Considering that Nebuchadnezzar had סריסים in his court and that Daniel became a highly appointed member of this court, it seems likely that he also was made a eunuch. Are there any documented traditions that this was the case?
1 Answer
Daniel is sometimes identified with one of two eunuchs in Achashverosh's court, Hatach and Memuchan; the implication being that after Persia conquered Babylon, the Babylonian eunuchs were transferred to the Persian court. So those are traditions that Daniel was a eunuch. Whether he was physically castrated is debatable, as סריסים is also a term that appears in connection to the courts of Yehudah and Yisrael (for example: Shmuel 1:8:15, Melachim 1:22:9, Melachim 2:23:11) and there it is unlikely that they were castrated. It seems like a borrowed term.
On a more p'shat level, it's quite likely that Yeshayahu's prophecy to Chizkiyahu "And some of your sons, your own issue, whom you will have fathered, will be taken to serve as eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." (Melachim 2:20:18) came to refer to Daniel, Chananyah, Mishael and Azaryah, as it says that the youths brought to the Babylonian court should be "...Israelites of royal descent and of the nobility" (Daniel 1:3). As @JoelK pointed out, this is also stated outright by the gemara in Sanhedrin 93b. Other sources also hold that Daniel was a descendant of David (Zohar Neso 15:150, Targum Ruth 3:15).
