We all know that a circle with a attached cross is a female sign and a circle with an attached arrow is a male sign.

Is there a similar sign for a eunuch?

If there is - can someone please draw it.

Not that it is a serious answer, but since I was unable to find such a symbol years ago, I ended up using this on my sites for the last, uh, 8 or 9 years:

http://www.bmeworld.com/smooth/IMG/smooth02-50.jpg *

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*EDIT: Fscking img code is off. I keep forgetting that. Edited to change from img call to url call above. Sorry you can't see it in my post.

Paula (imported) wrote: Sun Jul 27, 2003 11:01 am We all know that a circle with a attached cross is a female sign and a circle with an attached arrow is a male sign.

Is there a similar sign for a eunuch?

If there is - can someone please draw it.

a pair of scissors

Don't know if this is relevant, but I read somewhere that, in the bel canto era of opera, barbers who made castrati, sometimes had a sign outside their shops which said that they performed the operation, and that had on it a picture of the coltello, a small knife with a hooked blade which was used in the operation. So perhaps the coltello could be used as a symbol. Paolo or Jesus might have photos of them.

Also, the Chinese explorer Cheng Ho was called the "three jeweled eunuch," but I have no idea what the three jewels were, or what their setting was.

There is an Egyptian hieroglyph which means "eunuch,' but I have never seen it, and don't know if it looks good.

As to a graphic symbol for the eunuch condition, one possibility is the "null" sign used in accounting, which is simply a zero with a dash on each side of it.

Paula (imported) wrote: Sun Jul 27, 2003 11:01 am We all know that a circle with a attached cross is a female sign and a circle with an attached arrow is a male sign.

Is there a similar sign for a eunuch?

If there is - can someone please draw it.

Well, there are certainly a couple of obvious (if unofficial) possibilities. How about a "male" symbol with with the head of the arrow drooping, or even snapped off. Or with the arrow given a "urethral relocation" and pointing straight down, echoing the form of the female symbol.

There is a more "sophisticated" possibility. The "male" and "female" symbols are, in fact, the astrological symbols for the planets Mars and Venus. There's a useful website at

http://www.nineplanets.org/

which has a page for each of the planets, which includes the astrological signs.

Having looked at the pages for Mars and Venus, you then might consider that for Uranus, and in particular the link to the page which describes the myth associated with the ancient Greek god for whom the planet is named. I think you'll agree with me that the planet's symbol - an H with an extra vertical stroke down from the crossbar - has potential.

You might also have a look at the page for Saturn, who appears (as Cronos) in the Uranus myth in a role which gives a definite obvious use for the planetry symbol.

All of these are really interesting and any of htem would work. Since Zeus castrated his father the symbol of that planet would be great. But for simple identification i think the one mentioned above -- a circle with lines on either side, or even piercing the circle would be instantly identifiable. Why don't we all vote on the one we feel is best? YM

yankee masha (imported) wrote: Wed Jul 30, 2003 2:05 pm All of these are really interesting and any of htem would work. Since Zeus castrated his father the symbol of that planet would be great. But for simple identification i think the one mentioned above -- a circle with lines on either side, or even piercing the circle would be instantly identifiable. Why don't we all vote on the one we feel is best? YM

I'd be interested in a good Chinese pictograph for "eunuch" that I could use in a chop.

Zoologists sometimes use a modification of the male symbol : a circle with a detached arrow, for a castrated male animal. I don't know if this symbol is official, but I have seen it in papers on physiology.

I don't know if this is what your looking for but ther is a web page "Eunuchs and Monks" The URL is: http://www.utopia-tours.com/eunuch.htm

The third jpeg. down on the right hand side is an ancient symbol for eunuch.

Jema

OT:

I would like to get a pentagram for a tatoo.