunuchs and passive homosexuality
may be why the Middle Assyrian Laws make being rendered a
saris the punishment for male passive homosexuality.73
Another of the omens predicts that "if a man has sexual
intercourse with an assinnu, for a whole year the deprivations
which beset him will disappear." The next omen repeats the
prediction for when a man has intercourse with a girsequ,74 
the term for eunuch mentioned in the Code of Hammurabi.75
An astrological prediction confirmed that men took
kurgarrus into their homes and the latter "made babies" for
them, a phrase which is surely meant figuratively.76

Aristotle warns that boys allowed to indulge in anal

intercourse will grow to like it,77 "and some will become
'impubescent' [anêboi] from birth and
'nonreproducing' [agonoi] due to an imperfection of the
reproductive organs; in the same way, women can also
become 'impubescent' from birth."78 Here Aristotle provides
an early, if ambiguous, example of the denial that some
people are born with a gay identity. It is a denial of the
innateness because he relates the impotence to having been
allowed as children to indulge in homosexual sex, but it is an
ambiguous denial because he nonetheless uses the phrase
"from birth."
Quintus Curtius reports that "365 concubines, the same
number as Darius had had, filled [Alexander the Great's]
palace, attended by herds of eunuchs, also accustomed to
being used like women."79
Without calling Alexander a eunuch, his Roman biographer
of the fourth-century CE said he "scorned sensual pleasures
to such an extent that his mother was anxious lest he might
be unable to beget offspring,"80 and there seems to have
been some doubt expressed as to his eligibility for the
Macedonian throne.81 In other words, Alexander may have
been a natural eunuch. He had two passionate love affairs in
his short life, both with men. The first was with his childhood
friend and later general, Hephaiston, to whom he felt so close
that he told the Persian queen: "This man too is
Alexander."82 The second was the defeated Persian king's
lover Bagoas, "a eunuch of remarkable beauty and in the very
flower of boyhood, who had been loved by Darius and was
afterward to be loved by Alexander."83 Bagoas, "who won the
regard of Alexander by submitting his body"84 for sex,
convinced Alexander to execute a certain Persian chieftain
who had insulted Bagoas by calling him a harlot. This
chieftain had asserted that it was "not the Persian custom to
marry males who were feminized by being screwed."85

In spite of the chieftain's protestation, there is some doubt

that the custom was entirely alien to Persia.86 It is certainly
clear that Darius, Bagoas's lover before Alexander, was a
Persian! In fact, Zarathustra himself, the Persian prophet,
seems to have been aware of the "rapture which a friend
induces in a friend."87 Moreover, using eunuchs for passive
sex partners was a widespread custom across the
Mediterranean region.
A character in Terence's play about the eunuch impostor,
when he sees the fake eunuch who is really a handsome
male teenager, says: "That eunuch ... if I were in lust, even if I
were sober, I'd ..."88  Unfortunately, he stopped short of
saying exactly what he would do, but I think it is clear.
The Jewish historian Josephus told of the problems King
Herod had with his closest eunuch companions, of whom he
was "very fond on account of their beauty."89 The king's son
Alexander was continually plotting against him, and Josephus
reported that "someone told the king that these eunuchs had
been corrupted by Alexander ... with a great deal of money.
And when they were asked about it, they admitted the
association [with Alexander] and [that] sex [was involved], but
they were not aware of any mischief aimed at the father."90
Suetonius said of the emperor Titus that "he was
suspected of excess; and likewise of lust because of his
crowds of catamites and eunuchs."91
Apuleius, in the picaresque novel The Golden Ass, tells of
a band of "half-men" [semiviri],92  who call each other
"girls" [puellae] and have sex with young men, both as active
and as passive partners.93  They also act as cultic priests of
the Mother Goddess, a traditional role for eunuchs.94

The next piece of evidence is a bit complicated. It consists

of some comments by Clement of Alexandria about the
followers of Basilides, a Christian Gnostic. Clement said they
lived "lewder lives than the most uncontrolled heathen." They
did not live purely, imagining "they had the power even to
commit sin because of their perfection." He said "the original
teachers of their doctrine did not allow one to do the same as
they are now doing."95 What I would like to consider is that
some of these Basilidians were born eunuchs who were
indulging in homosexual sex.
The Basilidians quoted Jesus as having said some people
were eunuchs from birth, and others were eunuchs by
necessity.96 Then they said the born eunuchs were those
with a natural aversion to the female (which would be gay
men). They said the eunuchs by necessity were those who
made a show of abstaining from sex because they wanted
other people to admire their spirituality (Catholic celibates?).
They also said people who were accidentally emasculated
were eunuchs of necessity.97  Finally, they said the eunuchs
for the kingdom of heaven were spiritual people who refrained
from marriage in order to avoid the distractions of making a
living.98 This last category could of course be made up of
both gays and single nongays. In general, the Basilidians'
sensitivity to gay sexual orientation, religious hypocrisy, and
the spiritual advantages of single life, speaks to me of a gay
perspective. But that's not all.

Clement's charge that the Basilidians were lewd and

outside the bounds of their own doctrine was prefaced by a
quote from one of the Basilidian teachers, Isidore, advising
marriage as a way of dealing with chronic lust. But for for
those who could not marry for whatever reason, Isidore had
apparently said:
if someone is a youth, or poor, or
'sunken' [katopheres], and he does not
wish to marry according to the saying, then let him
not be separated from
 his brother. He should tell himself: I have entered
the sanctuary, I cannot
submit to anything. But if he has any hidden
thoughts, he should say:
Brother, lay your hand on me so that I do not sin;
and he will receive help,
both in the mind and in the senses. Let him only
wish to accomplish what
is right and he will succeed. Sometimes, however,
we say with our mouth,
"I wish not to sin," while our mind is really inclined
towards sin. Such a
man does not do what he wishes for fear lest any
punishment be in store
for him. Human nature has some wants which are
necessary and natural,
and others which are only natural; sexual pleasure
[to tôn aphrodisiôn] is
natural, but not necessary.99
This "sunken" man, for whom the saying "it is better to marry"
does not apply, could be the born eunuch who has a repulsion
from women. When he feels lust and is afraid he may fall,
Isidore suggests he have a brother lay his hands on him,
which is supposed to make him feel a power in his mind and
body. This suggests a homoerotic touch. But my idea is that in
Clement's day, the Basilidians who could not marry were not
settling for a warm brotherly hug, and instead were indulging
themselves further with each other or with other men. This
then would be why Clement calls them "lewder than the most
uncontrolled heathen." On the other hand, the "sunken" man
could be an ordinary nongay man who has led such a
dissolute sexual life, possibly including passive homosexual
activity, that he is not considered eligible for marriage.
I will now move on to more straightforward evidence.

Aelian, a third-century Greek rhetorician, recounts the

beautiful story of the sorrow of a Persian king for a beloved
eunuch who died: "He had been the most handsome and
attractive man in Asia. He ended his days still a youth,
emerging from childhood, and the king was said to be greatly
in love with him. As a result, he lamented bitterly and was in
great distress; there was a public mourning throughout Asia
as a gesture to the king from all his subjects."100 Aelian's
description recalled a similar mourning by the Roman
empreror Hadrian, who had erected statues of his beautiful
lover Antinous throughout the empire after his death. Some of
these statues still exist.101
The fourth-century Sicilian astrologer Firmicus Maternus
consistently listed eunuchs next to other homosexual and
third-gender types. He said that Mercury and Saturn together
ascendant in a feminine sign "make eunuchs, that is males
without semen and who cannot have sex [coire], obscene,
disreputable, impure, lewd, passive homosexuals
[cinaedos]."102  (Notice that, in the fourth century, Firmicus
applies the word "males" to eunuchs.) A waning Moon from
Venus to Saturn in nocturnal makes "either sterile men, or
eunuchs, or high priests of Cybele, or hermaphrodites, or in
any case such which are compelled by the heat of miserable
lust to play the passive role of women."103 An ascendant in
terms of Saturn in nocturnal "makes impure, lewd, sordid men
and those involved into sinful acts by miserable lust and those
[i.e. eunuchs] who cannot approach natural sex but who are
taken by the inverted fury of lust against nature."104
 A passage from chapter eight of the Mathesis describes a
certain stereotype of gay men so well, that I wish to quote it in
full:

1. The Pleiades are found in the sixth degree of

Taurus. Those who are
born when these are rising are always involved in
luxury and lust. They
are always drenched in perfumes, given to too much
wine drinking, impudent
in speech, so that in banquets and love-making they
attack their companions
with a sarcastic wit. They are addicted to all crimes of
passion and are the
kind who raise laughter by their biting tongues. 2.
They will always be
well-groomed and well dressed. They twist their hair
in ringlets and often
present a fictitious appearance by using another's
hair. They soften their
whole body with various cosmetics; pull out their
body hair and wear clothes
in the likeness of women; they walk softly on their tip-
toes. 3. But the desire
for flattery torments them; they seek it so constantly
that they think that from
flattery they attain virtue and good fortune. They will
always be in love, or
pretend that they are, and it pains them that they
were born men.105
 Unfortunately, under the influence of the Christian church
and Germanic invaders, the born eunuch category
disappeared in Europe, and the category of eunuchs was
increasingly defined in the Christian world not by a lack of lust
for women, which the Christians felt was a proper goal for all
men to strive for, or even by "unnatural" lusts, but by
castration or sterility.

Not so, however, in the growing Islamic world, where

eunuchs have continued to serve as passive sex partners for
men to this day.106 In the East, homosexual activity
continued to be recognized as a natural, albeit disallowed,
outlet for male lust. A hadith (traditional story about
Muhammad) narrated by ibn Mas'ud says: "We used to fight
[in battle] together with the Prophet, peace be upon him.
There were no women with us. We said: O Messenger, may
we treat some as eunuchs? He forbade us to do so."107  The
Qur'an generally scorns "approaching males in lust to the
exclusion of women", as well as the castration of males, as
the sin of the people of Lot.108
But the Qur'an does not prohibit using natural eunuchs
(who were not considered "male") as passive sex partners.
Although the Qur'an never uses the word khasy, it recognizes
that not all persons are male or female and that there are
some people who are aqim, or "ineffectual,"109 and some
men who "lack the primary skills of males."110 As for the
issue of whether Muhammad (peace be upon him) expressly
approved of eunuchs -- and far be it from him not to have
approved of Allah's creation -- there is a tradition in which
Muhammad forbids 'Uthman bin Maz'un from adopting a
eunuch lifestyle, i.e. abstaining from marriage. But it is related
also that Abu Huraira went to the Prophet, saying that he was
a "young male" who was afraid that his ego would lead him
into illegal sexual intercourse but that he did not "find [or feel]
that with which to marry a woman," and the Prophet remained
silent, even after Abu Huraira repeated his statement three
times. Finally after the fourth time, Muhammad said: "O Abu
Huraira, the pen is dried as to what is befitting for you. So be
a eunuch or leave it alone." (Bukhari, Book 62 "Nikah", Ch. 8).
The Qur'an also says repeatedly that no burdened soul
shall bear the burdens of another.111 In the case at hand, I
take that to mean that eunuchs should not take on the
burdens of males, and vice-versa, but rather people should try
to live their lives in the manner which is most becoming for
them.

Go on to Ramifications of Eunuchs Being Gay Men --- Table

of Contents --- Home

Footnotes

71 Kamasutra, II 9. English: "Eunuchs get particular pleasure

from oral sex, as well as their livelihood." German: "Die
Eunuchen finden an dem Mundkoitus ein eingebildetes
Vergnügen wie ihren Lebensunterhalt." See note 33.
72 J. Bottero and H. Petschow, "Homosexualität," in Erich
Ebeling and Bruno Meissner, eds., Reallexikon der
Assyriologie und vorderasiatischen Archäologie, Vol. 4. Berlin:
Walter de Gruyter, 1975, pp. 464, § 13.
73 "If a man sexually penetrates his neighbor, a charge shall
have been brought against him, proof shall have been brought
against him, he shall have been sexually penetrated, he shall
be rendered a saris." Akkadian: "sum-ma LÙ tap-pa-a-su i-ni-
ik, ub-ta-e-ru-ú-us, uk-ta-i-nu-ú-us, i-ni-ik-ku-ú-us, a-na sa ri-
se-en ú-tar-ru-us." Middle Assyrian Laws §20 (Tablet A, col. ii,
lines 93-97), in G.R. Driver and John C. Miles, eds., The
Assyrian Laws, with translation and commentary, Oxford:
Clarendon, 1935, pp. 390-391. Driver and Miles interpret line
96 ("he shall have been sexually penetrated") as part of a
punishment for the active partner, while D.D. Luckenbill
interprets it as a restating of the crime, with "he" being the
passive partner. Both translators, however, consider the
punishment in line 97 ("he shall be rendered a saris") as being
applied to the active partner. But one might better conclude
that the passive partner is actually the criminal who is made a
saris, especially in view of the previous provision §19 against
slander, in which a man can be beaten for calling his neighbor
a sexual passive without bringing a formal charge. Obviously,
if one can be formally charged with sexual passivity, then it
must be a crime. If male passivity is the crime here, that
would be in line with the values of other Indo-European
cultures such as the Greeks, Romans, and the Germanic
cultures. See next section, on castration.

74 The Assyrian Dictionary, Vol. A, under the word assinnu

(b), p. 341; Vol. G, under the word girsequ (c), p. 95. These
omens, part of the Summa Alu, are located in Cuneiform
Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum, Vol. 39,
London: The Trustees, 1896-1990, Tablet 45(55), lines 32-33.
Akkadian: "summa amêlu ana as-sin-ni ithi" and "summa
amêlu ana GÌR.SÈ.GA TE kala MU.1.KAM tamtatu sa
GAR.MES-sú ipparrasa." I could not find a translation or
transliteration of the entire list of omens.
75 See note 26 (Section 1).
76 Bottero § 16, p. 465-466, who cites L'astrologie chaldeene
No. 12, line 12 and following.
77 Aristotle, History of Animals, VII 1.5. Literally, "the memory
of the shared pleasure creates a desire to make the
intercourse occur again." Greek: "hê tote mnêmê tês
sumbainousês hêdonês epithumian poiei tês tote ginomenês
homilias ..."
78 Aristotle, History of Animals, VII 1.6. Greek [continued from
previous note]: "... ginontai de tines anêboi ek genetês kai
agonoi dia to pêrôthênai peri ton topon ton gonimon. homoiôs
de kai gunaikes ginontai anêboi ek genetês."
79 Quintus Curtius VI 6.8. Latin: "Pelices CCC et LXV,
totidem quot Darei fuerant, regiam implebant, quas spadonum
greges, et ipsi muliebra pati assueti, sequebantur." If
Alexander did keep that many concubines, it still does not
mean he was not a secret eunuch. The text does not say he
slept with them. It does say Alexander took a liking to a young
man Euxenippus, whose virility is in doubt: "He was still very
young and a favorite of the king because of his blossoming
youth, but although he was equal to Hephaiston in the beauty
of his body, [Euxenippus's] less than virile charm was not on a
par with his." Latin: "... adhuc admodum iuvenem, aetatis flore
conciliatum sibi, qui cum specie corporis aequaret
Hephaestionem, ei lepore haud sane virili par non
erat." (Curtius VI 9.19). And in any case, Alexander's
relationship with the eunuch Bagoas has already been
mentioned above.

80 Quintus Curtius, History of Alexander, tr. by John C. Rolfe,

Vol. I, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1946, p.11.
Books I and II are lost, but a summary is provided in the first
volume of this two-volume edition.
81 Quintus Curtius, ibid., p. 16-17. The biographer Quintus
Curtius related that when the youthful Alexander's father took
another wife, the new bride's uncle Attalus, having drunk too
much at the wedding banquet, made the following toast: "The
Macedonians ought to pray the gods that from the new
marriage Philip might rear a legitimate successor." Curtius
says that "Alexander, enraged by the insult, threw his cup at
Attalus's head, and Attalus threw his cup at Alexander."
82 Quintus Curtius III 12.15ff. Hephaiston compared his
relationship to Alexander with that of Patroclus to Achilles in
Book II (see ibid., vol. I, p. 38).
83 Quintus Curtius VI 5.23. Latin: "Inter quae Bagoas erat,
specie singulari spado atque in ipso flore pueritiae, cui et
Dareus assuerat et mox Alexander assuevit ..."
84 Quintus Curtius X 1.25-26. Latin: "Bagoae spadoni, qui
Alexandrum obsequio corporis devixerat sibi, nullum honorem
habuit, adminitusque a quibusdam Bagoam Alexandro cordi
esse, respondit amicos regis, non scorta se colere, nec moris
esse Persis mares ducere qui stupro effeminarentur."
85 Quintus Curtius X 1.26. The entire story is recounted in X
1.22-38.
86 See note 100, below.
87 Zarathustra, Gathas XLVI 2.4. Transcribed original:
"Rafedhrem chagvâo hyat fryo fryâi daidit." The transcription
and translation is from T.R. Sethna, The Teachings of
Zarathustra: The Prophet of Iran on How to Think and
Succeed in Life, Karachi: T.R. Sethna, 1975, pp. 76-77.
88 Terence, Eunuchus, line 479. Latin: "Ego illum eunuchum,
si opus siet, vel sobrius ..."

89 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XVI 8.1.230. Greek:

"êsan eunouchoi tô basilei dia kallos ou metriôs
espoudasmenoi."
90 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XVI 8.1.231. Greek: "kai
tis anaggellei tô basilei diaphtharênai toutous hup' Alexandrou
tou paidos epi pollois chrêmasin. anakrinonti de peri men tês
gegenêmenês pros auton koinônias kai mixeôs hômologoun,
allo d' ouden duscheres eis ton patera s uneidenai."
91 Suetonius, Titus, 7. Latin: "suspecta in eo ... luxuria erat ...;
nec minus libido propter exoletorum et spadonum greges."
92 Apuleios, The Golden Ass, VIII 28. The entire episode runs
from VIII 24 to IX 10. A 1951 translation has recently been
brought out in a new edition: The Transformations of Lucius,
Otherwise Known as The Golden Ass, a new translation by
Robert Graves, New York: Noonday Press, 1951, 31st
printing 1996. See "Chapter 12: With the Eunuch Priests."
93 Apuleios, The Golden Ass, VIII 26.
94 Apuleios, The Golden Ass, VIII 27-28.
95 Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, III 1.3. Greek text from
J.P. Migne, Patrologia Graeca, vol. 8, col. 1104: "... tôn en
ethnesin akratestatôn akolastoteron biountes ...," "... tôn mê
biountôn orthôs Basileidianôn, hôs hêtoi exontôn exousian kai
tou hamartein dia tên teleiotêta ... epei mêde tauta autois
prattein sugchôrousin hoi propatores tôn dogmatôn." The
translation is based on that of John Ernest Leonard Oulton
and Henry Chadwick as "On Marriage. Miscellanies Book III"
in Alexandrian Christianity: Selected Translations of Clement
and Origen, Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1954, p. 41. I
have corrected their translation where I felt it was necessary
in order to render the original more literally.
96 Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, III 1.1. Greek: "Ou
pantes chôrousi ton logon touton. eisi gar eunouchoi hoi men
ek genetês, hoi de ex anagkês."

97 Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, III 1.1. Greek: "Phusikên

tines echousi pros gunaika apostrophên ek genetês, hoitines,
tê phusikê tautê sugkrasei chrômenoi, kalôs poiousi mê
gamountes. Houtoi, phasin, eisin hoi ek genetês eunouchoi.
Hoi de ex anagkês, ekeinoi hoi theatrikoi askêtai, hoitines dia
tên antholkên tês eudoxias kratousin heautôn. Hoi de ek
tetmêmenoi kata sumphoran eunouchoi gegonasi kata
anagkên."
98 Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, III 1.1. Greek: "Hoi de
eneka tês aiôniou basileias eunouchisantes heautous, dia ta
ek tou gamou, phasi, sumbainonta, ton epilogismon touton
lambanousin, tên peri ton porismon tôn epitêdeiôn ascholian
dediotes."
99 Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, III 1.2-3. Greek: "Alla
neos tis estin, ê penês, ê katôpherês, kai ou thelei gêmai kata
ton logon, houtos tou adelphou mê chôrizesthô. legetô, hoti
Eiselêlutha egô eis ta agia, ouden dunamai pathein. Ean de
huponoian echê, eipatô, 'Adelphe, epithes moi tên cheira, ina
mê hamartêsô. kai lêpsetai boêtheian, kai noêtên kai
aisthêtên. thelêsatô monon apartêsai to kalon, kai epiteuxetai.
Eniote de tô men stomati legomen, Ou thelomen hamartêsai,
hê de dianoia egkeitai epi ton hamartanein. Ho toioutous dia
phobon ou poiei ho thelei, ina mê hê kolasis autô ellogisthê.
Hê de anthrôpotês echei tina anagkaia kai phusika mona.
phusikon de to tôn aphrodisiôn, ouk anagkaion de." John
Ferguson says Isidore was the son of Basilides. Clement of
Alexandria, Stromateis I-III, tr. John Ferguson, Washington
DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1991, p. 257, note
4.
100 Aelian, Various Histories, XII 1. Greek: "Chronô de
husteron Têridatês ho eunouchos apothnêskei, kallistos tôn
en tê Asia kai hôraiotatos genomenos. katestrepse de ara
houtos ton bion meirakioumenos kai ek tês paidikês hêlikias
anatrechôn, elegeto de autou eran ho basileus andreiotata. ek
dê toutôn epenthei barutata kai drimutata êlgei kai dêmosia
kata pasan tên Asian penthos ên, charisomenôn apantôn
basilei touto."
101 John Boswell provided a photograph of a statue of
Antinous in Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality:
Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the
Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century, Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1980, plate 3.

102 Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis, III 9.1. Latin: "... facient

eunuchos vel viros sine semine et qui coire non possint,
turpes, infames, impuros, impudicos, cinaedos."
103 Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis, III 6.22. Latin: "... faciet
eunuchos aut abscisos archigallos aut hermafroditos, et qui
semper haec agunt et patiuntur quae mulieres pati
consueverunt praeposteris libidinem ardoribus excitati."
Translation based on that of Jean Rhys Bram (see note 43).
104 Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis, V 2.11. Latin: "... faciet
impuros, impudicos, sordidos, et miserae libidinis vitiis
implicatos, et qui ad naturales coitus venire non possint, sed
qui contra naturam praepostero libidinis furore rapiantur."
105 Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis, VIII 7.1-3. Translation in
Bram, p. 274.
106 See Stephen O. Murray, "Chapter 13: Some Nineteenth
Century Reports of Islamic Homosexualities," and "Chapter
16: The Sohari Khanith" in Stephen O. Murray and Will
Roscoe, Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, Literature,
New York: New York University Press, 1997. Chapter 16 is
more specifically about a homosexual role based on identity,
as opposed to just the activity of homosexuality.
107 Sahih al-Bukhari LXII 6:9 and 8:13.

108 Qur'an 7:81, 26:165-166, 27:55. For more discussion of

Islam, homosexuality and eunuchs, see my article on Queer
Sexual Identity in the Qur'an and Hadith.
109 Qur'an 42:49-50. English: "To Allah belongs the dominion
over the heavens and the earth. He creates what He wills. He
prepares for whom He wills females, and He prepares for
whom He wills males. Or He marries together the males and
the females, and He makes those whom He wills to be
ineffectual. Indeed He is the Knowing, the Powerful." These
two verses 49 and 50 have usually been interpreted in English
translations to mean that God bestows daughters or sons on
whom He wills and gives some people both sons and
daughters, while leaving others barren. But there is a problem
with this interpretation in that the word for marriage or pairing
up is used in the second verse. When familes have boys and
girls, the boys and girls do not usually arrive in pairs! I believe
this verse is describing the varieties of sexual orientation and
gender, which Allah, the All-Powerful, creates as Allah
wishes. Or it could be referring to the male and female
companions who will attend on the believers in Paradise,
which implies in itself an admission of homoerotic desire.
110 Qur'an 24:31. Arabic: "... tabi'ina ghair ula il-irbati min ar-
rijali ..."
111 Qur'an 6:164, 17:15, 35:18, 39:7, 53:38.

Ramifications of the Fact that

Eunuchs are Gay Men
So eunuchs were basically men who were anatomically
able to procreate, but had a sexual aversion to or were
impotent with women, and they were commonly known to
have sex with other men. Quod erat demonstrandum:
Eunuchs were gay men. It follows then that gay men who are
not attracted to or who are impotent with women are what
used to be called eunuchs, and more specifically born or
natural eunuchs. So the ancients concurred with those who
say that gay people are born gay.
The understanding that gay men are eunuchs has some
far-reaching ramifications.
For example, the search for a "gay gene" must be a search
for a gene that blocks heterosexual attraction, not one that
causes homosexual attraction. Moreover, homosexuality is
probably the result of two different genetic phenomena in men
versus women. If most people are naturally wired to feel
sexual excitement with both men and women, due to two
independent neurological mechanisms, then it is the failure to
feel attraction to one of the sexes that requires explanation.
Maybe in lesbian women, the mechanism causing lust for
men is blocked. In gay men, a separate mechanism causing
lust for women is blocked. Two different mechanisms, blocked
by different genes.
Here is one example of a mind-blowing ramification: Since
eunuchs are gay men, the number of gay men identified as
such in the Bible skyrockets. Potiphar, the gay Egyptian
official who bought Joseph as a slave; the killers of Jezebel;
the black gay court official Ebedmelech, who saved the
prophet Jeremiah from the dungeon; the gay court officials of
Nebuchadnezzar who raised Daniel; the gay servants who
plotted against Esther's father and the other gay servants who
exposed the plot; the gay court official from Ethiopia whom
Philip baptized; not to mention gay military leaders from
Israel, Judah, Assyria, and Babylonia.
Furthermore, historians can finally identify the historical
figures who were truly gay and not just bisexual: the
Byzantine general Narses who defeated the Goths, the
Byzantine court official and Arian proponent Eusebius, the
various Persian eunuchs named Bagoas, the imposter who
pretended to be the Persian Smerdis, to name just a few. And
they can argue intelligently about the status of others, like
Alexander the Great, who are not called eunuchs in available
historical records, but are described as lacking lust for
women.
 There is a pervasive association at all times in the ancient
world between eunuchs, women and religion, as mentioned in
this essay. In the Bible, this linkage is reflected in the
mentions of "the holy ones," who, in addition to being called
holy, are also called "sodomites" and "whores" in the King
James translation and "temple prostitutes" in recent versions.
The demand for celibacy of the clergy under the Roman
Catholic system reflects the same association. People expect
their priests to have no children because childless gay men
and lesbians were the original chaste, holy priests. Moreover,
gay people mirror in themselves the divine union of maleness
and femaleness that is traditionally thought to be the image of
the Creator. After all, the image of the Creator is male and
female, according to Genesis 1:28.
Straight people, who suffer from a gender imbalance,
marry one another in order to bring the male and female sides
together. But gay people are closer to having both sides in
balance within themselves. Transgendered and intersexed
persons are even closer to that holy state.
While studying the possible connections between
circumcision and queer holiness, I ran across an example of
homosexual ritual leadership in Africa in this century. Joseph
Towles reported that in the ambembe, a women's ritual
occurring during the Nkumbi initiation of boys in the Mbo tribe
of Zaire,
among the circle of dancers there was one woman
who wore a mulumba,
loincloth, in the manner of men, with the flaps
hanging out of the front and
back. I was told that this was intentional;
symbolically, the loincloth
represented the presence of men and made one of
the aims of the rites
explicit: the contradiction and resolution of the role of
man and woman.
In this same ambembe, the ritual synthesized the
contradiction and resolution
of the role of man and woman through the presence
of a homosexual. This
man wore a cloth in the style of women, folded in at
the waist without the
(male) overhanging flaps in back and front. This man
was tall and dominated
the dance. He was at the head of the circle of
women, for sometimes they broke
the circle and danced out of the baraza and back
again to the fire, where they
formed a circle. The homosexual led them whenever
they danced away or varied
the dance step.
Homosexuals, who are rare among the Mbo, are
called mangaiko (from angaika,
to go back and forth). Another term also defines this
role: akengike, from a, a
prefix implying power attributes, kenge, the okapi,
and ike, a female suffix, has
the meaning of timidness and is charged with
feminine power: "feet-birth" is said
to be the way of okapi's live birth.
I was told that this man had no wife and disregarded
all manly behavior. They
said that he tested the women's role. Although he
wore a traditional male hat, the
igayi, with injo feathers as well as parrot feathers, he
took a full part in the rites.
This homosexual was a twin, I was told, giving him a
structural role which,
added to his homosexuality, was of immense
importance. Twins ordinarily are
thought to be imbued with great ritual powers, such
as being able to curse people,
to call all the snakes out of the forest and to divine
the future; these powers were
made doubly potent by the homosexual attribute.
(Joseph A. Towles, Nkumbi Initiation: Ritual and
Structure Among the Mbo of Zaire,
Annales des Sciences Humaines, vol. 137, Tervuren,
Belgium: Musee Royale de
l'Afrique Centrale, 1993, p. 57.)
Our failure to understand that some men and women are
not meant to procreate, because they are born gay, is one of
the major points of distinction that separate modern European
culture from ancient Mediterranean culture and many
precolonial global cultures.