Concubines,

[Newme]

Concubines tend to require lower maintenance and have fewer headaches at bedtime.

You seem to know a lot about this, Moksha.

[alas]

In the Bible, Shadrack, Meshad, and Abendigo (and probably Daniel but he was not mentioned in that story) were taken as slaves when the Jews were taken captive into Babbalon and they were turned over to the palace eunuch. The palace eunuch was the person in charge of wives, concubines, and boy toys. So, they were slaves, used sexually by the king. Makes them concubines. But the Bible never explains this small fact because of homophobia and wanting to paint these Jewish boys as super righteous in keeping Jewish dietary laws. It seems to me that the early Jews were fine with same sex concubinage, because they just seemed to take in stride that Daniel and his three friends were raised in the palace and educated and close friends with the king because they were concubines to the king.

Alas,
Do you have a reference on this or is this some conjecture being put forth? Palace eunuchs probably had numerous responsibilities that didn't necessarily entail training young men for the purposes you describe. Just curious where this notion comes from.

Did some research here and it seems it is a distinct possibility that Daniel and his friends could have been castrated as part of their induction into palace life. And some may infer that being a person of pleasure to the king was also a possibility although it certainly isn't an unavoidable conclusion in all cases. Regarding these young Jewish princes there doesn't seem to be any conclusive evidence either way.

It was kind of putting two and two together. They were taken to the palace of the Babalonian King and put in the care of the palace eunuch. The palace eunuchs had the primary role of guarding the palace harem.

I decided just from the Bible that was the only logical case, but I am far from the only one who has come up with the idea. In my indepth study of the Bible, I ran across others, more scholarly than me, who also said it was the only logical reason for them to be given into the care of the palace eunuch. One said that as "companions" to the king or princes, they needed to be both pretty, and educated. And remember the eunuch was worried that if they didn't eat the good palace pork, that they would not look as healthy and he would be punished for not taking proper care of them. But they abstained from the rich palace food and wine and they looked healthier.

Could they have been raised as eunuchs and trained in all the knowledge of the Babalonians and given the best palace food?(which they refused because it was not Kosher) all for some other purpose? ??? I suppose so. But the guards of the harem were not "high class slaves" as the concubines were. What would the purpose of castrating them be? They were obviously high class slaves and what other slaves were treated that well? The only reason that I find believable that they would be under the guards of the harem was if they were part of the harem. If they had some other reason for being raised in the palace that way, I can't imagine what it would be. And I don't think they were castrated for a boys choir to keep their pretty soprano voices....