Chapter 3: The ancient Greeks and Romans were a lot more diverse than we’ve come to expect

Cylas Durrington
Blog post on Unearthing the ancient

WARNING: For mature readers only – explicit content discussed

When you think about ancient Greece and Rome, it may be all warfare, worship and saucy symposiums; however, the truth about these ancient societies is far more interesting. Welcome back to my blog series unpacking misconceptions about Greek and Roman history and letting you in on the dirty deets, where the truth is often stranger than fiction. Today we’re talking (Late Republican and Early Imperial) Rome and looking at the eunuch ‘priests’ of Cybele, called the galli.

First, we’re going to take a quick look at the mythological roots of the galli, which come from the myth of Attis and Cybele. Essentially Attis devoted themself to Cybele, becoming a priest of her temple, swearing to:

Live in chastity now and for ever (Ovid, Fasti 4.253–4)

They further promised:

If Venus overcome me, if I lie, my first sin prove my last (Ovid, Fasti 4.256–7)

[Basically: If I have lied and am overcome with lust, that sin will be my last]

Then, and get this, they go against their own word, overcome by the river nymph Sagaritis. As a result, Cybele turns them divinely mad. Attis assures their prior statement to be true by castrating themself:

With a flint knife himself he mutilates (Ovid, Fasti 4.257)

Attis: Perish the members vile by which I die, blood expiate my sin, I sinful am, perish the guilty members which me damn.

And so he razed them off, nor left a sign, to tell he was a man. (Ovid, Fasti 4.269–73)

[Attis cuts off his genitals. which have ‘caused him to sin’.]

It is widely believed among scholars that (although not entirely confirmed) this self-castration then became the precedent for Cybele’s worshippers, although not all of them committed to her to this extent.

So, what does this have to do with queerness you ask? Well, in discussions about the galli they are often affiliated with modern transgenderism. For instance, scholars have often associated the galli’s self-castration as reflecting modern gender-affirming reassignment surgeries or their cross-dressing as a form of modern social transition.

Herein the issue lies: we cannot definitively assert the reasoning for their self-castration, other than following the tradition of Attis as outlined in literature. Is it solely linked to their chastity? Their gender expression? Is it simply a ritual process? A combination of the above? Inevitably in each instance here our perceptions are altered by modern perspectives of gender, sexuality and worship. Latham, Mowat and Hester all have interesting discussions of the galli that I recommend checking out if you have time.

Now I already know what you’re thinking: ‘So what? Why does it matter if they’re labelled as transgender? They’re not around anymore so why should we care?’ Well, my dear reader, it’s important because if we call these figures transgender (or transvestites or transsexuals), we attach modern ideas about transgender people to them. Ideas associated with much more recent history, which can lead to unconscious biases when talking about the galli, and therefore lead to misrepresentations of who they actually were and how they were perceived within society in their own time period.

Figures like the galli are a case which we often see in queer history. There’s this issue of what is ‘queer history’, and what is ‘history that reflects modern queer experiences’, which is particularly prominent in studies of ancient sexuality and gender.

The galli fall into this second category, because modern queer history is a much more recent affair (especially compared to ancient Rome). The construction of labels like ‘transgender’ only really begins in the late 19th century (although queer history isn’t quite that young). Despite this the experiences and practices of people like the galli may remain relatable and mirror some experiences of modern queer people, regardless of how the galli were viewed in their own time. This week’s topic is particularly entrenched in the concept of anachronisms, which refer to attributing or placing something in a period to which it doesn’t belong; in this instance, the anachronistic term is ‘transgender’.

There’s also this whole idea of cultural relativism that frames this debate too. But without getting into the nitty-gritty of it all too much, the general idea is that we should be looking at cultural practices in their own historical and cultural contexts, rather than using our own personal perspectives to debate them.

If we look at ancient Roman accounts regarding the galli, we still get incredibly biased perspectives; however, even these biases tell us something about the galli. From Apuleius we get descriptions which characterise them as disgusting and odious creatures:

the scum that turn the Great Goddess of Syria into a beggar-woman (Apuleius, The golden ass 12.199–200)

But it’s worth noting that much of Apuleius’ distaste toward the galli seems to be rooted in both their failed chastity:

[The priests] crowded round their guest’s couch […] and made […] loathsome suggestions (Apuleius, The golden ass 12.202)

as well as their methods of fundraising, in which they cart their statuette of Cybele from town to town (Apuleius, The golden ass 12.199). Although Apuleius does also expressly condemn their appearance, which may be indicative of a specific contempt for their transgression of Roman masculinity:

[…] all dressed in different colours and looking absolutely hideous, their faces daubed with rouge and their eye sockets painted to bring out the brightness of their eyes. They wore mitre-shaped birettas, saffron-coloured chasubles, silk surplices, girdles and yellow shoes. Some of them sported white tunics with an irregular criss-cross of narrow purple stripes. (Apuleius, The golden ass 12.201)

Martial, on the other hand, voices his concerns in direct relation to a specific priest of Cybele, Baeticus, who broke his vow of chastity with oral sex with a woman.

Why was your cock cut off with a Samian shard if you were so fond of a cunt, Baeticus? Your head should be castrated. You may be a eunuch loinwise, but you cheat Cybele’s rites. With your mouth you’re a man (Martial, Epigrams 3.81)

He insinuates that because Baeticus’ mouth is used for the sexual act that he should be beheaded in the interest of protecting Cybele’s rights. This is additionally rooted in his mistrust of a eunuch, who should be a trusted non-sexual figure around women. He also expressly states that:

This tongue of yours should be licking male middles. (Martial, Epigrams 3.81)

This suggests that even in the act of sexual service the transgression of pleasuring a woman is considered lesser than pleasuring a man.

There are of course alternative discussions of the Cybele’s followers, like that of Diodorus Siculus, who writes about a follower called Marsyas the Phrygian:

who was admired for his intelligence and chastity; […] and as an indication of his chastity they cite his abstinence from sexual pleasures until the day of his death (Diodorus, The library of history 3.58)

This outline of Marsyas is favourable, and certainly a cut above the prior descriptions of Baeticus and the eunuchs of Apuleius’ work.

The final ancient author I will leave you with today is Catullus, who interestingly, in his relay of Attis’ castration, uses a shift of pronouns following said castration (Catullus, Poems 63). Talk of Attis goes from:

He reached the Phrygian woodland, and entered the goddess’s abodes (Catullus, Poems 63.2–3)

to

So soon as Attis, woman yet no true one, chanted thus to her companions. (Catullus, Poems 63.27–28)

This may in fact depict what can be at least termed a social shift in gendered identity. Regardless, each depiction of the galli discusses them in a way that denies them masculinity and places them squarely in a transgressive position. This is essentially ‘queering’ them, by positioning them opposite to Roman masculinity.

While we can’t call the galli transgender, we can, however, call them transgressive. Their existence combatted the dominant masculine ideals of their time and additionally identified them as quasi-foreigners in their own lands, extensively enough that accounts of them still survive to us today. If you want to know more about all this, I’ll provide some articles below that you can jump on and check out if you like.