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THE CLOTHED BODY IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
17-19 January 2002

Shaun Tougher
Cardiff University

Clothing Eunuchs: Dress and Identity of Eunuchs in Late Antiquity and Byzantium

Eunuchs in late Roman and Byzantine thought possess strong identities (some contradictory): slave, servile, humble, powerful, outsider, insider, corrupt, pure. An aspect of eunuch identity that is particularly pronounced is that of gender: they cane be seen as effeminate male, or as a completely different, third, gender. This paper will seek to explore that of gender in relation to dress. In popular opinion the exoticism and difference of eunuch identity can be associated not just with their physical difference but also their dress. Is there such a perspective mirrored in the late Roman and Byzantine sources themselves? What attention is paid to the clothing of eunuchs? Further, the paper will also attempt to establish what we know of the reality of eunuch dress