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Agallus (pl.galli/gallae) was aeunuch priest of thePhrygian goddessCybele (Magna Mater in Rome) and her consortAttis, whose worship was incorporated into thestate religious practices of ancient Rome.
Cybele's cult may have originated in Mesopotamia,[1] arriving in Greece around 300 BCE.[2] It originally kept its sacred symbol, ablack meteorite, in a temple called the Megalesion inPessinus in modern Turkey.
The earliest surviving references to thegalli come from theGreek Anthology, a 10th-century compilation of earlier material, where several epigrams mention or clearly allude to their castrated state.
Stephanus Byzantinus (6th century CE) said the name came from King Gallus,[3] whileOvid (43 BC – 17 CE) said it derived from the Gallus River in Phrygia.[4] The same word (gallus singular,galli plural) was used by the Romans to refer toCelts and toroosters, and the latter especially was a source of puns.[5] Considering the Mesopotamian connection, and the similarities between Cybele andInanna, a common etymology between thegalli and the much earlier Sumerian priests of Inanna, known as theGala, is plausible, but this is not as yet conclusive.
The cult of Magna Mater arrived in Rome sometime in the 3rd century BCE, towards the end of the Second Punic War against Carthage. There are no contemporary accounts of its arrival, but later literary sources describe its import as an official response to meteor showers, crop failures and famine in 205 BCE. The Senate and the Syblline books identified these events asprodigies, signs of divine anger against Rome and warnings of Rome's imminent destruction, which should be expiated by Rome's official import of the Magna Mater and her cult; with the goddess as an ally, Rome might see an end to the famine and victory over Carthage.[6] In 204 BCE, the Roman Senate officially adoptedCybele as a state goddess. Her cult image was brought from her sanctuary in Asia Minor, and eventually into the city, with much ceremony.[7] According to Livy, it was brought to theTemple of Victory on the Palatine Hill on the day before the Ides of April,[8] and, from then on, the anniversary was celebrated as theMegalesia on April 4–10 with public games, animal sacrifices, and music performed by thegalli.[9] Over a hundred years later (according to Plutarch), when the Roman generalMarius planned to fight theGermanic tribes, a priest of thegalli named Bataces prophesied Roman victory and consequently the Senate voted to build a victory temple to the goddess.[10]
Dionysius of Halicarnassus claimed that Roman citizens did not participate in the rituals of the cult of Magna Mater. Literary sources call thegalli "half-men" (semiviri), or "half-women" (ἡμίθηλυς), leading scholars to conclude that Roman men looked down upon thegalli.[11] But Roman disapproval of the foreign cult may be more the invention of modern scholars than a social reality in Rome, as archaeologists have found votive statues of Attis on the Palatine hill, meaning Roman citizens participated on some level in the reverence of Magna Mater and her consort.[6]
The archigallus was aRoman citizen who was also employed by theRoman State and therefore walked a narrow line: preserving cult traditions while not violating Roman religious prohibitions. Some argue that the archigallus was never a eunuch, as all citizens of Rome were forbidden fromeviratio (castration).[12] (This prohibition suggests that the originalgalli were either Asian or slaves.)Claudius, however, lifted the ban on castration;Domitian subsequently reaffirmed it.[13] Whether or not Roman citizens could participate in the cult of Magna Mater, or whether its members were exclusively foreign-born, is therefore the subject of scholarly debate.
The 5th century CE Christian philosopherSt. Augustine wrote about the Gallae in Carthage in his workThe City of God. In it, he complained that they "no later than yesterday, were going through the streets and places of Carthage with anointed hair, whitened faces, relaxed bodies, and feminine gait."[14]
The remains of a Romangallus from the 4th century CE were found in 2002 in what is nowCatterick, England, dressed in women's clothes, in jewelry of jet, shale, and bronze, with two stones in their mouth. Pete Wilson, the senior archaeologist at English Heritage, said, "The find demonstrates how cosmopolitan the north of England was." The archaeological site atCorbridge, a significant Romano-British settlement onHadrian's Wall, has an altar to the goddess Cybele.[15]
A fourth-century cemetery was excavated atHungate in York, where one of the burials has been identified as potentially that of a member of thegalli. This is based on the evidence that although the bones appeared to be male, the person was buried with jet bracelets, a material that is strongly associated with women. These aspects are also similar to that of the Gallus burial from Catterick.[16]
Thegalli castrated themselves during an ecstatic celebration called theDies sanguinis, or "Day of Blood", which took place on March 24.[17] On this day of mourning for Attis, they ran around wildly and disheveled. They performed dances to the music of pipes and tambourines, and, in an ecstasy, flogged themselves until they bled.[18] This was followed by a day of feasting and rest.
A sacred feast was part of the initiation ritual.Firmicus Maternus, a Christian who objected to other religions, revealed a possible password of thegalli: "I have eaten from the timbrel; I have drunk from the cymbal; I am become an initiate of Attis." That password is cited in the bookDe errore profanarum religionum. However, the password is written in Greek with a translation into Latin, which does not contain any reference to Attis.[19][20] Some editions of the text also omit "Attis" in the Greek password.[21] The Eleusinian Mysteries, reported byClement of Alexandria, include a similar formula: "I fasted; I drank thekykeon [water with meal]; I took from the sacred chest; I wrought therewith and put it in the basket, and from the basket into the chest." Clement also reported (as paraphrased by a 20th-century historian) "carrying a vessel called akernos" and entering "thepastos or marriage-chamber".[22]
The signs of their office have been described as a type of crown, possibly a laurel wreath, as well as a golden bracelet known as the occabus.[23] They generally wore women's clothing (often yellow), and a turban, pendants, and earrings. They bleached their hair and wore it long, and they wore heavy makeup. They wandered around with followers, begging for charity, in return for which they were prepared totell fortunes.
In Rome, the head of thegalli was known as thearchigallus, at least from the period of Claudius on. A number of archaeological finds depict the archigallus wearing luxurious and extravagant costumes. The archigallus was always a Roman citizen chosen by thequindecimviri sacris faciundis, whose term of service lasted for life.[24] Along with the institution of the archigallus came thePhrygianum sanctuary as well as the rite of thetaurobolium as it pertains to the Magna Mater, two aspects of the Magna Mater's cultus that the archigallus held dominion over.[23]
Shelley Hales wrote: "Greek and Roman literature consistently reinforces the sexual and racial difference of eunuchs by stressing how different they look. They were presented as wearing bright clothes, heavy jewellery, make-up and sporting bleached and crimped hair."[25] Because thegalli castrated themselves and wore women's clothing, accessories and makeup, scholars have interpreted them astransgender.[26][27]
Thegalli may also have occupied a "third gender" in Roman society. Jacob Latham has connected the foreign nature of Magna Mater and her priests' nonconforming gender presentation. They may have existed outside Roman constructions of masculinity and femininity altogether, which can explain the adverse reactions of Roman male citizens against thegalli's transgression of gender norms.[28]
Some scholars have linked the episode of the self-castration ofAttis to the ritual castration of thegalli.[29][30] AtPessinus, the centre of the Cybele cult, there were two high priests during the Hellenistic period, one with the title of "Attis" and the other with the name of "Battakes". Both were eunuchs.[31] The high priests had considerable political influence during this period, and letters exist from a high priest of Attis to the kings of Pergamon, Eumenes II and Attalus II, inscribed on stone. Later, during the Flavian period, there was a college of ten priests, not castrated, and now Roman citizens, but still using the title "Attis".[32]
Galli.