I research how eunuchs (castrated men) are portrayed in literature. I’ve written the following articles to discuss the referenced historical individuals.
Akhenaten, 14th century BCE, Egypt
Eunuchs serving King Shalmaneser III, 9th century BCE, Assyria
Zhao Gao, 3rd century BCE, China
Cai Lun, 2nd century CE, China – Wikipedia
Emperor Elagabalus, 3rd century CE, Rome
Eutropius, 4th century CE, Rome
Narses, 6th century CE, Byzantium
Abu al-Misk Kafur, 10th century CE, Egypt – Wikipedia
Basil Lekapenos, 10th century CE, Byzantium – Wikipedia
Abelard, 12th century CE, France
Zheng He, 15th century CE, China
Unnamed “eunuch poet” (mentioned by Andrew Marvell, a 17th-century English poet)
Aga Mohamed Khan, 18th century CE, Persia
Manucher Khan, 19th century CE, Persia
Giusto Fernando Tenducci, late 1700s, Italy – the individual probably represented in “A Character,” an anonymously written, two-paragraph, British commentary (written in a fictional form as a literary device) on Italian castrati in The Rambler’s Magazine (1784) Learn more about the Italian castrati.
The Skoptsi, late 1700s through mid-1900s, Russia and the Balkans
See a painting: “Eunuch at the door of the harem” (1870) by Vasily Vereshchagin
Chateaubriand, in his travel writing (1884)
About 30 Italians after the Battle of Adwa, Ethiopia (1896)
The last chief eunuch of the Ottoman empire, early 20th century, Turkey
Tucker Lieberman 