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Castration history of Edessa (1)

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Topics (move over topic to see place in topic list) Edessa 12 Assyrian Identity 12.03 Assyrian identity in Christian Era 12.03.02 Continuity of “Old Faith” beside Christianity 12.03.02.03 Edessa Self-castration 03 Religious festivals, cults, rituals and practices 03.02 Cult of Ištar 03.02.04 Transsexuality/androgyny 03.02.04.01 Self-castration	Keywords castration Edessa
Period 3rd century CE Roman Empire	Channel Christian-Greek philosophers and scholars

Text
Bardesanes, Book of the Laws of the Countries 45:
In Syria and in Edessa there was the custom of self-emasculation in honour of Tarˁatha (Atargatis); but when king Abgar had come to faith, he ordered that every man who emasculated himself should have his hand chopped off. And from that day until the present no one emasculates himself in the territory of Edessa.

Source (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Bardesanes, Book of the Laws of the Countries 45

Bibliography

Brock 1999, II 223	Brock, Sebastian. From Ephrem to Romanos. Interactions between Syriac and Greek in Late Antiquity. London: Variorum Reprints 1999.
Drijvers 1965, 58-59	Drijvers, Han J. W. The Book of the Laws of Countries. Dialogue on Fate of Bardaiṣan of Edessa. Semitic Texts with Translations 4. Assen: Van Gorcum & Comp 1965.

Amar Annus

URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0000431.php

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