page_title: Galli
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Galli / History
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Relief funéraire d’un prêtre de Magna Mater (gallus) provenant de Lavinium. Rome, Musées capitolins (milieu du iie siècle ap. J.-C.). English: Funerary relief of a priest of Magna Mater (gallus) from Lavinium. Rome, Capitoline Museums (mid-second century AD).
context_page_description: A gallus was a eunuch priest of the Phrygian goddess Cybele and her consort Attis, whose worship was incorporated into the state religious practices of ancient Rome.
context_section_description: The earliest references to the galli come from the Anthologia Palatina, a 10th century compilation of earlier material. These references do not explicitly mention emasculation. A fragment attributed to Callimachus cites the term gallai as denoting castration.
  Stephanus Byzantinus said that the name came from King Gallus. Ovid (43 BC – 17 AD) says that the name is derived from the Gallus river in Phrygia.
  A connection has been made  between the episode of the castration of Attis and the ritual mutilation of the galli.
  At Pessinus, 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.  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".
  The first galli arrived in Rome when the Senate officially adopted Cybele as a state goddess in 204 BC. Roman citizens were prohibited from becoming galli, which meant that either the galli were Asian or they were slaves. Under Claudius, this ban was lifted. 
  In Rome, the head of the galli was known as the archigallus, 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 the quindecimviri sacris faciundis, whose term of service lasted for life. Along with the institution of the archigallus came the Phrygianum sanctuary as well as the rite of the taurobolium as it pertains to the Magna Mater, two aspects of the Magna Mater’s cultus that the archigallus held dominion over.
  Eventually Domitian reaffirmed that Roman citizens were forbidden to practice eviratio (castration).
  The galli castrated themselves during an ecstatic celebration called the Dies sanguinis, or "Day of Blood", which took place on March 24. At the same time they put on women's costume, mostly yellow in colour, and a sort of turban, together with pendants and ear-rings.  They also wore their hair long, and bleached, and wore heavy makeup. They wandered around with followers, begging for charity, in return for which they were prepared to tell fortunes. On the 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.
  Being a Roman citizen, as well as being employed by the Roman State, meant that the archigallus had to preserve the traditions of Cybele's cult while not violating Roman prohibitions in religious behavior. Hence, some argue that the archigallus was never a eunuch, as all citizens of Rome were forbidden from emasculation. However, under Claudius Roman citizens were permitted to be castrated up until the reign of Domitian. 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.
  In the 4th century, some currents of extreme asceticism in Christianity advocated self-castration. This practice was attacked as a return to the religious excesses of the galli by Basil of Ancyra. John Chrysostom in 390 attacked self-castrating Christians of being Manichaean heretics.  Augustine likewise phrased his opposition to self-castration as an attack on the galli. By extension, Luther would later use the same comparison in his attack on clerical celibacy.
  Because the galli castrated themselves and wore women's clothing, accessories and makeup, some modern scholars have interpreted them as transgender.
caption: Funerary relief of an Archigallus from Lavinium, mid-2nd century AD, Capitoline Museums, Rome.
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