Lessico

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Galli
Sacerdoti di Cibele

Bassorilievo di un Archigallo, il capo dei sacerdoti di Cibele.

  

Adoratori della dea Cibele in ambiente ellenistico-romano. Pur non essendo veri e propri sacerdoti, erano consacrati da un rito iniziatico che comportava l'evirazione e un tatuaggio con aghi infuocati, in una festa che cadeva forse il 24 marzo. Secondo alcuni - come riferisce Hofmann - l'autocastrazione ebbe come prima vittima Attis (o Atys) di cui Cibele si era invaghita.

Galli, in greco Gálloi, erano detti a Roma i sacerdoti di divinità orientali della fertilità (Inanna, Ishtar/Ashera, Agatartide eccetera), che all'entrata piena nel Ministero si castravano pubblicamente. Hanno un analogo negli hijra indiani odierni. La cultura mesopotamica li conosce sin dal III millennio aC e sono così pervasivi che la Bibbia ne registra la presenza perfino nel tempio di Yahweh, sia pure liquidandoli come "prostituti" (qedeshim) e "cani" (qelebim).

http://digilander.libero.it/giovannidallorto/testi/greci/luciano

Johann Jacob Hofmann (1635-1706)
Lexicon Universale - 1698

Galli, sacerdotes Cybeles in Phrygia, dicti a Gallo flumine, cuius aquas cum bibissent, statim furere incipiebant, adeo ut se ipsos castrarent, quod aliter citra perniciem facere non poterant, nisi Samiâ testâ.

Hi sacra facientes furentium more capita rotabant. Lucan. Civ. Bell. l. 1. v. 567.

—— Crinemque rotantes
Sanguinei populis ululârunt tristia Galli.

Nic. Lloydius. Plin. l. 5. c. 32. et l. 6. c. 1. Alii dictos eos volunt a Gallo quodam, qui primus Cybeles fuerit sacerdos. Quare autem se ipsos castraverint, haec causa perhibetur: Cum Dea Cybele puerum Phrygem formosissimum Atyn nomine, suis sacris eâ lege praefecisset, ut perpetuo castitatem servaret, is haud diu post Sangaritidem Nympham compressit: Quare ab irata Dea in furorem actus, cum Dindyma venisset, manusque sibi afferre conaretur, miseratione Deae, furore utcunqueve liberatus, a se interficiendo quidem abstinuit, virilitatem tamen sibi amputavit; a quo tempore castratis Sacedotibus Dea gavisa dicitur, qua de re prolixum exstat Catulli carmen. De iis ita Apul. Miles. l. 8. Diu capite demisso cervices lubricis intorquentes motibus, crinesque pendulos rotantes in circulum et nonnumquam suos incursantes musculos, ad postremum ancipiti ferro, quod gerebant, sua quisque brachia dissecant. Totum itaqueve caput torquere, crinem rotare, corpusque circumagere solebant hi seu Curetes, seu Corybantes seu Galli. Turneb. in Eumenid.

—— Tibi nunc semiviri teretem comam
Volantes iactant Galli.

Unde Gallantes, Varroni dicuntur homines insani ac furiosi, ab his matris Deûm Gallis. Aerea porro illis tympana et buxus, ut videre est supra in vocibus, Corybantes, Curetes, Cybele etc. Sil. Ital. Punic. Bell. l. 17. v. 18.

Circum arguta cavis tinnitibus aera, simulque
Certabant rauca resonantia tympana pulsu,
Semivirique chori.

Eosdem Idaeos Dactylos quoqueve et Lares nominatos reperias, quibus qui praeerat, Archigalli nomine insignis, in omnes eos summum habebat imperium. Meminit eius Tertullian. Apologet. c. gent. c. 24. cum ait: Archigallus ille sanctissimus, die 9. Kal. Apriles, quo sanguinem impurum, lacertos quoque castrando libabat, pro salute Imp. Marci iam interempti, solita aeque imperia mandavit. Hic primus cymbala praelata in illis sacris pulsabat. Iuv. Sat. 9. l. 3. v. 62.

Cymbala pulsantis legatum fiet amici?

Ubi vet. Schol. Archigallum indigitari vult: sicque videtur intelligendus Claud. in Eutrop. l. 1. Carm. 18. v. 279.

Cymbala ferre licet, pectusque illidere pinu,
Inguinis et reliquum Phrygiis abscindere cultris etc.

Veterum aliquot marmorum inscriptiones, ubi Archigalli mentio, collegêre Lilius Gyrald. Syntagm. 4. Hist. Deorum et Onuphr. Panvin. De iisdem Gallis non omittendus Dionys. l. 2. ubi, Romae, inquit, nulla peregrina, sacra sunt recepta publice: sed etiam si qua oraculorum iussu aliunde introducta sunt, suo more coluntur a civibus, abdicatis fabularum miraculis, sicut in matris Ideae sacris sit. Praetores enim quotannis Romano ritu victimas ei caedunt et ludos faciunt: sacerdotio vero eius funguntur Phryges, vir et mulier, eamque vicatim circumferunt more suo circulatorio, pectora plangentes ad cantum tibiarum tympanorumque sonitum. Ingenuus autem Romanus nemo est mitriacus, nec oberrat ad Phrygios modulos indutus synthesin, neque ex decreto Senatus initiatur magnae Matris orgiis. Recepta vero fuisse Cybeleia id urbem sacra, missosque Pessinuntem, qui Deam arcesserent, docet Liv. Dec. 3. l. 9. Suet. Aug. c. 68. Sttab. o. 12. p. 543. etc. Addam et hoc, solis hisce Sacerdotibus stipem colligere fuisse permissum, cum ceteris id prohibitum esset. Unde Cic. de L. L. l. 2. Praeter Ideae matris famulos eosque iustis diebus, ne quis stipem petito. Et paulo post interpretans hanc legem: Stipem, inquit, sustulimus, nisi eam quam ad paucos dies propriam Ideae matris excepimus. Implet enim superstitione animos. Plura vide, praeter Auctores supra passim memoratos, apud Ioh. Rosin. Antiqq. Rom. l. 2. c. 4. alibi, Thom. Godwyn. Anthol. Rom. l. 2. s. 2. etc. ut et infra in voce Metragyrta, it. Praecisi. De ementito vero eorum furore et ficta vaticinatione ac gallandi modo, vide inprimis octavam: Appuleii Milesiam, ut et aliquid infra, ubi de Halicaccabo, it. in voce Telchinas. Sed et Murmillones antea Gallos vocatos esse, quod genere armaturae Gallico uterentur, notat Festus: quemadmodum Samnites gladiatores ab eadem causa dicti sunt, quod Samnitum ornatu essent armati, Salmas. ad Solin. p. 39.

Galli

An Archigallus
from Le Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines
de Daremberg et Saglio

Galli (singular Gallus) was the Roman name for castrated followers of the Phrygian goddess Cybele, which were regarded as a third gender by contemporary Roman scholars, comparable to transgendered people in the modern world. The chief of these priests was referred to as a battakes, and later as the archigallus.
Cybele's Galli were similar in form to other colleges of priests in Asia Minor that ancient authors described as "eunuchs", such as the priests of Atargatis described by Apuleius and Lucian, or the galloi of the temple of Artemis at Ephesus.

The first Galli arrived in Rome when the Senate officially adopted Cybele as a state goddess in 203 BC. Until the first century AD, Roman citizens were prohibited from becoming Galli. Under Claudius, however, this ban was lifted.

Further information is difficult to come by, given the persecution faced by followers of Cybele and other pagan deities after the Theodosian edict of 391 AD. All of her temples were destroyed, with orders that they should never be built upon (in contrast to the usual practice of converting non-Christian religious sites). As a result the only surviving records of the Galli come from historians and archivists. The accuracy of such records is often dubious because of the gender biases of most ancient writers.

The name Galli may be derived from the Gallus river in Phrygia. Alternatively it may be derived from the Sumerian Gallu, (from "Gal" = Great, "Lu" = Man) special servants of the Sumerian God Enki, of ambiguous gender. (One of the first temples to Cybele was built near this river, which led to a rumor that drinking from the Gallus would cause such madness that the drinker would castrate himself. It has also been supposed that Galli is derived from the Latin word for rooster. Hieronymus believed the name was given by the Romans as a sign of their contempt for the Gauls. However, in that case, gallus would have been borrowed from Asia or Greece, where it meant eunuch.

The Galli were castrated voluntarily, typically during an ecstatic celebration called Dies Sanguinis, or Day of Blood, which took place on March 24.

Le Dictionnaire des Antiquités
Grecques et Romaines
de Daremberg et Saglio

Hachette - 1877-1919