The Eunuch

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 26 February 2015

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history and significance of eunuchs, castrated men who were a common feature of many civilisations for at least three thousand years. Eunuchs were typically employed as servants in royal households in the ancient Middle East, China and classical antiquity. In some civilisations they were used as administrators or senior military commanders, sometimes achieving high office. The tradition lingered until surprisingly recently, with castrated singers remaining a feature of Vatican choirs until the nineteenth century, while the last Chinese eunuch of the imperial court died in 1996. With: Karen Radner Professor of Ancient Near Eastern History at University College London Shaun Tougher Reader in Ancient History at Cardiff University Michael Hoeckelmann British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of History at King's College London Producer: Thomas Morris.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for downloading this episode of In Our Time for more details about In Our Time
0:04.1	and for our terms of use please go to bbc.co.uk slash radio for.
0:09.0	I hope you enjoy the program.
0:11.4	Hello, when an elderly Chinese man called Sun Yao Ting died in 1996,
0:17.6	brutal tradition lasting almost 3,000 years has brought to an end.
0:21.2	He was the last Chinese imperial unit, castrated in childhood,
0:25.8	and sent to workers as servant to the emperor in the forbidden city.
0:28.9	The royal palace in the centre of then peaking now Beijing.
0:32.6	Unix had been part of the Chinese royal court for millennia,
0:36.2	but there were also a feature of many other civilizations,
0:38.5	including the vast Assyrian empire, Rome, Byzantium and India.
0:43.1	Typically, Unix were palace servants,
0:45.4	where their sexual impotence meant that they could be trusted
0:48.2	to look after royal women.
0:50.2	In some civilizations they achieved great power,
0:52.8	commanding armies and acting as spies and senior government positions,
0:56.5	and the Unix singers, Nana's Kastrati,
0:59.0	took part in services in the Vatican until the late 19th century,
1:02.4	and so went on to become stars of that new entertainment, the opera.
1:07.1	With me to discuss the history of Unix, our Karen Radner,
1:09.9	professor of ancient Near Eastern history at UCL,
1:13.1	Sean Tucker, reader in ancient history at Cardiff University,
	...

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