Sexual life in ancient Greece : with thirty-two full-page plates

SUPPLEMENT

lived “on the mainland” a king named Echetus (despot)? “the destroyer of all men”. ‘Tramps and beggars were threatened with being sent to Echetus “ that he might cut off their nose and ears with merciless knife, tear out their private parts, and throw them raw to the dogs to eat” (Od., Xvill, 85).

Whether or not by Echetus ! an historical person is meant, cannot be now decided. But it is certain that in ancient Greece castration was inflicted as a punishment. ‘Thus Odysseus punishes the unfaithful goatherd Melanthius, cuts off his nose, ears, and hands, and gives his torn out genitals to the dogs to eat (Od., xxii, 474).

If in the case of Melanthius we cannot speak of castration properly so called, but rather of cruel mutilation before being killed, there are, however, not a few examples of actual castration, that is of persons, especially boys, who it was intended should live on in that condition. Certainly it is nearly always a question of an Oriental, rarely of a Greek custom. ‘Thus, according to Hellanicus (frag. 169, FHG., I, 68), the Babylonians were the first to castrate boys, an atrocity introduced—according to Xenophon (Cyrop., VII, v, 65)—into Persia by the elder Cyrus. According to a widespread notion the originator of the practice was a woman, no less a person than the Assyrian queen Semiramis (Amm. Marcell., XIV, vi, 17).

Eunuchs were also employed as temple servants at the sanctuaries of Cybele and Artemis in Sardes and Ephesus (Hdt., v, 102). By the threat of intending to castrate their boys, the Persians, before the naval battle off the island of Lade, endeavoured to bring the Ionians over to their side, and after their victory carried out their threat (Hdt., vi, 9 and 32).

Castration was also occasionally undertaken for

1 The name means tyrant, and became proverbial, so that according to Eunapius 110 and Suidas under ®ijoros the consul Festus in Asia was so named in the reign of the Emperor Valens.

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