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Basil — Description
Basil Lekapenos was a powerful eunuch and ruler of Byzantine empire. He was an illegitimate son of the Byzantine emperor Romanos I Lekapenos who served as the parakoimomenos and chief minister of the Byzantine Empire for most of the period 947–985, under emperors Constantine VII, Nikephoros II Phokas, John I Tzimiskes, and Basil II.
His mother was a slave woman of "Scythian" (possibly implying Slavic/Bulgarians) origin.
Basil was a close friend of emperor John Tzimiskes. Basil himself took part in the great campaign against the Rus' in Bulgaria in 971, having been entrusted with the reserve forces, the baggage train and the supply arrangements, while Tzimiskes himself with his elite troops marched ahead.
His enormous wealth enabled Basil to become, according to the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, "one of the most lavish Byzantine art patrons".

"Psellos characterized him as the most remarkable person in the Roman empire," outstanding in intellect, bodily stature, and regal in appearance." As an artifice shaped by human hands, Basil Lekapenos became skilled in rhetoric, diplomacy, warfare; he possessed avid desire for wealth and power, subtle taste, and an eye for exquisite shapes. This eunuch's adorned body could
be equated to the beautiful Limburg container. It is this brilliant form in which power resides. The eunuch is the angelic guard and protector; the face and body of the empire, in brief—the container of the empire. Relic and reliquary work in tandem, a pair suspended between presence and absence, between inaccessible energy—the emperor—and sensual experience of an iconized container—the eunuch."
— Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics, 51: Spring 2007. By Francesco Pellizzi

"The angels' appearance, stature, gait, and role in the celestial palace mirror the functions of eunuchs in the terrestrial court. As in the celestial court, access to the emperor passes through the rings of eunuchs surrounding his throne. This angelic guard is characterized with long and slender bodies, snowy white skin, and radiant garments of purple and gold. The image of these angels reveals the Byzantine perception of the ideal court eunuch: young, possessing extraordinary beauty, with radiant skin and hair, dressed in purple-golden silks and linens (Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics, 51: Spring 2007)"

"Another possible explanation can also be derived from physiognomy, though coining to adverse conclusion. The handsome eunuch, whose physical beauty reflects the beauty of his soul, is a common subject in writings from the early Byzantine period. The vision of the luminous beauty of eunuchs, associated with purity and the soul's beauty, finds an important development in relation to angels, resulting in eunuchophilia. Eunuchs and angels are both royal messengers and they both introduce dignitaries to the sovereign. A dream-interpreting work, dated from the ninth to the eleventh centuries, indicates that if one dreams of a gracious and tall eunuch, the eunuch should be considered an angel, because a eunuch resembles an angel an being pure and does not feel carnal desire (Drexl 1925:10)."

Art by Deva.