IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER:
THE PARADOX OF THE ROMAN PERCEPTION REGARDING THE SOCIAL STATUS OF THE EUNUCH PRIEST IN IMPERIAL ROME
Silvia de Wild
Supervisor 1: dr. M. (Martijn) Icks Second Reader: dr. M.P. (Mathieu) de Bakker
MA Classics and Ancient Civilizations (Classics) Student number: 11238100
Words: 22.603
June 25, 2020 s.dewild@cvo-nf.nl
IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER:
THE PARADOX OF THE ROMAN PERCEPTION REGARDING THE SOCIAL STATUS OF THE EUNUCH PRIEST IN IMPERIAL ROME
University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Humanities
Amsterdam Centre for Ancient Studies and Archaeology (ACASA), Classics and Ancient Civilizations: Classics (MA)
Silvia de Wild Schoolstraat 5 8911 BH Leeuwarden Tel.: 0616359454/ 058-8446762 s.dewild@cvo-nf.nl/ silvia.dewild@student.uva.nl Student number: 11238100
Supervisor: dr. M. (Martijn) Icks
Second Reader: dr. M.P. (Mathieu) de Bakker
Words: 22.603 (appendix, bibliography, citations, source texts and translations not included) June 25, 2020.
I herewith declare that this thesis is an original piece of work, which was written exclusively by me. Those instances where I have derived material from other sources, I have made explicit in the text and the notes.
I would like to thank dr. L.A. (Lucinda) Dirven for sharing her time and expertise on this subject.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Research question 6
Methods and overview 7
1. Introduction 9
2. The imperial (r)evolution of the cult of Cybele and Attis 16 3. Eunuch priests in the eye of an ass: a case study on the perception
of the wandering priests in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses 8.24 - 9.10 30
4. The presentation of galli in epigraphy 51
5. Conclusion 66
Appendix: illustrations of material evidence 69
RESEARCH QUESTION
The galli, priest-castrates of the goddess Cybele or Mater Magna, the Great Mother of Gods, were reviled in Roman literature for their voluntary castration and their exotic unmanly appearance, yet they remained the priestly symbol of the Romanized public state cult that was modelled on the worship of the patron deity of the temple state Pessinus in Asia Minor. This paradox of acceptance and repulsion has led to many debates among modern scholars. This thesis will add to the discussion by examining the perception of the gallus within Roman society in the imperial age, focusing on the period when all reorganizations of the Mater Magna cult were fully implemented: the second century to the third century AD.
How did the Romans perceive and identify a person who presented himself as a gallus after the imperial re-organization of the cult of Mater Magna as a public state cult?
METHODS AND OVERVIEW
1. Introduction, status quaestionis.
In the first chapter, I shall give an overview of the current academic debate on the perception and social position of the gallus, which started in the second half of the twentieth century AD. The outcome of this debate will serve as a hypothesis that will be further tested through social-historical, textual, iconographical and epigraphical analysis.
2. The imperial (r)evolution of the cult of Cybele and Attis
In this chapter, I will discuss the position of the cult of Cybele and Attis within the framework of the imperial ideology of Augustus and his successors. I will base my conclusions on
examining and interpreting primary literary sources, supported by additional archaeological evidence.
3. Eunuch priests in the eye of an ass: a case study on Apuleius’ Metamorphoses 8.24 - 9.10
To illustrate the complexity of studying the ancient perception of the eunuch priest provided by literary sources from antiquity, I will present a case study on the episode of the wandering priests in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses (8.24 - 9.10), a passage that is often used as an example of the negative attitude of the Romans towards the gallus’ castrated status and foreign identity, which led to a generalizing premise that caused the “gallus paradox” in modern studies. The case study will shed a light on the social status and the livelihood of the wandering priests by examining the narrated world rather than the biased view of the overt narrator. Through narratological analysis, I also believe that the identity of Apuleius’ “priests” has been misunderstood: by adding certain frames that were probably not found in the original (Greek) version of the novel, Apuleius reveals his wandering priests of Dea Syria to be
4. The presentation of galli in epigraphy
The second case study will analyse a selection of iconographical and epigraphical material from the Roman Empire on the galli and the archigalli, focusing on the second and early third century AD, in order to present a better picture on their social status and (self-)portrayal. 5. Conclusion
By interpreting and comparing the outcomes of these chapters, I will try to reframe and answer my research question and provide a foundation for further research.
1.INTRODUCTION:
AN OVERVIEW OF THE ACADEMIC DEBATE ON THE GALLI IN THE GREEK AND ROMAN WORLD
When the Romans adopted the cult of Cybele, the “Mother of the mountains” or “Great Mother” (Mater Magna) from the Galatian temple state Pessinus in the third century BCE, they were also introduced to Pessinus’ eunuch priests known as galli. Already in the days of the Republic, a temple for the goddess was built on the Palatine, where she was served by indigenous priests.1 Under the Principate of Augustus, the role of Mater Magna as a protective deity of the state was enlarged: within imperial state ideology, Mater Magna and her cult attendants became a symbol of Rome’s mythical and heroic past and the Empire’s future greatness.2 The inclusion of the “Phrygian” galli in the imperial state cult of Cybele led to an interesting paradox within the Roman community: whereas all the foreign insignia of the
galli, including the rite of self-castration, were considered to be a vital element within the
Romanized cult, a person who presented himself as a gallus outside these ritual cultic performances was deemed “un-Roman” by Roman society and conceived with contempt in most of the surviving sources from antiquity.3
The gallus’ conflicting position has been questioned and researched within the fields of sociology, anthropology, religious studies, ancient history and classical studies. The first debates on interpreting the social position on galli were triggered around the same time as the interest in the cult of Cybele and Attis was aroused by the excavations at Pessinus (Ballıhisar, Turkey), the centre of the Phrygian cult, led by Pieter Lambrechts (1967-73).4 During the seventies and eighties of the last century, religious historian Maarten Josef Vermaseren recorded all known monuments related to the Cybele cult in Corpus Cultus Cybelae
Attidisque (CCCA). In his book Cybele and Attis, the myth and the cult (1977), which served
as an introduction to this corpus, Vermaseren gathered historical sources to picture an overall
1 Dionysius of Halicarnassus 2.19.3-5.
2 Lynn. E. Roller, In Search of God the Mother: The Cult of Anatolian Cybele (Berkeley, Los Angeles,
London: University of California Press, 1999), 299.
3 Cf. Martial, Apuleius, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Juvenal. For literary sources, see Maarten Jozef
Vermaseren, Cybele and Attis, the myth and the cult, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1977), chapter 3 and 5; Roller, God the Mother, chapter 10.
4 Pieter Lambrechts, Attis. Van herdersknaap tot god (Brussels: Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie, 1962);
Pieter Lambrechts, Raymond Bogaert, “Asclepios, archigalle Pessinontien de Cybele,” in Hommages a M.
impression of the cult and its priests. He attributes the negative eye of the Romans on the galli mostly to the gallus’ voluntary act of castration, something that must have “bewildered the Romans as an incomprehensible act of insanity” and led to mocking remarks by Roman writers, who held the opinion that these semiviri or half-men were only to be pitied.5 The
CCCA still serves as a useful basis for historians because of its source material, but it lacks a
level of scientific debate (and does not aim at that); moreover, following the publication of the
CCCA, new source material has been discovered.
The mere fact that the galli remained to serve a very visible, irreplaceable role in the Roman worship of Mater Magna by performing their “effeminate” and “oriental” ritual dances at the national festivals, suggests that they could not have been total outsiders within the Roman community. Studying the galli from a historical anthropological and behavioural point of view, ancient historian Mary Beard (1992; 1994) observes that the galli were the priestly symbol of the cult, even though other Roman officials held the responsible positions.6 The inspirational, shamanic aspect of the priesthood as well as the “flamboyantly foreign” and frenzied behaviour of the eunuch priests however, conflicted at points with the Roman norms on priesthood and may have been perceived as dangerous, especially since Roman religion and political power were traditionally inextricably linked.7
Lynn Roller (1997) explored the identity of the gallus within the field of gender studies, seemingly unaware of the work done by Beard. Roller notes that it is “important to understand that we are not examining the actual circumstances of the lives of these eunuch priests, but rather the ancient perception of them”,8 since we do not possess any direct sources from the eunuch priests themselves. Roller states that in antiquity, it was necessary to have gender “to play the biological and social role assigned to one’s gender to be fully human.”9
Galli deprived themselves willingly of their gender and were therefore perceived as
disgusting, pitiful creatures in the Graeco-Roman world. The response of the Romans towards the galli was two-sided. Roller (1997, 549) draws up this paradox as follows: “As long as a
5 Vermaseren, Cybele, 96.
6 Mary Beard, John North, Simon Price, Religions of Rome, Volume 1 (A history) and 2 (Sourcebook)
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992); Mary Beard, “The Roman and the Foreign: The Cult of the ‘Great Mother’ in Imperial Rome,” in Shamanism, History, and the State, eds. Nicholas Thomas and Caroline Humphrey (Ann Harbor: University of Michigan Press, 1994), 173.
7 Beard, “The Roman,” 176.
8 Lynn E. Roller, “The Ideology of the Eunuch Priest,” in Gender & History, Vol.9-3 (1997): 543. 9 Roller, “Ideology,” 543.
gallus was identified primarily with his Asian homeland, he was viewed as an exotic,
non-threatening figure, particularly when he reinforced the Romans’ positive view of themselves. But when he was active in Rome, in the Magna Mater’s civic cult, he became an outsider, a foreigner, whose unconventional gender and sexual status were viewed with alarm and disgust.” In Roman literature and law, galli were criticized by the Greeks and the Romans for their “effeminate” behaviour and their castrated state, by which he challenged the values and duties of traditional (and superior) manhood. A gallus had no right to citizenship or even an identity, because he was “neither man nor woman.”10
In a subsequent study (1999) Roller adjusted her opinion.11 She there reaches the conclusion that the galli’s castrated state was not so much the cause of rejection, but the fact that galli were given a sacred, inviolable status within the public state cult, which was
inconsistent with the Roman concepts that “males were expected to be dominant over females and freeborn Roman citizens over slaves and foreigners.”12 The galli, presenting themselves as “effeminate foreigners”, were therefore “doubly offensive”, even though they had to be tolerated during cult practices.13
The observation by Roller (1997) that galli could be described in feminine
grammatical construct from the second century BCE onward by the Greeks and Romans, was picked up by classicist Ruurd Nauta (2004; 2007), who tried to identify the gallus based on textual evidence.14 He argues that in modern philology, the feminine presentation of a gallus in Hellenistic times is not always recognized: names ending in -on, like Aristion and
Trygonion, that are frequently used in Hellenistic (erotic) poetry, are usually identified as woman’s names, but in some occasions, it makes more sense to interpret a character as a
10 Ibid., 555; cf. Roller, God the Mother, 301-9.
11 Lynn. E. Roller, In Search of God the Mother: The Cult of Anatolian Cybele (Berkeley, Los Angeles,
London: University of California Press, 1999).
12 Ibid, 319. 13 Ibid., 319.
14 Ruurd R. Nauta, “Catullus 63 in Roman context,” in Mnemosyne 57 - 5, (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 596-628;
reprinted in Catullus' Poem on Attis, Ruurd. R. Nauta, Marijke Annette Harder eds. (Leiden-Boston-Köln: Martinus Nijhoff/ Brill, 2004), ; Ruurd R. Nauta, “Phrygian eunuchs and Roman virtus: the cult of the Mater Magna and the Trojan origins of Rome in Virgil’s Aeneid,” in Tra Oriente e Occidente. Indigeni, Greci e Romani
gallus.15 Naura also notices that the galli are consistently referred to as cinaedi, men
performing a sexual passive role, by Apuleius.16
Ancient historian Lucinda Dirven (2005) agrees with Roller that our imaging of the
galli is mostly based upon the writings of overt Roman narrators, who wrote for an equally
biased Roman elitist audience.17 By presenting the galli as the foreign, loathsome “other”, these writers and their narratees saw their own identity upheld, strengthening the standard of masculinity within the norms of a traditional Roman society.18 Dirven studied the galli from an anthropological point of view and compared their status to that of the hijra in India, transgender eunuchs who worship a fertility goddess and are only recently juridically recognized in India and Bangladesh as a “third gender”. Hijra’s live in extreme poverty in secluded communities, making a living by providing religious and sexual services. While there are certain similarities, Dirven warns us that these two cultures, being thousands of years apart and set in a different religious and social culture, are at the same time
incomparable.19 The galli should not be seen as a “third gender”, but they suffered an almost similar repulsion from “conventional” society for being neither male nor female.20 In reaction to Beard, Dirven confirms that the “possessive” nature of the priesthood could have been regarded as a threat in Roman society, based on the anthropological study by Lewis (1989) on contemporary shamanism, which proves that “possession in modern religious cultures is often used to exercise power.”21
Quite recently, Palma Karković Takalić (2012; 2015) noticed strong distinctions between the social status and the religious function of the archigallus and the
gallus, based on epigraphic material, mostly gathered from the CCCA.22 She assumes that
15 Nauta, “Catullus 63,” 93 on AP.7.222; see also Roller, “Ideology” on AP.7.233. 16 Ibid., 102.
17 Lucinda Dirven, “Galli van de Grote Moeder. Vrouwen, hanen en haantjesgedrag in de Romeinse
wereld,” TMA 34 (2005): 7-13.
18 Dirven, “Galli,” 7.
19 Ibid., 9-10; cf. Roller, God the Mother, 320-6. 20 Ibid., 11.
21 Ibid., 11.
22 Palma Karković Takalić, “Period of introduction and role of archigalli in context of the inscription of
Lucius Publicius Syntropus from Koper,” Archaeologia Adriatica 6 (2012): 87-105; Palma Karković Takalić, “Presence of the archigalli on the eastern Adriatic coast. Examination of their role in the cult of Magna Mater and Attis,” in Romanisation des dieux orientaux? Transformations religieuses dans les provinces Balkaniques à
somewhere during the reign of emperor Claudius, reforms were made which encompassed the introduction of the archigallate in the state cult of Mater Magna. She argues that archigalli were closely related with the mystery aspects of the Metroac cult of Attis. She also
distinguishes a difference between east and west: in the eastern provinces, an archigallus can be associated with different mystery organisations (like Bacchus). In the inscriptions from the Western part of the Empire, archigalli occur as early as the late first to early second century AD, emerging specifically in the cult of Mater Magna. Roman citizens, often of freedman origin, were appointed archigallus and they erected grave monuments for themselves and family members, which points out a very different social status than being an outcast “foreigner” with a single (often Greek) name without a clearly defined legal position within Roman society. Karković’s research especially focusses on locating and dating the
epigraphical material and linking them to the Metroac cult.
18–21 September 2013, Aleksandra Nikoloska, Sander Müskens eds. (Skopje: Macedonian Academy of
Scope and relevance of my research
The general consensus in the current debate is that the galli held a loathsome position and were viewed as outsiders within the community of the Graeco-Roman world. I agree with this outcome on most parts, but I think that there are some factors that have remained
underexposed and need further clarification. My aim for this thesis is to provide a picture of the eunuch priest that is more differentiated and less black and white.
First of all, the outcome of the current debate has left us with an unsatisfactory
paradox: why was a gallus allowed within the Roman cult of Cybele, and perhaps even on the Palatine near the emperor himself, while being considered outcast at the same time? Why were the galli not banned from the cult completely? The argument from Beard (1994, 182 ff.) that a gallus was more accepted over time makes no sense to me, since the debate also shows that the loathing and the mocking of the galli by male elitist Roman authors persisted
throughout the ages. How could a gallus threaten Roman elite society, if he was considered less than a person? This needs clarification.
Secondly, I think that the current image scientists have drawn up of the eunuch priest in Roman society focuses too much on the one-sided, negative perception of biased literary sources, written by male member of an elitist clique who constantly felt the need to uphold their manhood. A dominant voice, but is it the only voice that has survived the ages?
Another objection against the current debate is that, with the exception of Karković Takalić, historians still tend to treat the priesthood of the Mother Goddess as a whole by lumping every group of people who were designated as galli throughout the centuries of antiquity together. Galli from the imperial state cult of Rome have been equated with metragyrts from Classical Greek and the galli emissaries from the Hellenistic temple state Pessinus.23 These eunuch priests may be counterparts of a similar religion, they are also worlds apart from a cultural, social and temporal perspective. Even within the Roman Empire, the priesthood underwent significant changes: religious “rival factions”, like the cult of Dea Syria and the priesthood of Ma, appeared. The Roman state cult of Cybele was reformed several times, developing a different position and therefore a different perception of the
gallus, as well as introducing the priesthood of the archigallus.
23 A metragyrt (“alms-collector of Meter”) was a priest of Meter, an assimilated version of the
Anatolian Mother Goddess that reached Athens in the sixth century BCE. Metragyrts are mentioned in ancient sources from the fourth century as lower-class, rather unreliable figures. They should not be equated with galli, who are not mentioned until Hellenistic times. Cf. Roller, God the mother, 162-204.
Questions and objectives
First, I will explain the paradoxical status and the function of the gallus within the
reorganized cult of Cybele in Roman imperial times up to the second century AD, a time in which all the key changes in the imperial public state cult were implemented. Globalisation during this period had also brought many foreign varieties of the cult of the Mother Goddess into the Roman world, spurred by the fact that each reigning emperor favoured his own choice of protective deities.24
After presenting a hypothesis on a more positive and less contradicting role of the galli within the imperial cult of Cybele, I would like to investigate the way galli are presented in ancient sources, starting with literature: are all Roman sources presenting a negative picture of the eunuch priests? One of the most vivid and at the same time very loathing description of a band of wandering eunuch priests is found in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses (second century AD). This passage is often used in the current debate as an example of the adverse perception of Roman society regarding castrated men. But is this a justified argument? What if we delve deeper into the narrative structure of this passage, since it is actually part of a multi-layered novel rather than historiographic literature? By means of a case study, I intend to show that the biased perception of the first-person narrator is not the only voice that can be
distinguished here. In addition, I will aim at giving Apuleius’ eunuch priests another identity check: since Hijmans (1995) identified them as eunuch-devotees of Dea Syria, no one has looked into the fact that the priests are nowhere called galli or bellonarii.
In the last chapter of my thesis I will raise awareness on the differences in perception and social status of various types of eunuch priests who were active in the Roman world at the time Apuleius wrote his Metamorphoses, based on additional epigraphical and iconographical evidence, including material that has been discovered after the publication of the CCCA.
By interpreting and comparing the outcomes of these chapters, I will try to reframe and answer my research question and provide a foundation for further research.
How did the Romans perceive and identify a person who presented himself as a gallus after the imperial re-organization of the cult of Mater Magna as a public state cult?
2. THE IMPERIAL (R)EVOLUTION OF THE CULT OF CYBELE AND ATTIS
According to Livy (59 BCE-17 AD), the arrival of the cult of the Phrygian earth goddess Cybele in Rome is pinpointed on a very specific event in time: in 204 BCE, at the end of the Second Punic War, when Scipio already envisaged expelling the Carthaginian invader Hannibal out of Italy once and for all, a Roman delegation was sent to Asia Minor to bring “The Mother of Gods” to Rome, hereto inspired by some recently re-discovered oracular verses from the Sibylline Books, which announced that “whenever a foreign enemy should bring war into Italy, he could be driven out and conquered if the “Idaean Mother” were carried from Pessinus to Rome.”25 After consulting the oracle at Delphi, the delegation travelled to Pergamum, already a trusty ally of Rome, where orders were given to Pessinus to hand over a meteorite, in which the people from Mount Ida supposedly worshipped Cybele.26 The Romans then travelled back to Italy on a ship made of pine-trees from Mount Ida, named
Navis Salvia.27 The Augustan poet Ovid gives a detailed poetic description of the “epical” journey of the holy vessel, underlining the idea that the Phrygian goddess followed the trail of the heros Aeneas, who brought the images of the Phrygian penates to the site of Rome more than 500 years earlier. After centuries of guiding Rome’s founding fathers and their Italian offspring in spirit, the Great Mother (Mater Magna) had decided to finally “physically” join the Romans. By leaving her native land forever, she now fully endorsed the long-destined hegemony of the Roman Empire.28
Archaeological evidence confirms that Cybele was worshipped on the Palatine from the third century onwards alongside her consort Attis.29 Yet it is not a coincidence that the above-mentioned Roman sources on the arrival of Cybele were both drawn up in a much later period: the Augustan age, the era in which the “oriental” cult of the Mother Goddess of Pessinus was transformed into a state religion and became in intertwined with imperial ideology. In the Augustan arrival story, particular elements of the cult of Pessinus were
25 Liv. 29.10.5. 26 Liv. 29.11.5-7. 27 Ov. Fast. 4.273-276.
28The arrival of Cybele in Rome in order to secure a victory over Carthage and fulfil Rome’s destiny as
a future world empire is an important theme in Vergil’s Aeneid as well. An intensive study is made by Robert McKay Wilhelm, “Cybele: the Great Mother of Augustan Order,” in Vergilius (1959-) 34 (The Vergilian Society, 1988), 77-101. See also Nauta, “Phrygian eunuchs and Roman virtus,” 79-92. Aeneas, Cybele’s great-grandson and a model for Augustus, is pictured as a devotee of Cybele (A.12.99).
deliberately altered. The priests, for example, that travelled on the Navis Salvia to Ostia are called sacerdotes, a Roman cult title that is unlikely to be used for a member of the priesthood of Pessinus, since holding that title implicates an elevated, Roman status.30 Why were the indigenous priests of Pessinus excluded from the story? Livy also does not mention Attis, the self-castrated consort of the Mother Goddess, even though he was known in Republican Rome.
In order to understand the conflict between the Roman perception and the self-presentation of the galli in imperial times, it is necessary that I explain the roll of the cult of Cybele within the context of Augustan ideology and the cultural evolution of the cult and its customs under his successors. I consciously use the term “evolution” here, as it not only implies changes to the cult and its priests over the years, but changes in perception as well.
Cybele on the Palatine: a symbol of victory and Roman order
The age of Augustus was a time of religious restauration and re-invention. The princeps took residence at the Palatine hill in a palace adjacent to the temple of Cybele, the house of Romulus and a newly built temple of Apollo (28 BCE), who was re-invented from a Greek god of
healing to the imperial divine protector of prophecies and cosmic order (Fig. 1).31 The cult of Cybele became intertwined with Augustus’ political moral and his obsession of tracing Rome back to its “Phrygian” ancestors who once fled Troy.32 The temple of Cybele was rebuilt in 3 BCE, after a fire had destroyed her Palatine temple from 111 BCE.33 To maintain an antique feel, the temple was reconstructed in tufa blocks instead of marble.34
A Roman relief on the façade of the Villa Medici shows the six columned front of the Augustan Metroön with a detailed sculpture of the pediment (Fig. 2).35 Instead of a figurative sculpture of the goddess, Cybele is absent on the pediment and represented merely by her
30 Liv. 29.11: …ab sacerdotibus deam accepit extulitque in terram. Cf. Liv.38.18.9. 31 Beard, North, Price, Religions, volume 1, chapter 4.
32 Augustus followed the footsteps of both Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great (Plut. Alex.15), who
considered the Homeric heroes their ancestors. Phrygia was thought to be “the cradle of the world” and Cybele, Phrygia’s only known goddess, “the Mother of all gods.” See Roller, God the Mother, chapter 10, 287-325.
33 Vermaseren, Cybele, 42-3; Roller, God the Mother, 309.
34 Patrizio Pensabene, “Magna Mater, Aedes,” LTUR III (1996): 206-8; “Campagne di scavo 1988-1991
nell’area sud-ovest del Palatino,” ArchLaz 11 (1993): 19-37.
35 Vermaseren, Cybele, Fig. 32 and 33. This Valle-Medici relief probably belonged to the Ara Pietatis,
attributes: a mural crown, resting on a mantle that is draped over an armless throne (sella) and two tamed lions lying at the ends of the triangular fronton.36 On each side of the sella are two reclining figures, each resting one elbow on a timpanon. The figures have been identified as galli by some iconographers,but in the case of the left male figure, who only wears a garment around his waist, this seems very unlikely, since a bared torso usually indicates a god or a deified
figure.37 The figure on the right wears a tunica, but since the head is missing, the sculpture could either be male or female. The pine branch in the figure’s left hand cannot refer to Attis yet (the element of his castration under a pine tree was added in a later period), but rather evokes the beloved pine trees of Mount Ida that were used to build Aeneas’ fleet as well as the Navis Salvia. Since most of the pictured elements on the fronton are symbolic, these two reclining figures could best be interpreted as personifications associated with the Phrygian cult, perhaps of the river Gallos and Mount Ida. The overarching theme of the fronton is civilization, the key word to Augustan imperial peace propaganda, as proclaimed in the Aeneid (6.781-797). Rome was to become an “Empire without end”, which could be achieved only through the favour of Cybele:
En, huius, nate, auspiciis illa incluta Roma imperium terris, animos aequabit Olympo, septemque una sibi muro circumdabit arces, felix prole virum: qualis Berecyntia mater 785 invehitur curru Phrygias turrita per urbes,
laeta deum partu, centum complexa nepotes, omnes caelicolas, omnes supera alta tenentes.
Behold, my son, under his command glorious Rome will match earth’s power and heaven’s will, and encircle seven hills with a single wall, happy in her race of men: as Cybele, the Berecynthian “Great Mother”, crowned with turrets, rides through the Phrygian cities, delighting in her divine children, clasping a hundred descendants, all gods, all dwelling in the heights above.
Verg.A.6.781-787. Translation: A.S. Kline (2002).
36 For a parallel between this symbolic presentation and the throne and crown of Alexander the Great, see
Hommel 1954: 30 - 34. Roller, God the Mother, 309-10 sees the sellisternium as part of the ludi Megalenses.
37 Roller, God the Mother, 309-310. According to Roller both reclining figures represent Attis.
However, this cannot be correct. Attis was not yet deified in the Augustan era and the association between Attis and the pine tree is added to the official cult during the reign of Claudius. See Maria Grazia Lancellotti, Attis,
To the inhabitants of Rome, Augustus presented himself foremost as a religious leader. He was appointed by the senate as pontifex maximus (ἀρχιερεύς in Greek) or chief priest, like his adoptive father Julius Caesar before him in 63 BCE.38
Having a priest as a head of state must have been something that the galli of Pessinus could relate to. From the third century BCE onwards the cult centre of the Phrygian Mother Goddess was an independent oligarchic temple state, headed by two high priests, who held the name or title Battacus and Attis. According to Polybius, galli fell under their command and were sent as envoys.39 Pessinus may have been the place where the famous black meteorite, which was considered to be a physical manifestation of Cybele, originally struck. For this reason the site attracted strong interest from Pergamum, ruled by the Attalid dynasty. The Attalid rulers had a special relationship with Pessinus. They also had a special relationship with Rome: the last Attalid king bequeathed Pergamon to the Roman Republic in 133 BCE. Augustus took his role as a successor of the Hellenistic dynasty very seriously; Pergamum was given a decisive role in the story of the transmission of Cybele to Rome, thus fulfilling the destiny of Rome becoming the ruling nation of the world. Correspondence between the Attalids and the high priest Attis of Pessinus, called ἱερεύς, was recorded in stone in Pessinus. Eight of these letters have been found so far.40 They are dated between 163-156 BCE but set in stone at the time Pessinus became a Roman province in 25 BCE, during the reign of Augustus. No doubt the emperor, being ἀρχιερεύς and the overseer of the relocated cult of Pessinus in Rome, felt the need to emphasize the band between Pessinus, Pergamon and Rome once more.
Galli are said to have been involved in the imperial worship of Mater Magna on the
Palatine, although they were not considered cult officials by the Roman authorities.41 Next to the rebuilt temple, the remains of a peristyle and a series of rooms have been found. Some
38 Aug. Res Gestae 10.
39 Pol. 21.36. 4-7 describes how an embassy from Pessinus, consisting of two galli, wearing ‘pectorals
and images’, visited the Roman consul Manlius at his campsite on behalf of Attis and Battacus. The galli were received in a courteous manner (φιλανθρώπως).
40 Strubbe, Cat. Pessinus 1-7; Alexandru Avram and Gocha R. Tsetskhladze, “A New Attalid Letter
from Pessinus,” in Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 191 (Bonn, 2014), 151-181.
archaeologists suggest that these rooms may have provided accommodation to the galli, but there is no evidence to support this theory.42
There are certain similarities between Augustus’ self-presentation as a cultic leader and the priesthood of Pessinus. Coincidental as they may seem, Augustus could have exploited some of these traits in order to maintain the loyalty of the eastern priests. Like the high priests of Pessinus, the pontifex maximus had a special relationship with the divine. During the year, he wrote down any supernatural and celestial signs that occurred and added the events that had followed to these omens for the Roman people to learn and better
understand “the divine will”.43 The pontifex maximus had the right to carry the secespita, a sacrificial knife with an iron blade,44 whereas some of the galli proudly carried knives during the Megale(n)sian parade.45 The pontifex was the ultimate wise man, for he knew which actions would benefit or impair the pax deorum.46 He was responsible for the organisation of the yearly calendar (fasti) and could determine the religious status of each day (dies fasti,
nefasti or feriae), inserting intercalary months or new festivals when needed.47
Even though the office did not require a certain dress code, Augustus is often depicted in priestly robes, presenting himself as a restorer of traditional Roman religion and moral (for he believed that their decline led to the civil wars). He renounced “oriental luxury”, but his self-presentation as a youthful, beardless priest, inspired by the Hellenistic idea of divine kingship, must have certainly had its appeal to his oriental subjects.48
42 Henri Graillot, Le culte de Cybèle, mère des dieux, à Rome et dans l'Empire Romain (Paris:
Fontemoing, 1912), 332; George La Piana, Foreign Groups in Rome during the First Centuries of the Empire. (Cambridge: Harvard university, 1927), 219. Evidence is not convincing: a recent study identifies the rooms as storage rooms: Elisha Dumser, “Magna Mater, Aedes,” in Mapping Augustan Rome, L. Haselberger ed. (Portsmouth, R.I: Journal of Roman Archaeology, 2002): 164.
43 J.E.A. Crake, “The Annals of the Pontifex Maximus,” Classical Philology (1940), 35-4, 375-386; cf.
Jona Lendering, “Pontifex Maximus,” in Livius, cultuur, geschiedenis en literatuur (Lenderling: Amsterdam, 2002-), https://www.livius.org/articles/concept/pontifex-maximus (last consulted on 25 November 2019).
44 Suet. Tib. 25. 45 Lucr. 2.620 - 21. 46 Cic. Dom. 107.
47 Richard L. Gordon, “Pontifex, Pontifices,” in: Brill’s New Pauly, Antiquity volumes, Hubert Cancik,
Helmuth Schneider eds. English edition by Christine F. Salazar, Francis G. Gentry, Classical Tradition, Manfred Landfester ed., http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e1004290> (last consulted on 03 December 2019).
48 Hellenization was an important binding factor between the eastern provinces and the western part of
the newly formed empire, see Greg Woolf, “Provincial perspectives,” in The Cambridge Companion to the Age
of Augustus, ed. Karl Galinsky (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005),106-129. For Augustus’
The Augustan reform of the Megale(n)sia
The annual Festival of the Megale(n)sia was celebrated in Rome as early as 194 BCE and lasted one week from April fourth to April tenth (Table 1).49 Plays (ludi scaenici) were performed in front of the temple and by the first century BCE, chariot races were added in the Circus Maximus in front of the Palatine, preceded by a procession, in which the statue of Mater Magna was carried (Fig. 3).50 The double nature of Cybele as both a foreign and a Roman deity brought the galli into the city of Rome. They did not seem to fit into the social hierarchy, however: most accounts from the Republican era portray the eunuch priests as “foreign” and at times conflicting with Roman standards due to their exotic appearance, asexual gender and un-Roman practicing of shamanic rites.51 The games and lavish banquets were originally retained for aristocratic display; foreigners other than the galli were
excluded.52 This might explain some of the contemptuous reactions handed down to us: a xenophobic sentiment was present during the events and the gallus, representing “foreign low-life” in the eyes of the viri optimi who were there to celebrate a form of self-promoting civic nationalism, could have been an easy target.53
In the footlight of the “Augustan Ahnenerbe” the Roman cult of Cybele was
re-invented. The myth of Cybele and her consort Attis, that was already retold and adapted many times in other cultures, was redesigned by Augustus’ court poet Ovid, who saw the arrival of Cybele in Rome as a memorable event in the instalment of adding a Trojan history to Rome.54 In the Fasti, a didactical poem on the Roman calendar and religious festivals, Ovid describes the worship of Cybele during the Megale(n)sian festival (4.179-222) before he goes into greater detail of the cult by adding his adjusted and Romanized version of the myth of Attis (4.223-372). Unlike the arrival story of his contemporary Livy, Ovid’s description of the Megale(n)sia celebrates everything that refers to exotic and old Phrygian influences.
49 Roller, God the Mother, 288. 50 Ibid., 289.
51 Ibid. 292-8; Beard (1994) based her research on the “gallus paradox” largely on Republican sources.
52 Roller, God the Mother, 296; Cic. Har. 11.22-3.
53 Cf. Valerius Maximus 7.7.6, Catullus 63, Dionysius Halicarnassus, Ant.Rom.2.19. See also Cicero’s
reaction on slaves disrupting the Megale(n)sia in Cic. Har. 11.22-9.
Table 1. An overview of the Megale(n)sia based on Vermaseren (1977, 124-5) and Roller (1999, 287-92).
Subsequently, in the form of an easy-to-remember question-and-answer, the poet let his Muses answer any questions an uninformed spectator could have. The ceaseless sounds of cymbals, hollow drums and pipes, typical Phrygian instruments, recall ancient times, when baby Zeus was saved by the constant noise of the Corybants (Curetes), servants of Rhea-Cybele, from his father Chronos, while he was hidden in a cave on Mount Ida. Why the lions? Well, Cybele’s power over nature is so great, that she can easily tame them to be put under the joke of her chariot. Her mural crown refers to the fact that she was the first goddess who towered cities and brought civilization, while the festival’s special cheese, moretum, is presented to remind the goddess of the food of ancient times. Cybele, the Mother Goddess who brought forth other gods, deserves the most important festival in Rome, for she had
Megale(n)sia or Megalenses Ludi
April 4
Pompa (solemn procession), on which the statue of the goddess was carried
through the city in a sedan chair (lectica).
In the Republican era, the ludi were only open to free Roman citizens, excluding slaves and foreigners other than galli. During the procession, galli were permitted to collect money.
Magistrates sacrificed a heifer (iuvenca).
Lavish banquets (mutationes) were held on this day and probably also during the rest of the week. In Republican times, the banquets became so extravagant, that sumptuary legislation was introduced for the senatorial class (161 BCE). During the week
Aristocratic families offered spiced cheese (moretum) to the goddess that were eaten during a common meal (lecisterium) at which a special seat was
reserved for the goddess.
The Megale(n)sia originally consisted of circus games (ludi), but theatrical performances were added. The theatre of the Palatine was near the Scalae
Cacae.
April 10 “Birthday” of Cybele (dies natalis)
Chariot races were added in the first century BCE. They were probably held on the last day of the festival. The games were preceded by a procession in which statues of the gods were carried.
Races in Rome were held in the Circus Maximus and provided an opportunity for political and aristocratic display.
The games were under the care of a curule aedil until 23 BCE; under the Principate a praetor became responsible.
always been a supporter of Rome, even before her official arrival in 204 BC, ever since the Trojan hero Aeneas, sailing from the Phrygian coast in a boat made of Idaean pinewood, set foot on Italian shore.55 It seems that under the reign of Augustus, who reserved the festival for his own public display rather than anyone else’s, the Megale(n)sia were less reserved for the elite and perhaps accessible to a broader audience.56
Ovid further describes Cybele’s priest-castrates or half-men (semimares) and their frenzied orgiastic rites as an essential part of the state cult. The word semimares is perhaps more of a metrical solution than an insult and refers to the way the priests portray themselves in the parade: “effeminate servants” (molles ministri) who “toss their hair” (iactatis comis) and beat “their hollow drums” (inania tympana tundent), rousing the spectator’s curiosity rather than his contempt: what would urge a man to cut off his own members (unde venit sua
membra secandi impetus)? According to Ovid, the act that caused the gallus to estrange
himself from his social environment can be ascribed to furor, divine madness, the same that overtook Attis when he incurred the divine wrath (ira) of Cybele for breaking his vow of chastity.57 The Phrygian eunuch, equally maddened to commemorate Attis’ fate, serves as an example of what happens to those who are not faithful to the goddess.
The Attis-myth in the Fasti is transformed into an ideological fairy-tale that fitted well within Augustus’ Imperium Romanum. Furor and ira are key themes within Augustan
ideology, as is shown in the Aeneid, where Aeneas, the instrument of deum ira, restores cosmic order, whereas those who oppose it are struck by furor (and ultimately defeated). The negative perception of the galli here is not so much a matter of gender, but politics; the story can be read as a metaphor of imperial auctoritas, as Cybele represents the everlasting
greatness of Rome and Augustus, the goddess’ descendent, was the appointed ruler: this is what happens to those who oppose the Augustan cause. Augustan ancestral ideology, which highly valued piety and chastity and penalized adultery, is also reflected in the story: 58
‘Phryx puer in silvis, facie spectabilis, Attis turrigeram casto vinxit amore deam.
55 Nauta, “Phrygian eunuchs,” 83; Roller, God the mother, 299-304.
56 Instead of Roman noblemen competing amongst themselves, Augustus, reorganising the festival and
the cult to gain favour with his subjects, had become the sole benefactor; he put his own people in charge of the cult celebrations, built a new temple and embellished the Circus Maximus, cf. Roller, God the Mother, 315.
57 On furor and ira within Augustan ideology, see Karl Galinsky, "The Anger of Aeneas," The
American Journal of Philology 109, no. 3 (1988): 321-48.
225 hunc sibi servari voluit, sua templa tueri, et dixit ‘semper fac puer esse velis.’ ille fidem iussis dedit et ‘si mentiar,’ inquit ‘ultima, qua fallam, sit Venus illa mihi.’ fallit et in nympha Sagaritide desinit esse 230 quod fuit: hinc poenas exigit ira deae.
Naida volneribus succidit in arbore factis, illa perit: fatum Naidos arbor erat.
hic furit et credens thalami procumbere tectum effugit et cursu Dindyma summa petit
235 et modo ‘tolle faces!’ ‘remove’ modo ‘verbera!’ clamat; saepe Palaestinas iurat adesse deas.
ille etiam saxo corpus laniavit acuto,
longaque in immundo pulvere tracta coma est, voxque fuit ‘merui! meritas do sanguine poenas. 240 a! pereant partes, quae nocuere mihi!
a! pereant’ dicebat adhuc, onus inguinis aufert, nullaque sunt subito signa relicta viri.
venit in exemplum furor hic, mollesque ministri caedunt iactatis vilia membra comis.’
245 talibus Aoniae facunda voce Camenae reddita quaesiti causa furoris erat.
In the woods, a Phrygian boy, Attis, of handsome face, Won the tower-bearing goddess with his chaste passion. 225 She desired him to serve her, and protect her temple,
And said: “Wish, you might be a boy for ever.” He promised to be true, and said: “If I’m lying May the love I fail in be my last love.”
He did fail, and in meeting the nymph Sagaritis,
230 Abandoned what he was: the goddess, angered, avenged it. She destroyed the Naiad, by wounding a tree,
Since the tree contained the Naiad’s fate.
Attis was maddened, and thinking his chamber’s roof Was falling, fled for the summit of Mount Dindymus. 235. Now he cried: “Remove the torches”, now he cried:
“Take the whips away”: often swearing he saw the Furies. He tore at his body too with a sharp stone,
And dragged his long hair in the filthy dust, Shouting: “I deserved this! I pay the due penalty
240. In blood! Ah! Let the parts that harmed me, perish! Let them perish!” cutting away the burden of his groin, And suddenly bereft of every mark of manhood. His madness set a precedent, and his unmanly servants Toss their hair and cut off their members as if worthless.’ 245. So the Aonian Muse, eloquently answering the question
I’d asked her, regarding the causes of their madness.
Ov. Fast. 4.223-46. Translation: A. S. Kline (2012).
Attis
Archaeological evidence shows that Cybele’s shepherd consort Attis was probably known in Rome from as early as the second century BCE.59 However, whereas the all-powerful
“Mother of all gods” was accepted in a positive light as a symbol of Rome’s legendary past and everlasting greatness, the story of her intimacy with the shepherd boy seems to have been problematic. Attis was no god, but a mortal youth, who was destined to fail to reach manhood.
Lancellotti (2002, 16-60) made a study on tracing down the roots of the myth, built on previous research carried out by Lambrechts (1962) and Roller (1999). Two main versions seem to have reach the Graeco-Roman world. In the “Lydian” version, already mentioned by Herodotus,60 a prince named Atys was killed during a boar hunt, comparable with the myth of Adonis. The “Phrygian” version, however, was filled with acts of mania and must have struck the Graeco-Roman world with repugnance.61 In this version, Attis was born from the male parts of a hermaphrodite daimon called Agdistis, who was emasculated by the gods for fear of becoming too powerful. When Attis reached the age of marriage, Agdistis, now a female, fell in love with him, but Attis was about to marry the king’s daughter. Agdistis appeared at the wedding feast and used her power to drive all the attendees to madness as soon as they heard the nuptial music. In an act of self-mutilation, Attis castrated himself and died. Agdistis immediately regretted her act and agreed with the gods that Attis’ body, buried near Pessinus, would never putrefy and his hair will always grow.62
59 Lancellotti, Attis, 75-84. 60 Hdt. 1.35-45.
61 Lancellotti, Attis, 1-9; 32-40. Cf. Paus., 7.17, 9-12; for an alternative (later) version by Arnobius:
Arnob., Adv. nat. 5.5-7.
The study by Roller (1999) shows that in Phrygia however, Attis was initially absent from religious monuments.63 Roller and Lancellotti (2003) believe that Attis only reached the rank of the companion to the goddess after his Hellenization and after the introduction of the Mother Goddess into Greece and other parts of the Hellenized world.64 It is around the same period that the word gallos first appears in texts and monuments to indicate an emasculated follower of the goddess, whose emasculation practices, orgiastic behaviour and effeminate clothing are explained as an imitation of the story of Attis.65
Lancellotti (2002, 47) also sees a connection between the insertion of the mutilation version of the Attis-myth and the establishment of the temple state in Pessinus, leading to the intriguing hypothesis that “the foundation of its priestly theocracy was a ‘new’ and
paradoxical dynastic model, that of an anti-king, based consistently on its sterility and thus on its non-hereditary nature.” As such, the high priesthood was connected to a royal funerary cult for the “failed king” Attis, who was honoured with a tomb in Pessinus.66 The high priests and the galli were responsible for carrying out the funeral rites that would appease the goddess and maintain cosmic order.
A Hellenistic version of the Attis-myth, recorded by Diodorus Siculus (first century BCE), tells of the origin of a funerary cult for Attis (Diod.3.58-9). In this version, Cybele is presented as a mortal princess, who was exposed as a baby on mount Cybelus and rescued by wild beasts through divine provenance. Grown up, she fell in love with the herdsman Attis, while at about the same time her parents recognized her as their child. When they found that she was pregnant, however, they put Attis to death, leaving his body unburied. Enraged, Cybele suddenly displayed supernatural powers:
Κατὰ δὲ τὴν Φρυγίαν ἐμπεσούσης νόσου τοῖς ἀνθρώποις καὶ τῆς γῆς ἀκάρπου γενομένης, ἐπερωτησάντων τῶν ἀτυχούντων τὸν θεὸν περὶ τῆς τῶν κακῶν ἀπαλλαγῆς προστάξαι φασὶν αὐτοῖς θάψαι τὸ Ἄττιδος σῶμα καὶ τιμᾶν τὴν Κυβέλην ὡς θεόν. διόπερ τοὺς Φρύγας ἠφανισμένου τοῦ σώματος διὰ τὸν χρόνον εἴδωλον κατασκευάσαι τοῦ μειρακίου, πρὸς ᾧ θρηνοῦντας ταῖς οἰκείαις τιμαῖς τοῦ πάθους ἐξιλάσκεσθαι τὴν τοῦ παρανομηθέντος μῆνιν· ὅπερ μέχρι τοῦ καθ’ ἡμᾶς βίου ποιοῦντας αὐτοὺς διατελεῖν. Τῆς δὲ Κυβέλης τὸ παλαιὸν βωμοὺς ἱδρυσαμένους θυσίας ἐπιτελεῖν κατ’ ἔτος· ὕστερον δ’ ἐν Πισινοῦντι τῆς Φρυγίας κατασκευάσαι νεὼν πολυτελῆ καὶ τιμὰς καὶ θυσίας καταδεῖξαι
63 Roller, God the Mother, 259. 64 Lancellotti, Attis, 40-52.
65 Ibid., 103-5; Roller, God the Mother, 231. 66 Paus. 1.4,5.
μεγαλοπρεπεστάτας, Μίδου τοῦ βασιλέως εἰς ταῦτα συμφιλοκαλήσαντος· τῷ δ’ ἀγάλματι τῆς θεοῦ παραστῆσαι παρδάλεις καὶ λέοντας διὰ τὸ δοκεῖν ὑπὸ τούτων πρῶτον τραφῆναι.
“But, the myth goes on to say, a pestilence fell upon human beings throughout Phrygia and the land ceased to bear fruit, and when the unfortunate people inquired of the god how they might rid themselves of their ills he commanded them, it is said, to bury the body of Attis and to honour Cybele as a goddess. Consequently the physicians, since the body had disappeared in the course of time, made an image of the youth, before which they sang dirges and by means of honours in keeping with his suffering propitiated the wrath of him who had been wronged; and these rites they continue to perform down to our own lifetime. As for Cybele, in ancient times they erected altars and performed sacrifices to her yearly; and later they built for her a costly temple in Pessinus of Phrygia, and established honours and sacrifices of the greatest magnificence, Midas their king taking part in all these works out of his devotion to beauty; and beside the statue of the goddess they set up panthers and lions, since it was the common opinion that she had first been nursed by these animals.”
Diod. 3.59.7-8. Translation: Charles Henry Oldfather (1935). I think that the Attis cult of Pessinus served as a model for Rome: the element of the ludi (performances and chariot races) during the Megale(n)sia as well as the lavish banquets show a connection to funerary rites. As such, the galli, originally appointed as guardians of the rites, became a vital element during the festival. The tradition of collecting alms may even have derived from acts of contrition as described by Diodorus: to establish honours and erect a costly temple in order to appease the goddess.
Diodorus’ account might also explain why the eunuch priest was never removed from the Roman cult and kept presenting himself as such an ostentatious and foreign anomaly; for his presence laid the foundation for the cult itself: Cybele would only exercise her powers on the condition that the people of Phrygia would bewail her beloved Attis and honour her majesty with yearly sacrifices, worshipping her as their goddess. Roman religion was based on tradition and superstition: knowing the story behind the funerary cult of Pessinus, the Romans must have regarded the galli and their cult practices as vital for receiving the favour of the goddess. Therefore, eunuch-devotees were invited to participate in full regalia, acting as “Phrygian” and “repentant” as they possibly could to guarantee the city’s safety and the land’s fertility. The gallus’ contemptuous perception might even have been something that was agreed upon by both sides, being a part of the gallus’ role and identity within the Hellenistic rites of Attis.
Reforms by Claudius and Antoninus Pius: Tristia and Hilaria
During the reign of Claudius (41 -54 AD) the state cult of Cybele was reorganized again.67 The veneration of Attis began to evolve: Attis’ mania and emasculation were now openly commemorated in Rome during a festival cycle in March, known as the Tristia (Table 2). On the Day of Blood (Dies Sanguinis) the galli flogged themselves and became a “living Attis”; even ritual emasculations may have taken place on this day.68 This suggests that the
perception of the eunuch priesthood had altered: their sacred rites were no longer private and the March Festivals were promoted throughout the empire. The image of the priest-castrate was now so deeply embedded in the Roman cult that even a Romanized version of the
priesthood appeared: the archigallate (a formal priesthood of cult overseers) was reserved for full members of Roman society (see chapter 3).69
Nearly hundred years later, another set of ceremonies was added to the March Festivals under the reign of Antoninus Pius (138 -161 AD). The Hilaria (Table 2) reformed the ceremonies and the mournful character of Attis completely, for he would now be
resurrected to join the gods in heaven.70
Conclusion of this chapter
The character of the imperial state religion of Mater Magna differed from the Republican cult. Building on the Hellenistic models of Pessinus and Pergamon, Augustus reorganized the veneration of Cybele into a public state cult, interlinking Cybele’s worship on the Palatine with imperial ideology and Augustan display. As such, the perception and identity of the galli changed with it. Over the centuries, several other emperors did the same, making it
impossible to draw up a uniform definition of the eunuch priest, let alone a uniform
perception. With this understanding, my thesis will now focus on the portrayal of the gallus in the second and third century AD.
67 Vermaseren, Cybele, 113-24; Lancellotti, Attis, 75-84. 68 CIL XIII, 510.
69 There is a scientific debate on whether the archigallus was introduced under Claudius or later, cf.
Lancellotti, Attis, footnote 108. However, the epigraphical studies made by Karković prove that the archigallus was installed in the first century and that the archigallus was also not tied to the ritual of the taurobolium, thus debunking the main arguments to ascribe him to the second century, cf. Karković ,“Period of introduction,” 87-105.
Claudius Antoninus Pius Antoninus Pius or later Id. Mart. (March 15) Canna intrat (cannophori) XI K. April (March 22) Arbor intrat (dendrophori)
A pine tree is brought into the temple of Cybele.
IX K. April (March 24)
Sanguem/ Dies
Sanguinis (Day of Blood)
(galli)
The galli cut themselves until they bled and sprinkled their blood upon the altars. Castration rituals could have taken place. Mourning of Attis. Burial of the tree. VIII K. April
(March 25)
Hilaria (Day of Joy)
Resurrection of Attis, who joins the Mother Goddess in heaven (Sallustius) VII K. April (March 26) Requietio Day of rest VI K. April (March 27) Lavatio (?Hastiferi)
Ablution of the shrine of Cybele in the Almo river
Table 2. The distribution of the ceremonies and the priesthood/ collegium involved over a period from Claudius to the reign of Antoninus Pius or perhaps beyond, based on Vermaseren (1977, 122) and Lancellotti (2002, 82-3).
3.EUNUCH PRIESTS IN THE EYE OF AN ASS:
A CASE STUDY ON APULEIUS’METAMORPHOSES 8.24-9.10
Even though galli are reviled and loathed in most literary sources from their own time, these same sources also indicate that galli were imbedded in the social geography of Rome and the provinces of the Roman Empire. Before analysing epigraphic and historical evidence, I will present a case study on one of the most essential historical literary sources we have on the
galli: the detailed description of a band of wandering eunuch-devotees as they would have
appeared in the rural surroundings of ancient Thessaly in the second half of the second century AD, handed down to us in Latin prose by Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis (c. 124 -180 AD), a Numidian Roman writer who travelled to Athens, Italy, Egypt and Asia Minor to study religion, rhetoric and philosophy. Cult practices and people who are on the fringe of society have his attention; Apuleius claims in his Apologia that he was an initiate in several cults, a follower of Plato and even a priest of Asclepius.71 Apuleius’ novel Metamorphoses, written between 155 and 180 AD, is a Latin adaptation from a Greek original of uncertain origin.72 A Greek novel entitled Λούκιος ἢ Ὄνος (“Lucius or The Ass”, abbreviated Onos), ascribed to Apuleius contemporary Lucian of Samothrace (c. 125 – 180 AD), was based on the same source. However, the surviving text we have of this novel is not as extensive and vividly depicting as the text of Apuleius. For this reason and because of the ensuing debate on the authenticity and authorship of Lucian’s abridged novel,73 I chose to focus on the
Metamorphoses 8.24 - 9.10 as a case study.
Lucian also wrote Περὶ τῆς Συρίης Θεοῦ or De Dea Syria, a treatise on the cult practices of Atargatis or Dea Syria, a more warlike manifestation of the Mother Goddess and therefore equated with the Roman goddess Bellona.74 An analysis of this text by Jane Lucy
71 Apul. Apol. 10; 12; 55.
72 Ben Edwin Perry, “On the Authenticity of Lucius sive Asinus," CP 21 (1926), 225-34. Perry (1892 -
1968) wrote a thesis and several articles on the argument that Apuleius based his Metamorphoses on a Greek novel by the same title, as described by Photius (Bibl. 129).
73 The scientific debate on the authenticity and the authorship of Λούκιος ἢ Ὄνος is still ongoing. An
overview of the debate and new arguments in favour of inauthenticity is given by H.Nesselrath, “Language and (in-)Authenticity: The case of the (Ps.-)Lucianic Onos,” in: J. Martínez (Hg.), Fakes and Forgers of Classical
Literature: Ergo decipiatur! (Leiden / Boston, 2014), 195-205. See also Ben L. Hijmans Jr., Apuleius Madaurensis Metamorphoses. Book IX (Groningen: E. Forsten, 1995), 6-7.
74 Jane Lucy Lightfoot, On the Syrian goddess (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003). Especially the
Lightfoot (2003) has proven that Lucian wrote De Dea Syria as a pastiche on Herodotus and does not aim at portraying a historical truth.75 Therefore, I will refer to De Dea Syria or the
Onos only when relevant, and I am well aware that Lucian as a historical source should be
read with a critical eye. The same should be said about Apuleius, who wrote a metaphorical fairy-tale about the hardship the immortal human soul has to suffer during his life journey, searching for salvation in various religions the culturally rich and diverse Roman world has to offer. However, Apuleius portrays his characters with a necessary sense of realism, devising and describing them as caricatures out of everyday life, that must have been very recognizable for his readers.
Based on Apuleius’ depicted scenes from Roman daily life, this case study aims to focus on the way the galli are portrayed and how other people respond to them. Of course, the
galli and the other characters portrayed are not real people, but fictive descriptions, told by a
biased narrator to his -equally biased?- narratees. I will also have to take focalisation into account, the viewing by the narrator of the events that take place in the story he tells to his narratees.76
Summary of Apuleius’ Metamorphoses 8.24 – 9.10
Lucius, a young man transformed into a donkey due to a failed experiment with magic, is put
up for auction in the marketplace of a “populous, well-known city”.77 He is purchased by a
band of wandering priests of Dea Syria. Lucius is entrusted with carrying the statue of the deity on his back, while the priests roam the countryside in order to make money by offering different kinds of services to unsuspecting townspeople and passers-by. After an idea of selling fake prophecies turns out to be a lucrative business, the begging priests become even more audacious: they manage to steal a golden goblet from the shrine of Mater Magna in one of the towns. Their crime was detected in time, however: the wandering priests are caught up by the town’s people and thrown into jail. Lucius is sold again at the auction to a baker.
75 Ibid., 196-9.
76 For focalization, see Irene J. F. De Jong, Narratology and classics: a practical guide (Oxford, Oxford
University Press, 2014), 47-72 (chapter 3).
77 Ap. Met. 8.23. See Apuleius, and Ben L. Hijmans Jr., Apuleius Madaurensis Metamorphoses. Book
VIII (Groningen: E. Forsten, 1995), 195. Hijmans states that it is impossible to identify the city (civitas), since
none of the cities Lucius travels through in the Metamorphoses are mentioned by name. But in the Onos the city is identified as Beroea, being “a large and populous city of Macedonia” (Onos 34). This was indeed a place where Dea Syria was worshipped, cf. Hijmans, Metamorphoses-VIII, 286. Apuleius could very plausibly have had the same city in mind.
At the market: Lucius’ first acquaintance with a begging priest (Met. 8.24; 195, 25 - 197, 13)
Lucius’ first encounter with Philebus, the leader of a band of wandering priests, at the
marketplace where Lucius is put up for auction, is also the moment the reader gets acquainted with the wandering priest. Due to Philebus’ distinctive appearance, Lucius immediately knows who he is dealing with, and he only needs a few words to sketch the buyer’s character to his Roman audience:
Scitote qualem: cinaedum et senem cinaedum, calvum quidem sed cincinnis semicanis et pendulis capillatum, unum de triviali popularium faece, qui per plateas et oppida cymbalis et crotalis personantes deamque Syriam circumferentes mendicare compellunt.
Learn what he was: a cinaedus and an old one at that, bald on top but with ringlets of grey hair circling his scalp, the scum of society, one of the dregs who frequent the city streets sounding their cymbals and castanets, dragging the Syrian Great Goddess round with them, using her to beg.
Apul. Met. 8.24. Translation: A.S. Kline.
Earlier Lucius, being the internal primary narrator looking back on this adventure, had already warned his audience that his fate would deteriorate, for Fortuna, being “very cruel”
(saevissima) and “blind" (caecos)78 had devised for Lucius, who was to become a devotee of Isis at the end of the Metamorphoses, to become a servant of the priests of Dea Syria, who, according to Hijmans, should be considered as Isis’ antithesis.79
The first word that Lucius uses to describe Philebus is cinaedus, a far from neutral or friendly term. According to the teratogenic grid on Roman sexual categories by Parker (Table 3), a cinaedus, an effeminate man who took on a passive role in any sexual relationship, was the antitype of the “normal” vir.80 Since castrated priests were not able to take on a natural active role in a sexual relationship, they were automatically associated with passive
homosexuality and other forms of passive sexual behaviour that were considered abnormal
78 Apul. Met. 8.24: Sed illa fortuna mea saevissima, quam per tot regiones iam fugiens effugere vel
praecedentibus malis placare non potui, rursum in me caecos detorsit oculos et emptorem aptissimum duris meis casibus mire repertum obiecit.
79 Hijmans, Metamorphoses-VIII, 287 (Appendix IV).
80 Holt N. Parker, “The Teratogenic Grid”, Roman Sexualities, ed. Judith. P. Hallett and Marilyn B.
Skinner (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1997), 49; 56. For the significance of the name Philebus (“Bovine-lover”), see Hijmans, Metamorphoses-VIII, 221.
