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Eunuch
A eunuch ( ) is a male who has been castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2nd millennium BCE. Over the millennia since, they have performed a wide variety of functions in many different cultures: courtiers or equivalent domestics, for espionage or clandestine operations, castrato singers, concubines, or sexual partners, religious specialists, soldiers, royal guards, government officials, and guardians of women or harem servants. Eunuchs would usually be servants or slaves who had been castrated to make them less threatening servants of a royal court where physical access to the ruler could wield great influence. Seemingly lowly domestic functions—such as making the ruler's bed, bathing him, cutting his hair, carrying him in his litter, or even relaying messages—could, in theory, give a eunuch "the ruler's ear" a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harem
Harem ( Persian: حرمسرا ''haramsarā'', ar, حَرِيمٌ ''ḥarīm'', "a sacred inviolable place; harem; female members of the family") refers to domestic spaces that are reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A harem may house a man's wife or wives, their pre-pubescent male children, unmarried daughters, female domestic servants, and other unmarried female relatives. In harems of the past, slave concubines were also housed in the harem. In former times some harems were guarded by eunuchs who were allowed inside. The structure of the harem and the extent of monogamy or polygamy has varied depending on the family's personalities, socio-economic status, and local customs. Similar institutions have been common in other Mediterranean and Middle Eastern civilizations, especially among royal and upper-class families, and the term is sometimes used in other contexts. In traditional Persian residential architecture the women's quarters were known as ''andar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Castration
Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which an individual loses use of the testicles: the male gonad. Surgical castration is bilateral orchiectomy (excision of both testicles), while chemical castration uses pharmaceutical drugs to deactivate the testes. Castration causes sterilization (preventing the castrated person or animal from reproducing); it also greatly reduces the production of hormones, such as testosterone and estrogen. Surgical castration in animals is often called neutering. The term ''castration'' is sometimes also used to refer to the removal of the ovaries in the female, otherwise known as an oophorectomy, or the removal of internal testes, otherwise known as gonadectomy. The equivalent of castration for female animals is spaying. Estrogen levels drop following oophorectomy, and long-term effects of the reduction of sex hormones are significant throughout the body. Castration of animals is intended to favor a desired developme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Castrato
A castrato (Italian, plural: ''castrati'') is a type of classical male singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto. The voice is produced by castration of the singer before puberty, or it occurs in one who, due to an endocrinological condition, never reaches sexual maturity. Castration before puberty (or in its early stages) prevents the larynx from being transformed by the normal physiological events of puberty. As a result, the vocal range of prepubescence (shared by both sexes) is largely retained, and the voice develops into adulthood in a unique way. Prepubescent castration for this purpose diminished greatly in the late 18th century. Methods of castration used to terminate on the onset of puberty varied. Methods involved using opium to medically induce a coma, then submerging the boy into an ice or milk bath where the procedure of either severing the vas deferens (similar to a vasectomy), twisting the testicles until they atrophied, or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Court
A royal court, often called simply a court when the royal context is clear, is an extended royal household in a monarchy, including all those who regularly attend on a monarch, or another central figure. Hence, the word "court" may also be applied to the coterie of a senior member of the nobility. Royal courts may have their seat in a designated place, several specific places, or be a mobile, itinerant court. In the largest courts, the royal households, many thousands of individuals comprised the court. These courtiers included the monarch or noble's camarilla and retinue, household, nobility, clergy, those with court appointments, bodyguards, and may also include emissaries from other kingdoms or visitors to the court. Foreign princes and foreign nobility in exile may also seek refuge at a court. Near Eastern and Far Eastern courts often included the harem and concubines as well as eunuchs who fulfilled a variety of functions. At times, the harem was walled off and separ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chevalier Auguste De Henikstein - Kislar Agassi
Chevalier may refer to: Honours Belgium * a rank in the Belgian Order of the Crown * a rank in the Belgian Order of Leopold * a rank in the Belgian Order of Leopold II * a title in the Belgian nobility France * a rank in the French Legion d'honneur * a rank in the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres * a rank in the French Ordre des Palmes Académiques * a rank in the French Ordre National du Mérite Other * Chevalier, a member of certain orders of knighthood * "Degree of Chevalier", the highest honor for an active member of DeMolay International Entertainment * ''Chevalier'' (2015 film), a 2015 Greek film * ''Chevalier'' (2022 film) * '' Chevalier: Le Chevalier D'Eon'', a 2005 anime and manga * ''Hotel Chevalier'', an American-French short film written and directed by Wes Anderson, 2007 * some characters in the anime and manga series ''Blood+'' Other * Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Afro-Caribbean and French classical composer, fencer, and violinist * Chevalier College, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leo VI The Wise
Leo VI, called the Wise ( gr, Λέων ὁ Σοφός, Léōn ho Sophós, 19 September 866 – 11 May 912), was Byzantine Emperor from 886 to 912. The second ruler of the Macedonian dynasty (although his parentage is unclear), he was very well read, leading to his epithet. During his reign, the renaissance of letters, begun by his predecessor Basil I, continued; but the Empire also saw several military defeats in the Balkans against Bulgaria and against the Arabs in Sicily and the Aegean. His reign also witnessed the formal discontinuation of several ancient Roman institutions, such as the separate office of Roman consul. Early life Born on 19 September 866 to the empress Eudokia Ingerina, Leo was either the illegitimate son of Emperor Michael III or the second son of Michael's successor, Basil I the Macedonian. Eudokia was both Michael III's mistress and Basil's wife. In 867, Michael was assassinated by Basil, who succeeded him as emperor. As the second-eldest son of the Empe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nikon Of The Black Mountain
Nikon of the Black Mountain (born 1025, died 1105) was a Byzantine soldier, monk and author. Born at Constantinople around 1025 to a family of '' archontes'', Nikon served in the army under Constantine IX (). He never received a formal education and considered himself "simple, uncultivated and completely ignorant". Acting on a vision of the Virgin Mary, he retired to a monastery on the Black Mountain founded by Luke, the former metropolitan of Anazarbos, who also tonsured him. After the death of Luke, Nikon incurred the displeasure of his brother monks by striving to enforce rigid discipline. He was eventually forced to leave. He tried to establish his own monastery, but ultimately settled in the monastery of Simeon Stylites the Younger on the Wondrous Mountain. In 1084, the Sultanate of Rum conquered Antioch and the monastery of Saint Simeon was sacked. For safety, Nikon moved to the monastery of the ''Theotokos tou Roidiou'' (Virgin of the Pomegranate), probably identical wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theophylact Of Ohrid
Theophylact ( gr, Θεοφύλακτος, bg, Теофилакт; around 1055after 1107) was a Byzantine archbishop of Ohrid and commentator on the Bible. Life Theophylact was born in the mid-11th century at Euripus (Chalcis) in Euboea, at the time part of the Byzantine Empire (now Greece). He became a deacon at Constantinople, attained a high reputation as a scholar, and became the tutor of Constantine Doukas , son of the Emperor Michael VII, for whom he wrote ''The Education of Princes''. In about 1078 he moved to the Province of Bulgaria where he became the archbishop of Achrida (modern Ohrid). Ohrid was one of the capital cities of Bulgaria that had been re-conquered by the Byzantines sixty years earlier. In this demanding position in a conquered territory on the outskirts of the Byzantine Empire, he conscientiously and energetically carried out his pastoral duties over the course of the next twenty years. Although a Byzantine by upbringing and outlook, he was a diligent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Etymologicum Magnum
''Etymologicum Magnum'' ( grc, Ἐτυμολογικὸν Μέγα, ) (standard abbreviation ''EM'', or ''Etym. M.'' in older literature) is the traditional title of a Greek lexical encyclopedia compiled at Constantinople by an unknown lexicographer around 1150 AD. It is the largest Byzantine lexicon and draws on many earlier grammatical, lexical and rhetorical works. Its main sources were two previous ''etymologica'', the so-called '' Etymologicum Genuinum'' and the '' Etymologicum Gudianum''. Other sources include Stephanus of Byzantium, the ''Epitome'' of Diogenianus, the so-called ''Lexicon'' Αἱμωδεῖν (''Haimōdeῖn''), Eulogius’ Ἀπορίαι καὶ λύσεις (''Ἀporίai kaὶ lύseis''), George Choeroboscus’ ''Epimerismi ad Psalmos'', the ''Etymologicon'' of Orion of Thebes, and collections of ''scholia''. The compiler of the ''Etymologicum Magnum'' was not a mere copyist; rather he amalgamated, reorganised, augmented and freely modified his source ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eustathius Of Thessalonica
Eustathius of Thessalonica (or Eustathios of Thessalonike; el, Εὐστάθιος Θεσσαλονίκης; c. 1115 – 1195/6) was a Byzantine Greek scholar and Archbishop of Thessalonica. He is most noted for his contemporary account of the sack of Thessalonica by the Normans in 1185, for his orations and for his commentaries on Homer, which incorporate many remarks by much earlier researchers. He was officially canonized on June 10, 1988, and his feast day is on September 20.Great Synaxaristes: Ὁ Ἅγιος Εὐστάθιος ὁ Κατάφλωρος Ἀρχιεπίσκοπος Θεσσαλονίκης'' 20 Σεπτεμβρίου. ΜΕΓΑΣ ΣΥΝΑΞΑΡΙΣΤΗΣ. Life A pupil of Nicholas Kataphloron, Eustathius was appointed to the offices of superintendent of petitions (, ''epi ton deeseon''), professor of rhetoric (), and was ordained a deacon in Constantinople. He was ordained bishop of Myra. Around the year 1178, he was appointed to the archbishopric of Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cubicularius
''Cubicularius'', Hellenized as ''koubikoularios'' ( gr, κουβικουλάριος), was a title used for the eunuch chamberlains of the imperial palace in the later Roman Empire and in the Byzantine Empire. The feminine version, used for the ladies-in-waiting of the empresses, was ''koubikoularia'' (κουβικουλαρία). History The term derives from their service in the ''sacrum cubiculum'', the emperor's "sacred bedchamber". In the late Roman period, the ''cubicularii'' or ''koubikoularioi'' were numerous: according to John Malalas, Empress Theodora's retinue numbered as many as 4,000 '' patrikioi'' and ''koubikoularioi''.. They were placed under the command of the ''praepositus sacri cubiculi'' and the '' primicerius sacri cubiculi'', while the other palace servants came either under the '' castrensis sacri palatii'' or the ''magister officiorum''.. There were also special ''cubicularii''/''koubikoularioi'' for the empress (sometimes including female ''koubikoular ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Luther Bible
The Luther Bible (german: Lutherbibel) is a German language Bible translation from Latin sources by Martin Luther. The New Testament was first published in September 1522, and the complete Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments with Apocrypha, in 1534. Luther continued to make improvements to the text until 1545. It was the first full translation of the Bible into German which made use of Greek texts, not just their Latin Vulgate translations. However, the updated 2017 translation of the Luther Bible published by the Evangelical Church in Germany notes that "Luther translated according to the Latin text". Luther did not speak Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic and relied heavily on other scholars for assistance, particularly Melanchthon. One of the textual bases of the New Testament translation was the Greek version recently published by the Dutch Catholic humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam and called the Novum Instrumentum omne. The project absorbed Luther's later years. Thanks to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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