Galli of Cybele
In ancient Greek and Roman culture - a world ruled by gods and goddesses - there evolved a major cult devoted to Cybele, a fertility goddess. Among her worshipers were galli, castrated males dressed as women who served as her priestesses. This cult apparently grew quite large before it faded into the mists of history.
According to professor Paul Halsall of Fordham University –
The cult of Cybele, the Magna Mater, the Mother Goddess of Phrygia, was brought to
The Myth of Cybele and Attis
Cybele was a powerful, beautiful and desirable goddess of fertility. She attracted Zeus’s amorous attention but rejected his sexual advances. As she slept one night, Zeus arrived at her bedside. There, he masturbated and ejaculated on her body. She became pregnant from his seed.
Cybele later gave birth to Agdistis, a hermaphrodite (having both male and female genitalia). Agdistis was a terrifying, violent, demonic god. The other gods became frightened and sent Dionysis to cut off Agdistis’s penis.
Dionysis buried the severed penis and it grew into an almond tree. The daughter of the river Sangarius took one of its almonds and became pregnant as a result. She gave birth to a boy who become a handsome young man named Attis.
Cybele fell in love with Attis, and Attis was deeply devoted to her. But Attis had been engaged to marry a princess. Cyble came to his wedding and used her powers to halt the marriage. Filled with remorse, Attis went insane. He ran away, castrated himself, and bled to death. Cybele brought him back to life and Attis served her as a eunuch attendant.
Galli – Castrated Priests
Among Cybele's devotees were the galli, male followers who sought to emulate Attis. They castrated themselves in an ecstatic ritual on Dies Sanguinis, the Day of Blood. Afterwards, they adopted women’s clothing and assumed female identities. They served as priestesses, leading Cybele’s followers in wild ceremonies with raucous music, drumming and dancing.
These rites came on the twenty-fourth of March, a day that was called, significantly enough, the "Day of Blood." At this time the Great Mother of the Gods [Cybele] inspired her devotees with a frenzy surpassing that which the followers of Dionysus knew. It was a madness induced not by wine, but by the din of crashing music, the dizzy whirling of the dance, and the sight of blood. The music which accompanied these rites was wild and barbaric, made by clashing cymbals and blatant horns, shrilling flutes and rolling drums.
Keyed up to the highest pitch of religious excitement, they followed the example of Attis and emasculated themselves. With this final act of self-sacrifice and consecration, the Dies Sanguinis was crowned and the devotee became one of the Galli, a eunuch-priest of the Asian goddess…
He also provides an account recorded in ancient times by Lucian -
During these days they are made Galli. As the Galli sing and celebrate their orgies, frenzy falls on many of them, and many who had come as mere spectators afterwards are found to have committed the great act. Any young man who has resolved on this action, strips off his clothes, and with a loud shout bursts into the midst of the crowd and picks up a sword. He takes it and emasculates himself and then runs wild through the city.
Spiritual Practice of the Galli
The galli’s radical act of self-castration was not merely a spontaneous act of devotional fervor. It was a powerful spiritual practice leading them towards mystical union with goddess Cybele.
Undoubtedly for the devotee of Cybele the rite of self-mutilation had distinct religious values. By the very act the devotee himself became another Attis. He had done in the service of the goddess what Attis had already done…Just as Attis was believed to have attained the state of deity by the passion of emasculation so by the way of self-mutilation, the Gallus became a god instead of mortal. The act that made an Attis of the votary placed him in peculiarly intimate relationship to the Mother Goddess herself. The broken instruments of his manhood were treated as an oblation to the goddess….
As a new Attis, the votary assumed the role of a bridegroom to the goddess…. Indeed, a specific cult designation of the Gallus was "bridegroom." This indicates that the experiences of the Dies Sanguinus and the following night were interpreted as a process of mystical union with the Great Goddess herself, and by means of certain obscure ritual acts there was developed a sense of intimate divine communion on the part of the devotee….
As an indication of this transformation he henceforth wore feminine dress and allowed his hair to grow long. At some point in the ceremony there was also a solemn enthronement and the consecrated mortal was crowned in token of his deification. Nothing less than this, in the experience of the Gallus, was the result of his act of devotion. It made him realistically and mystically one with his goddess.
Professor Kirk M. Summers teaches a class on Greek and Roman Mythology at the
Cybele is worshiped through ecstatic activity….the ecstatic activity and raucous music and dancing emphasizes life and vigor and sexuality and produces an altered mental state which gets you into contact with that power in the universe…
Her priests were eunuchs, and became known among the Greeks as Galli….The castration of these priests represents the priests devotion to the mother goddess, their fidelity to her, and their adherence to a strict moral code of chastity. This may be repugnant to us, but even early Christian theologians advocated this, and many practiced it, to show their total devotion to God.
Summers suggests that men who are already transgendered might choose to become galli much as Hindu men who are transgendered sometimes choose to become hijras -
There is some evidence, though, that the priesthood and the castration attached to it became a kind of club for transsexuals to join: it gave them a kind of status in society, including power (from being a devotee of a powerful goddess) and the right to engage in outrageous behavior with impunity - they could dress, talk, and act in a way that many would think shameful, and then just claim they were working for the goddess. (Full article available here .)
Resources
Wikipedia has brief articles on Cybele , Attis , and the galli .
Harold R. Willoughby, Pagan Regeneration – A Study of Mystery Initiations in the Graeco-Roman World, Chicago: The
Information about an eclectic, modern group that includes transgendered persons devoted to Cybele can be found at http://gallae.com/