[Avodah] What is a saris?

[Zev Sero]

Michael Kopinsky wrote:

> Do we see that the term eunuch or saris was extended to refer to a 
> fertile, procreative royal servant?  According to Wikipedia[1], "by Late 
> Antiquity the term "eunuch" had come to be applied not only to castrated 
> men, but also to a wide range of men with comparable behavior, who had 
> "chosen to withdraw from worldly activities and thus refused to 
> procreate."  However, I see no indication that men who did procreate 
> were still called eunuchs.

In any case, that refers specifically to Byzantine Christian usage,
as explicitly opposed to pagan usage.


-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas