The Galli (singular: Gallus) were the eunuch priests of the ancient Phrygian goddess Cybele (known as Magna Mater, or "Great Mother," in Rome), a mother-goddess associated with fertility, nature, mountains, and wild animals like lions. Their cult originated in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) and may trace back to Mesopotamian influences around the 3rd millennium BCE, spreading to Greece by about 300 BCE and officially adopted in Rome in 204 BCE during a time of crisis, when her sacred black meteorite image was brought from Pessinus to help avert defeat in the Second Punic War. The Galli were typically non-Roman men who underwent voluntary ritual castration (often during ecstatic festivals like the Dies Sanguinis, or "Day of Blood," on March 24) to emulate Cybele's consort Attis, who in myth castrated himself in divine frenzy. Dressed in women's clothing, saffron robes, heavy makeup, jewelry, and long hair scented with ointment, they served as mendicant priests, performing ecstatic dances, playing cymbals and flutes, self-flagellating, and begging for alms in processions such as the annual Megalesia festival (April 4–10). This gender-nonconforming role challenged Roman norms of masculinity, leading to their portrayal in literature (e.g., by Catullus and Lucretius) as frenzied and effeminate, though they held a revered yet marginalized status in the cult. Archaeological evidence, including a 4th-century CE Gallus burial in Roman Britain dressed in female attire, shows the cult's spread across the empire.
The Enarei (also spelled Enarees or Anarya; singular: Enaree) were androgynous, effeminate priests and shamanistic soothsayers among the Scythians, nomadic Iranian peoples of the Eurasian steppes (circa 8th–3rd centuries BCE). Described by Herodotus (Histories 4.67) as "unmanly" (from Scythian *anarya, meaning "non-man"), they practiced divination using linden bark, wore women's clothing, and exhibited feminine traits, which they attributed to a hereditary curse from the goddess Artimpasa (a Scythian deity equated with Aphrodite/Artemis, an androgynous fertility and vegetation goddess with Near Eastern roots, possibly linked to Astarte). The curse stemmed from a myth where Scythian raiders sacked the temple of Astarte in Ascalon (modern Israel), causing their descendants to bear "feminine diseases" and androgyny. Affiliated with an orgiastic cult of Artimpasa and the indigenous Snake-Legged Goddess (a bearded, chthonic fertility figure), the Enarees blended shamanistic steppe traditions—similar to Siberian practices—with imported Levantine elements, including gender transformation rituals. Pseudo-Hippocrates (Airs, Waters, Places 22) noted their "feminine" physiology, possibly due to environmental factors or herbal use, and they held social power as oracles despite stigma.
### Similarities and Connections
The Galli and Enarei represent parallel phenomena in ancient Eurasian religions: gender-variant male priests serving mother/fertility goddesses through emasculation, cross-dressing, and ecstatic rites, often tied to themes of divine transformation and prophecy. Both groups:
- Underwent or embodied emasculation: Galli via self-castration; Enarei via perceived physiological androgyny (possibly ritual or environmental).
- Adopted feminine presentation: Women's attire, makeup, and mannerisms to align with the goddess's power over gender.
- Performed ecstatic/shamanic roles: The Galli in frenzied processions and music; the Enarei in divination and orgiastic worship.
- Drew from Near Eastern influences: Cybele's cult linked to Mesopotamian Inanna/Ishtar; Artimpasa to Astarte, with Scythian practices incorporating Levantine elements via trade and migration.
Scholars (e.g., in studies of ancient gender and religion) view the Enarei as analogous to Western Asian "gender non-conforming priests of the Great Goddess," explicitly including the Galli of Cybele (Kubeleya) alongside figures like the Assinnu of Inanna or Megabyzoi of Artemis. This suggests cultural diffusion across the ancient world, from Anatolia and the Levant to the steppes, where similar archetypes of the "transformed shaman" or eunuch devotee emerged in goddess cults. The query likely highlights this cross-cultural comparison in the history of transgender or nonbinary religious roles.
Edited last time by Voxxe on 09/16/2025 (Tue) 06:16:13.