Notes on a Persian eunuch

[JesusA (imported)]

In my brief review of the story Recollections of a Reluctant Gelder (http://forums.eunuch.org/showthread.php ... ant-Gelder), I wrote, "That noble families would castrate younger sons so that they might rise in military or government ranks is also accurate for the time, as is the castration of peasant boys by their families for the same purpose." I am currently completing my research on Persia toward a book that I hope to finish by the end of next year. One of the characters whom I plan to mention is Menostanes.

Menostanes was the son of King Artaxerxes I's half-brother Artarios. Artarios held the position of Satrap of Babylon and had his son Menostanes castrated so that he could attain a position in the court. When Artaxerxes I died, Menostanes was part of the palace plot to assassinate his successor Xerxes II (his own cousin who reigned for only 45 days before his assassination). He helped to place on the throne a different cousin, King Sogdianus and then became the head of Sogdianus' palace guard (the second most powerful position in the kingdom, right after the position of king).

When Sogdianus was then deposed by his brother Darius II, Menostanes commited suicide. He was replaced as head of the palace guard by a foreign eunuch, Artoxares.

Artaxerxes I figures in Biblical history as the one who sent Nehemiah to Jerusalem to supervise the rebuilding of the city. Nehemiah was a eunuch cupbearer/poison taster and a close confidant of the king. Poison tasters, of course, had to accompany the king everywhere he went, including into the royal harem. Only eunuchs ever held the position.

In the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible), Nehemiah's position in Artaxerxes' court is translated as eunochos (eunuch), rather than oinochoos (cup-bearer).

[SplitDik (imported)]

You are a true scholar. Thanks for the efforts to do the research and thanks for sharing with the community.