#gallae

Certainly the Romans were familiar with the Galli, the emasculated priests of Attis, before the close of the Republic. These unsexed beings, in their Oriental costume, with little images suspended on their breasts, appear to have been a familiar sight in the streets of Rome, which they traversed in procession, carrying the image of the goddess and chanting their hymns to the music of cymbals and tambourines, flutes and horns, while the people, impressed by the fantastic show and moved by the wild strains, flung alms to them in abundance, and buried the image and its bearers under showers of roses.

vocês poderiam falar um pouco sobre as gallae? pesquisei um pouco sobre o assunto e o que vi me intrigou e algumas coisas até me aborreceram, devido eu ter visto que há alguns historiadores/arqueólogos que as pintam como meros “homens” que usavam saias mas, pelo visto, elas não são isso, na verdade, mas não sei se nada disso é verídico kkkkk

In the Greco-Roman world, male and female were not inalienable actualities but were rather considered as being two polarized ends of a single continuum, where people’s qualities and actions determined their position on a sliding scale. Men especially were in constant danger of falling from their highly valued position of masculinity into an undesirable form of femininity, for the association with any quality considered to be feminine effectively undermined one’s manhood. These traits included, among others, softness, faintheartedness, lack of self-mastery, passivity , especially in sexual relations, unconventional clothing, excessive primping, and an inclination for luxury, which all featured time and again in the descriptions of the galli. The eunuch-priests who had castratd themselves voluntarily were not only an object of disdain, but also an eerie enigma, for they had willingly given up the position that elite men were striving so hard to maintain...Thus we may surmise that the galli, who could communicate with their goddess through ecstasy and thus override the cultic apparatus controlled by the elite, could be seen to challenge not only fundamental social norms, but also the established religious authorities. Thus, criticism and even loathing can be interpreted as ways to deal with this threat.

I just realized that the title of the Priestesses of Cybele is a pun.

Gallae -  Originating in Turkey, and spreading to Europe, many of the ancient priestesses of the goddess Cybele were Gallae. The Gallae were eunuchs who were analogous to transgender women. Some see them as a nonbinary gender role. Today, some worshipers of Cybele call themselves Gallae. One of their temples is in New York