Editing Eunuch (section)

====Ancient====
The four-thousand-year-old Egyptian [[Execration texts|Execration Texts]] threaten enemies in Nubia and Asia, specifically referencing "all males, all eunuchs, all women."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bresciani |first=Edda |date=1997-06-23 |chapter=Chapter&nbsp;8: Foreigners |title=The Egyptians |page=222 |editor-last=Donadoni |editor-first=Sergio |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-15556-2 |language=en |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MCTbJ0VozGQC&pg=PA222}}</ref>

Castration was sometimes punitive; under [[Assyrian law]], homosexual acts were punishable by castration.<ref>{{cite web |title=Mesopotamian Law and Homosexuality |website=Internet History Sourcebooks Project |publisher=Fordham University |url=https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/pwh/meso-law.asp}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=Marten |last1=Stol |display-authors=etal |year=2016 |chapter=Chapter 31 – The Middle Assyrian Law-Book about Women |title=Women in the Ancient Near East |page=670 |publisher=De Gruyter}}</ref>

[[File:Limestone wall relief depicting an Assyrian royal attendant, a eunuch. From the Central Palace at Nimrud, Iraq, 744-727&nbsp;BCE. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul.jpg|thumb|Limestone wall relief depicting an Assyrian royal attendant, a eunuch. From the Central Palace at Nimrud, Iraq, 744–727&nbsp;BCE. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul.]]
Eunuchs were familiar figures in the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]] ({{langx|akk|ša rēš šarri izuzzū}} "the one who stands by the head of the king", often abbreviated as {{lang|akk|ša rēš}};  {{Circa|850}} until 622&nbsp;BCE)<ref>{{cite book |last=Ringrose |first=Kathryn |title=The Perfect Servant: Eunuchs and the Social Construction of Gender in Byzantium |publisher=University of Chicago |year=2003 |page=8}}</ref> and in the court of the Egyptian [[pharaoh]]s (down to the Lagid dynasty known as Ptolemies, ending with [[Cleopatra VII]], 30&nbsp;BCE). Eunuchs sometimes were used as [[regent]]s for underage heirs to the throne, as it seems to be the case for the [[Syro-Hittite states|Syro-Hittite state]] of [[Carchemish]].<ref name="Trevor Bryce 2012, p. 95">{{cite book |first=Trevor |last=Bryce |year=2012 |title=The World of the Neo-Hittite Kingdoms: A political and military history |page=95 |publisher=Oxford University Press |place=New York, NY}}</ref>

Political eunuchism became a fully established institution among the [[Achaemenid Empire]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Orlando |last=Patterson |year=1982 |title=Slavery and Social Death |page=315 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=9780674810839}} {{ISBN|0-674-81083-X}}</ref> Eunuchs (called {{langx|arc|סריס|translit=səris}}, an Assyrian loanword) held powerful positions in the Achaemenid court. The eunuch [[Bagoas]] (not to be confused with [[Bagoas (courtier)|Alexander's Bagoas]]) was the [[vizier]] of [[Artaxerxes III]] and [[Artaxerxes IV]], and was the primary power behind the throne during their reigns until he was killed by [[Darius III]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Diod. |title=[no title cited] |at=xvi. 50 |postscript=;}} {{full citation needed |date=January 2021}} cf. {{cite book |author=Didymus |title=Comm.}} in {{cite book |author=Demosth. |title=Phil. |at=vi. 5}} {{full citation needed |date=January 2021}}</ref>

Marmon (1995) writes "[[Mamluk Sultanate|Mamluk]] biographies of the eunuchs often praise their appearance with adjectives such as ''jamil'' (beautiful), ''wasim'' (handsome), and ''ahsan'' (the best, most beautiful) or ''akmal'' (the most perfect)."<ref>{{cite book |last=Marmon |first=Shaun Elizabeth |year=1995 |chapter=More Exalted than the Service of Kings |title=Eunuchs and Sacred Boundaries in Islamic Society |page=66 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0195071016 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZHbmCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA66}}</ref>