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 [email protected]

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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 [email protected]/ [email protected] 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.

(Leeuwarden, June 25, 2020)

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I would like to thank dr. L.A. (Lucinda) Dirven for sharing her time and expertise on this subject.

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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 Bibliography 84

5 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?

6 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 swindlers instead of genuine priest-castrates.

7 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.

8 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. Renard, Vol. 2. Ed. J. Bibauw (Brussels: Latomus, 1969), 404-414.

9 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.

10 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 in Asia Minore, G. Urso ed. (Pisa: Edizioni ETS, 2007), 79-92.

11 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 l’époque Romaine. Nouvelles découvertes et perspectives. Proceedings of the international symposium Skopje,

12 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 Sciences and Arts, University of Leiden, 2015).

13 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.

14 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?

24 Roller, God the Mother, 316.

15 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).

29 Beard, “The Roman,” 170; Roller, God the mother, 318.

16 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, completed under emperor Claudius.

17 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, between myth and history: king, priest and god (Brill: Leiden, 2002).

18 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.

41 Beard, “The Roman,” 173.

19 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’ “effeminate” appearance and a “furtive” association with galli, cf. Suet. Aug. 68.

20 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.

54 Ov.Fast.4.272: in Phrygios Roma revertur avos.

21 Megale(n)sia or Megalenses Ludi

Pompa (solemn procession), on which the statue of the goddess was carried April 4 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). Aristocratic families offered spiced cheese (moretum) to the goddess that were During the week 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. Chariot races were added in the first century BCE. They were probably held April 10 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 “Birthday” of for political and aristocratic display. Cybele The games were under the care of a curule aedil until 23 BCE; under the (dies natalis) Principate a praetor became responsible.

Magistrates sacrificed a heifer (iuvenca).

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

22 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.

58 Suet. Aug. 34.

23 225 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

24 240. 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.

62 Arnob., Adv. nat. 5.5-7.

25 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.

26 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.

27 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.

70 Lancellotti, Attis, 115-8.

28

Claudius Antoninus Pius Antoninus Pius or later Id. Mart. Canna intrat (March 15) (cannophori)

XI K. April Arbor intrat (March 22) (dendrophori) A pine tree is brought into the temple of Cybele. IX K. April Sanguem/ Dies (March 24) 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 Hilaria (Day of Joy) (March 25) Resurrection of Attis, who joins the Mother Goddess in heaven (Sallustius) VII K. April Requietio (March 26) Day of rest VI K. April Lavatio (March 27) (?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).

29 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 introduction, 28-38.

30 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.

31 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.

32 and degrading by Roman standards. It is remarkable that both Apuleius and Lucian nowhere publicly identify the wandering priests as galli or bellonarii in the Metamorphoses and the Onos: the priests are merely described as cinaedi/ κίναιδοι. In contrast, Lucian does actually identify the priests of Dea Syria as Γάλλοι in De Dea Syria.81 There may be several reasons why Lucius keeps referring to the galli as cinaedi. The first explanation is that the priests were called cinaedi in the source text, and Lucian and Apuleius simply adopted the term. The second factor to take into consideration is that Lucius is far from being a covert and neutral narrator-focalizer. The term cinaedus simply reveals Lucius’ focalization, namely the biased view of a member of the Roman elite regarding people like Philebus, whom Lucius and his Roman narratees refused to acknowledge as priests.82 Apart from the fact that focalization is involved, there can also be an additional reason not to call Philebus a gallus. Simply because he is not; he is merely pretending to be a gallus. I think Apuleius deliberately leaves this question open to the audience, but there are some clues that I will highlight later on in this study.

normal active male passive female vir femina/ puella abnormal passive male active female cinaedus/ pathicus tribas, virago, moecha

Table 3. A simplified outline of the categories in the Roman sexual schema or “The Grid”, based on the study by Holt N. Parker (1997).

Lucius contempt is stressed by adding the qualification unum de triviali popularium faece (“one of the dregs who frequent the city streets”) to the description of Philebus. In the eyes of Lucius, Philebus is everything but venerable. Or attractive. Lucius is immediately distracted by the balding head of Philebus. In contrast to the priests of Isis, who were expected to shave

81 Luc. Syr. D. 15.

82 Jürgen Blänsdorf, Die Defixionum Tabellae des Mainzer Isis- und Mater Magna- Heiligtums (Mainz: Generaldirektion Kulturelles Erbe, 2012) is the editio princeps of the curse tablets from Mainz. Blänsdorf published an upgraded reading of a number of defixiones in Jürgen Blänsdorf, “The defixiones from the sanctuary of Isis”, in Magical practice in the Latin West: papers from the International Conference held at the University of Zaragoza, 30 sept. - 1st oct. 2005., ed. Richard L. Gordon (Leiden, Brill, 2010), 186 - 7. According to a curse tablet found at the Sanctuary of Mater Magna and Isis in Mainz (DTM no. 6), galli, believed to have deprived themselves from their male genitals, were not even considered to be human beings (in numero hominum) by the Roman community.

33 their head as a sign of celibacy and purity (κάθαρσις),83 galli were supposed to have long hair.84 However, the remaining braids and locks of hair on the back and at the sides of Philebus’ head only emphasize his baldness and must have made him look rather ridiculous in the eyes of a Roman vir like Lucius. The curling locks are further described as being semicanis, which does not only mean “half-grey”, but also “dog-like”. Even though Philebus is perceived as an ugly and loathed outcast in conspicuous attire by Lucius, the begging priest does not suffer any trouble visiting a crowded marketplace. He is not being shooed away or shunned or being shout at. As a customer, he is just as welcome as anyone else, it seems. Only when he looks at the merchandise with a critical eye, intended not to buy Lucius without price negotiation, and starts asking question after question, the seller gets irritated with him and makes a homophobic remark: “Why don’t you just stick your face between his back legs to see how ‘docile’ this donkey is?”85 Now if there would be any active aggressive homophobic sentiment within this community, or if the begging priest was really considered an outcast, Philebus would have never dared to bargain like that or even rebuke the auctioneer with offensive language, which he does, with “feigned designation”, as if he had to remind himself that he is indeed a priest of a goddess with shamanic powers:

‘At te,’ inquit ‘Cadaver surdum et mutum delirumque praeconem, omnipotens et omniparens dea Syria et sanctus Sabadius et Bellona et Mater Idaea, et cum suo Adone Venus domina caecum reddant, qui scurrilibus iamdudum contra me velitaris iocis. An me putas, inepte, iumento fero posse deam committere, ut turbatum repente divinum deiciat sumulacrum, egoque miser cogar crinibus solutis discurrere et deae meae humi iacenti aliquem medicum quaerere?’

“You lunatic, you deaf and dumb corpse of an auctioneer! I call on the all-powerful, the all- creating goddess, Syrian Atargatis; and holy Sabazius too, and Ma of Commagene; on Idaean

83 Hijmans, Metamorphoses-VIII, 288-89. In his appearance, Philebus is the opposite of a chaste acolyte of Isis. He is a mocking image of purity.

84 Andrew Sydenham Farrar Gow,“The Gallus and the Lion,” JHS 80 (1960), 88-93. The gallus’ hair is a recurring topic in a group of epigrams in the sixth book of the Anthologia Palatina (51, 210 -226, 237), written on the theme “The gallus and the lion”. A gallus or Μὴτρος ἀγύρτης (“begging priest of the Mother”) encounters a lion and beats his timbrel in terror. He is then rescued by invoking the power of the goddess. In several of the poems the gallus dedicates his instruments, his garments (ἐνδυτά) as well as his once tossing golden hair (ξανθοὺς πλοκάμους) to the Mother Goddess. AP 6.94, a variant on this theme and following the same model as AP 6.51, describes the votive offering of Clytosthenes, an elderly gallus. He dedicates his instruments to the goddess, but nothing is said about his hair. Gow, 92: “As he is old perhaps he has none.” For the literate audience who knew about these poems, Philebus must have looked even more ridiculous, being a watered down and ugly caricature of the goddess-inspired galli in the Anthology.

85 Apul. Met. 8.25.

34 Mother Cybele and her consort Attis; on Lady Astarte and her consort Adonis; may they strike you blind as well for tormenting me with your scurrilous jests. Do you think I’d entrust the goddess, you fool, to some savage creature that might tumble her sacred image from its back, and be forced to run round like a servant-girl, hair streaming in the wind, to find a doctor for my goddess as she lay there on the ground?’ Apul. Met. 8.25. Translation: A.S. Kline.

Of course, this passage should be considered as fiction. Hijmans (1995, VIII:214) refers to a mime fragment in ancient Greece where cinaedi are involved.86 The fragment probably dates from the Classical Period, a time mirrored by the Roman elite during the Second Sophistic, a cultural trend favoured by Apuleius as well. No doubt Apuleius wrote this quarrel, which is a bit reminiscent of a comedy scene, for his audience so they could have a good laugh on Philebus’ expense. There might be an intertextual pun here: one of the “classic” themes in ancient Greek mime seems to have been that cinaedi are being sexually aroused by animals, like an ass, as a depicted burlesque scene on a Hellenistic drinking cup reveals.87 This brings an additional dimension to Lucius’ revulsion regarding the priests. Realising that he is in fact a fictional character, Lucius breaks the imagined wall between his narrative and the literary heritage of his own and his elite, “Sophistic” audience. Other scenes could, on a metalevel, refer to popular Greek memes and comedy as well. As for the narrative level, Apuleius is aware that his contemporary culture was very different from fifth century Attic or Hellenistic society.88 Even though he winks at the “classical” stereotypes, even using the frame of a Greek landscape, his cinaedus, a stereotype character that is depicted here in a second century Romanized era, should not be equated with a κίναιδος from ancient Greek comedy. Customs, religion, culture, social status and ideas on gender and sexuality are nothing alike. Apuleius could have chosen the same approach as Lucian: in the Onos, Philebus only enters the auction at the end of the day, after all interested buyers and good merchandise are gone.89 The run-up to Philebus’ outburst seems to be written with some credibility: I think we can assume that galli were allowed to buy at a public

86 RE s.v. Mimos 173.5.

87 Ibid., 214, where Hijmans gives an iconographic description of the vase, first published by Michael Rostovtzeff in 1939; the vase is owned by the Louvre, France.

88 Also keep in mind that galli or bellonarii did not exist in the Classical Greek cult of Meter, see footnote 20.

89 Onos 35.

35 auction, even though they were not considered to be full-fledged citizens by the Roman majority. And what about the curse uttered by Philebus? Even though his “feigned” outburst clearly has no real credibility in this context, we know -thanks to recent finds- that this kind of language possibly responded with the character Philebus portrays. For his words evoke some of the thematic formula found in curse tablets (defixiones) that were discovered in and around the inner sanctum of the Sanctuary of Mater Magna and Isis Panthea in Mainz.90 A typical defixio usually contained a prayer for justice, in which a god or a powerful figure from the underworld is evoked.91 In the Mainz tablets, the divine powers of the sanctuary, Mater Magna and/ or her consort Attis, are called upon after which follows a curse. In several of the tablets, a reference is made to the galli, like in DTM 2:

Quomodo galli,/(10) bello-nari, magal[i] sibi sanguin[em] feruentem fundunt, frigid[us] / ad terram uenit, sic et[...]CIA, copia, cogitatum, mentes. [Quem-] / admodum de eis gallo[r]u[m, ma]galorum, bellon[ariorum sanguinem or: ritus] / spectat, qui de ea pecun|ia dolum malum [admisit, sic illius] / exitum spectent, et a[d qu]em modum sal in [aqua liques-] / (15) cet, sic

et illi membra m[ed]ullae extabescant.

In the way that the galli, the Bellonari, and the Magali shed their boiling-hot blood, let him come cold to the ground, also [let him shed] his faculties, his thinking, and his intentions. He will see the extent of the [powers] of the galli, Magali, and Bellonari. The one who did the crime of [taking] this money, let them see him die, and for the same reason that salt dissolves in water, similarly let that man’s limbs and marrow disappear. DTM 2. Translation: Sarah Veale (2017).

The Mainz curses were written on small pieces of lead that were rolled up and burned in the inner sanctuary in order to be effective.92 Since several curse tablets have been found in the temple itself alongside votive offerings, Sarah Veale (2017) suggests that such activities were

90 Jürgen Blänsdorf, Die Defixionum Tabellae des Mainzer Isis- und Mater Magna- Heiligtums (Mainz: Generaldirektion Kulturelles Erbe, 2012) is the editio princeps of the curse tablets from Mainz.

91 For his categories of prayers for justice, see Hendrik Simon Versnel “Beyond cursing: the appeal for Justice in Judicial Prayers”, Magika Hiera. Ancient Greek Magic and Religion, eds. C. A. Faraone and D. Obbink (New York/Oxford, 1991), 60 -106; Hendrik Simon Versnel, “Prayers for Justice, East and West”, in Magical practice in the Latin West: papers from the International Conference held at the University of Zaragoza, 30 sept. - 1st oct. 2005., ed. Richard L. Gordon (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 275 -354.

92 Sarah Veale, “Defixiones and the Temple Locus: The Power of Place in the Curse Tablets at Mainz”, in Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft, volume 12-3, (Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017). An online version is published on Project Muse, Accessed February 20, 2020. https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/37956.

36 a part of normative religious practices within the cult of Mater Magna in Mainz, even though Roman law held an oppositional stance on practicing magic.93 The galli, bellonarii and Magali in the defixio from Mainz are bracketed together like Idaean Mother Cybele, Syrian Atargatis and Ma of Commagene in Apul. Met. 8.25. Apparently, these goddesses, their consorts and their ecstatic rites were equated to one another to a certain extent and their threefold held some peculiar divine power. Now Philebus, presenting himself as an initiate of the Dea Syria, does not need a curse tablet to invoke the goddess. As a self-proclaimed priest, he calls upon the goddess directly. Even though Lucius and the auctioneer do not seem very impressed by Philebus’ words, there must have been occasions where such invocations for justice could be uttered by a gallus and received by an audience of believers. The threefold naming of the Mother Goddess in Apul. Met. 8.25. may very well suggest a reference to a “real” gallus curse; a familiar formula, known to Apuleius and his contemporary readers, that galli may have uttered, not so much in order to protect themselves from any aggressors, but on behalf of others in exchange for money. The votive curse tablets found in Mainz, endorsed by the temple state priests of Cybele as a part of the normative temple rites of the Metroön, may very likely have had a clandestine counterpart outside the temple walls, where galli, dressed in their conspicuous pseudo-mystic attire, sold formulaic spells containing curses or fortune-telling, as attested by Apul. Met. 9.8. The image of wandering priests who used a pack animal to carry their sacred shrine as well as other insignia of their non formal priesthood must have been just as recognisable to the Roman audience as a donkey grinding the grain in a bakery or a centurion’s barracks and weapons.94 As such, the wandering priests were not excluded from society, they were able to make a living wage as esoteric merchants of the divine. In all likelihood the status of galli should not be regarded so low that people did not want to do business with them.95

93 S. Veale, Defixiones, 280: “The uniformity of tablet deposition within the sanctuary, as well as the thematic content of the tablets, suggests that certain types of cursing qualified as normative religious activity at this temple. The discovery of curse tablets alongside other votive offerings invites us to think of cursing at Mainz not as a deviant religious technology, but rather, as a normative ritual practice at the site.” See also J. Blänsdorf, Defixiones, 157.

94 Hijmans, Metamorphoses-VIII, 239: “The notion of an ass carrying the image of a god (and the baggage of the faithful) has a long tradition and is perhaps proverbial, according to the Scholiast on Ar. Ra.159.” Most of Lucius’ owners are recognizable figures from daily life: a baker (Apul. Met. 9.11 - 13), a hortulanus (Apul. Met. 9.31- 32), who is so poor that he pays in nummi (copper sestertii) instead of denarii, and a centurion (Apul. Met. 10.1 - 5). Lucius even turns into a Roman forerunner of a food truck after he is purchased by two pastry-cooks (Apul. Met. 10.13-16).

95 Juvenal (c. 98 - 128 AD) writes that Roman matronae often consulted galli for prophecies: Juv.6.517ff.

37 The auctioneer and Philebus agree on a price: seventeen denarii. According to Hijmans (1995, 220), this price was relatively low, but it is still a fair amount of money.96 The average annual salary for a legionary soldier was about 300 denarii from the time of Domitian, 25 denarii a month.97 Roughly said: seventeen denarii could equal op to two-thirds of a lower class month salary. If wandering priests were able to keep pack animals, this raises another question: could a gallus pursue a self-sustaining livelihood? According to Apuleius and the Onos, devoted worshippers of the Great Mother as well as superstition among the common people provided the begging priests the basis of their sustenance, while they travelled from town to town. However, these kinds of practices could perhaps have been punishable by law, since galli were not considered to be official priests within the Roman Empire.98 According to the Mainz Tablets, the only “authorised” power a gallus could effect was imploring the benevolence of the Goddess through his suffering, his emasculation, which at the same time placed him beyond the bounds of social life.99 Despite of being marginalized, the galli were not excluded from society completely, as evidenced not only by this passage, but several other written sources from antiquity. The galli were visible members within the Roman community. They were encouraged to beg for alms during the Megale(n)sian procession and they were a vital element in the cult of Mater Magna in Rome.100 The fact that many testimonies on them have survived, proves to me that they formed a visible part of the Roman scene.

96 Hijmans, Metamorphoses-VIII, 220 based this conclusion on comparing Apuleius’ prices with the higher prices in the Onos and on a study by Duncan-Jones (1974), who compared the price of Lucius with the price of asses in Roman Egypt. See Richard Duncan-Jones, The Economy of the Roman Empire: Quantitative Studies. (London: Cambridge University Press, 1974).

97 Paul Erdkamp, Companion to the Roman army (Hoboken: John Wiley And Sons Ltd, 2007), 313: “The legionary under Domitian received 1,200 sestertii as basic salary, which would rise to 7,200 sestertii by the year 235. Because the system of deducting certain costs from soldiers’ salaries was eliminated under Septimius Severus, the years 193–235 saw not only an increase in the payment of actual salary of almost 500 percent, but also a corresponding increase in the state’s expenses. This demand was made up for by the systematic debasement of the precious metal content of the coinage, and increased taxes on the civilian population.”

98 Selling unauthorized prophecies or curses and claiming supernatural power could be considered as an act of magic. See Mary Beard, John North, Simon Rice, Religions of Rome, volume 1, a history (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991), 233: “By the late Republic, magic was brought under an earlier general law on murder and poisoning, the Lex Cornelia desicariis et veneficiis of 81 BC.”

99 Blänsdorf, no. 18 = DTM 6: nec illi in numero hominum sunt.

100 Ov.Fast.4.179 - 348.

38 Ad domum: household of the galli (Met. 8.27; 197, 14 - 198, 16)

After the deal is closed, Philebus drags the reluctant Lucius directly to his house (ad domum, Met. 8.26). The expression does not necessarily indicate that Philebus owned a house. Since the band of galli is later depicted as traveling from town to town, this is probably not a permanent residence, but a deversorium (lodging house).101 Apuleius also mentions here that the galli have a slave. Slaves were expensive in the second century. An adult male slave would cost around 500 denarii.102 This particular slave could even be a bit more expensive, since he is described as choraula doctissimus, “very skilled in playing the double flute” (pun- intended). Even a Roman reader might wonder how the priests could have bought him, so Apuleius considers it necessary to add that they bought this young man from their begging money (collaticia stipe de mensa paratus).103 Outside of the house, the slave played the Phrygian double pipe, but inside, the internal narrator Lucius tells us, he served the priest as a concubinus partiarius, a shared concubine. Hijmans comments that “it is typical of the priests’ hypocrisy as pictured by the narrator, that the money they receive for their religious acts is used by them not only for their livelihood and for the presentation but also for their base lusts.”104 The difference between the inner- and outer space is important here. For the “outside world” of Apuleius is usually depicted with a great sense of realism. Therefore, we can assume that wandering priests could sometimes be seen with pipers, and that these pipers could be slaves.105 As for the “inside world”, this is where the reader is usually presented with the element of phantasy.106 Hidden from the outside world, the seemingly “normal” characters take off their masks, “filmed” and rendered to the audience by Lucius, who is not an all- knowing narrator. Above the narrative frame of the Metamorphoses, another voice can be

101 Apul.Met, 9.41.

102 Walter Scheidel, “Real slave prices and the relative cost of slave labor in the Greco-Roman world”, Ancient Society, 35 (2005): 1-17.

103 Hijmans, Metamorphoses-VIII, 230. Hijmans notes that stips is used in a religious context on several occasions by Apuleius. The priests of the Dea Syria also receive stipes after their performance in Met.8.28.

104 Ibid., 229.

105 Apul.Met. 8.26: Erat quidam iuvenis satis corpulentus, choraula doctissimus, conlaticia stipe de mensa paratus, qui foris quidem circumgestantibus deam cornu canens adambulabat, domi vero promiscuis operis partiarius agebat concubinus.

106 An exception, of course, is Lucius changing back into his human form (Ap.Met. 12) due to the divine power of Isis. Since Apuleius’ Isis is the all-powerful Goddess of good, her magic can be faced by everyone under the light of day.

39 distinguished, but only by those who are keen on extra layers (Table 4). While a biased Lucius, a character in his own story, sees the priest’s activities and believes that all begging priests are probably like Philebus and his men, a covert, more knowledgeable narrator voice (Lucius in hindsight) hints to the audience that these men are no ordinary begging priests, but shrewd swindlers, who have managed to make a lucrative business out of their begging routine.

world of the novel

narrative = discourse of the

narrator + discourse of the actors

narrator actors (Lucius the ass, auctioneer, narratee (Lucius after band of priests, various townspeople) regaining his human story = narrated world + form) cited world

Table 4. Hierarchy of the narrative in Metamorphoses 8.24 - 9.10, based on Hijmans, Metamorphoses-IX, 10 (Figure 1). The internal narrator Lucius is at the same time an “actor” (character in the narrated world); therefore his narration is coloured by his perception. The world of the novel is here at the same time a narrated world (consisting of the world that is invoked by the actors (Lucius, auctioneer, begging priests) and the world that is described by the narrator).

The next day, Lucius is witness to the “begging priests” putting their masks back on and preparing themselves for their daily round, giving us a unique description of how an actual band of begging priests could have looked like:

Die sequenti variis coloribus indusiati et deformiter quisque formati, facie caenoso pigmento delita et oculis obunctis graphice prodeunt; mitellis et crocotis et carbasinis et bombycinis iniecti, quidam tunicas albas in modum lanciolarum quoquoversum fluente purpura depictas cingulo subligati, pedes luteis induti calceis; deamque serico contectam amiculo mihi gerendam imponunt brachiisque suis humero tenus renudatis, attollentes immanes gladios ac secures, evantes exsiliunt incitante tibiae cantu lymphaticum tripudium.

40 Next day they prepared to do their rounds, dressing in various colours, beautifying their faces unbeautifully, daubing their cheeks with rouge, and highlighting their eyes. Off they went, in turbans and saffron robes, all fine linen and silk, some in white tunics woven with purple designs, running in every direction like a lance point, and gathered up in a girdle, and with yellow shoes on their feet. The goddess they wrapped in a silken cloak and set her on my back, while they, arms bare to the shoulder, waving frightful swords and axes, leapt about and chanted, in a frenzied dance to the stirring wail of the flute.

Ap.Met. 8.27. Translation: A.S. Kline (2013).

It may not come as a surprise that Roman society looked down upon men who used make-up. Applying women’s make-up and dressing up in women’s clothes on top of this does not exactly specify as masculine by Roman standards. But what else does this passage tell us about the position of the effeminate wandering priests? Though the upper-class, narrow- minded Lucius sees them as ugly and rather ridiculous, the men’s attire is actually not that “cheap”. Applying make-up was a time-consuming affair, that most working-class women could not afford. Depending on the material, cosmetics could be expensive too.107 The clothes that Lucius describes, are quite precious as well. Garments made of bombyx (coan silk) were expensive, but not uncommon; like purple dye, silk was a popular fashion item. 108 It is not poverty that places these men at the margins of Roman society. For comparison: meretrices, high class call girls who, like the galli, held an excluded and restricted status in Roman society, also wore silk and expensive, bright-coloured gowns. Why does Lucius denigrate this type of clothing? First of all, there is the traditional invective against oriental luxuria, already described by Vergil.109 Secondly, items like a mitella (woven headband) and a crocota (saffron-coloured garment) were traditionally worn by women.110 When someone enjoys exceptional beauty or a high status, cross-dressing can

107 Susan Stewart, Cosmetics & Perfumes in the Roman World (Gloucestershire: Tempus, 2007).

108 Judith Lynn Sebesta, “Tunica Ralla, Tunica Spissa: The Colors and Textiles of Roman Costume”, in The World of Roman Costume, ed. Judith Lynn Sebesta, Larissa Bonfante (Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1994), 69; 71. Apuleius mentions that he image of the Goddess is wrapped in a serico contectam amiculo, a precious mantle made of Chinese (imported) silk. Serica garments were even more costly than bambyx. Carbasus refers to garments made of Spanish flax, a fine linen (Plin. 19, 1, 2, § 10).

109 Aen.12.825. For other passages alluding to the galli, see Roller, God the Mother, 301-3. Roller concludes: “Yielding to Jupiter’s plan that the Trojans prevail, Juno imposes one last condition, that the conquered Italians do not change their voices and their clothing: “ne…vocem mutare viros aut vertere vestem”; even though the Trojans have won, good sturdy Italian speech and manners will prevail. In other words, Italian men will never adopt the speech and costume of effeminate Orientals such as the Galli.”

110 Hijmans, Metamorphoses-VIII, 236 - 9.

41 be appealing, even rendering the person an ambiguous gender or divine status, but when your social status is low and you are ugly -like Philebus is in the eyes of Lucius-, it will do the opposite: it will make a person look utterly ridiculous and far from attractive.111 The overt narrating Lucius does not refrain from expressing his contempt for these “non-men”. Yet it is all a matter of perspective: looking away from Lucius’ frame, you may see that the “priests”, who are preparing themselves to step into the outside world again, are not so much dressing this way as a fetish, but because these guises will give them the appearance of a priest. Lucius does not regard them as such, but his opinion does not apply to the targeted rural dwellers. In the light of this, it is rather peculiar that not all the priests wear the same outfit; they are in fact, as Hijmans describes, “a motley garb of priests”.112 Apuleius writes that some of the men wear white tunics with purple that runs “like a lancepoint’”(in modum lanciolarum). On a Pompeian fresco (Fig. 4), a statue of Mater Magna is carried by four men, all wearing the same garments: an over-the-knee, long-sleeved yellow-white tunic and a purple cloak that falls over the tunic in a triangular shape. On their left, a state priest dressed in white stands in a praying position and there is a piper playing the Phrygian double flute at the left. To wear purple was something like wearing a suit or a tie in our culture. These men want to look like genuine priests. They even put on their best shoes, luteis calceis (yellow walking boots), more expensive than sandals.113 The other galli are dressed in an oriental fashion, wearing a mitella (mitra) and saffron-coloured robes.114 This orgiastic version of a gallus is described by Lucian.115 Bare arms, swords and axes are found in the iconography of a bellonarius (Fig. 5). Perhaps Lucius does not know galli well enough to make a distinction between genuine worshippers and charlatans, but the external narrator does: this mixed bag of priests do not support any religious belief: they are frauds.

111 TransAntiquity, Cross-dressing and Transgender Dynamics in the Ancient World, eds. Domitilla Campanile, Filippo Carlà-Uhink, and Margherita Facella (Oxon, New York: Routledge, 2017).

112 Hijmans, Metamorphoses-VIII, 235. The passage of the dress-up is not found in the Onos. As well as other passages that indicate that these “priests” are conmen and no galli. I think it is an extra layer that Apuleius consciously added to his story.

113 Hijmans, Metamorphoses-VIII, 238 notes that yellow or orange-yellow (flamen) is regarded as effeminate. Orange-yellow boots are seen on Roman fresco’s (worn by the goddess Diana for instance).

114 Galli of Mater Magna (Cybele) traditionally wore a long-sleeved tunic (tunica mandicata) and a Phrygian cap, cf. Fig. 3.

115 Gallos 1020; Lucianus Syr. D. 42. See Hijmans, Metamorphoses-VIII, 236-7 for more references.

42 Wandering priests at work (Met. 8.27-30; 198, 20 - 200, 10)

During the reign of Augustus, galli were only allowed to beg in the streets of Rome during the Megale(n)sia.116 This band of priests seems to have made their daily business out of visiting houses and performing their rituals (on private property) in exchange for money. Would this correspond to the reality of the second century? Different groups of priests travelling through the provinces, whose services could be hired by anyone who could afford it? This conjures up an image comparable with traveling soothsayers, magicians and wonder doctors, dispensing their secret potions and medicines even into the twentieth century. It is not so hard to believe that something similar would have already taken place in the Roman Empire: lots of remoted villages and estates offered a potential market. The band of priests deliberately seeks out a wealthy estate (villa) and rushes itself through the gate, giving the idea of a raid. However, if a band of galli or bellonarii would not be welcome, this group would have never reached the entrance and could have been easily chased away: wealthy estates had labourers working in the field and orchards, the area could even be enclosed by a fence. So the wild entrance into the estate is merely part of a performance, in which the wandering “priests” do their best to carry out a genuine ritual dance:

Ab ingressu primo statim absonis ululatibus constrepentes fanatice pervolant, diuque capite demisso cervices lubricis intorquentes motibus crinesque pendulos in circulum rotantes, et nonnunquam morsibus suos incursantes musculos, ad postremum ancipiti ferro quod gerebant sua quisque brachia dissicant. Inter haec unus ex illis bacchatur effusius ac de imis praecordiis anhelitus crebros referens, velut numinis divino spiritu repletus, simulabat sauciam vecordiam, prorsus quasi deum praesentia soleant homines non sui fieri meliores sed debiles effici vel aegroti.

On reaching the gate, they rushed in wildly, filling the place with tuneless cries, heads forward, rotating their necks in endless circling motions, their long pendulous hair swinging around them, now and then wounding their flesh savagely with their teeth, and at the climax slashing their arms with the double-edged knives they carried. One in their midst began to rave more ecstatically than the rest, heaving breaths from deep in his chest, simulating a fit of divine madness, as if filled with inspiration from some god, though surely the presence of a deity should make men nobler than themselves, not disorder them or make them lose their senses. Ap. Met.8.27. Translation: A.S. Kline (2013).

116 As described by Ovid (Fast. 4.179 – 348).The Republican poet Lucretius gives a description of galli at a procession in Magna Graeca (Lucretius 6.621–43). Cicero describes the Megale(n)sia in Rome (Cic.Har.resp.23), which he considered to be a “foreign festival.”

43 The dance gives us an overall image of the shamanic nature of the galli.117 A gallus is no ordinary servant of a god; as a devotee, he can reach an altered state of consciousness, becoming one with the divine power of the goddess herself. The gallus’ ecstatic dance is already attested for in Hellenistic poetry. In the topos of the gallus and the lion, the gallus performs his ritual in solitude, within the seclusion of a cave or an impenetrable forest, which cuts him off from the mortal realm (the “visible world”) and brings him closer to a divine or spiritual dimension. By channelling the energy from this dimension through the tympanon, he is able to protect himself against mortal danger.118 In the version of Alcaeus (AP 6.218), written around 215 BC and based upon the same model as AP 6.217, the gallus even tames the lion and brings him into a state of trance, after which the animal is dedicated to the deity whose energy overpowered him. Note how the way the lion is “swept of his feet” in a state of divine frenzy (ἐκ δὲ τενόντων ἔνθους) and tosses around his manes (ῥομβητὴν ἐστροφάλιζε φόβην) is typical for later descriptions containing dancing galli in a trancelike state.

χὠ μὲν ἐνέκλεισεν φονίαν γένυν, ἐκ δὲ τενόντων ἔνθους ῥομβητὴν ἐστροφάλιζε φόβην· κεῖνος δ᾿ ἐκπροφυγὼν ὀλοὸν μόρον, εἵσατο Ῥείῃ 10 θῆρα, τὸν ὀρχησμῶν αὐτομαθῆ Κυβέλης.

The lion shut its murderous mouth, and as if itself full of divine frenzy, began to toss and whirl its mane about its neck. But he thus escaping a dreadful death dedicated to Rhea 10. the beast that had taught itself her dance. AP 6.218. Translation: W.R. Paton.

The element of self-mutilation with bite-marks, swords and knives during the ritual dance may be restricted to the cult of Dea Syria. Self-flagellation, however, could have been characteristic to the cult of Cybele as well: a funerary relief of a priest of Mater Magna in the Capitoline Museums (Fig. 6), representing an archigallus in full attire, depicts a whip made of knucklebones, just as described in Met. 8.28.119 The narrator Lucius finds the dance ridiculous and insane (debiles vel aegroti). He does not believe for one moment that the galli are inspired by the divine. Official state priests

117 Cf. Beard, “The Roman.”

118 Gow, “The Gallus and the Lion”, 88-93.

119 Hijmans, Metamorphoses-VIII, 248. See also chapter 4.

44 did not perform these kinds of acts: their main task was to oversee the adherents of the cult and carry out the rites (sacra, hence: sacerdos) on the expense of the state.120 No doubt, an upright traditional upper-class Roman citizen like Lucius was abhorred by this kind of “sacrilege”. Only the Roman Emperor possessed a numen that bordered the divine, or an immaculate oracle priest like the Pythia of Delphi. Certainly not a castrated man or semivir (Met. 8.28), whom Lucius considers to be the embodiment of impurity. Yet the reaction of the rural estate-dwellers contrasts sharply with Lucius’ opinion: the “obnoxious” act of self-chastisement provides the priests with an impressive daily yield: several silver denarii are dropped among copper asses. On top of that, they are also given wine, milk, cheese, cornmeal, flower and barley.121 This seems far more than a day’s loan, even if they have to split the profits between several people. Even though the author might have exaggerated the amount for comic effect, this is probably what a gallus’ stips or alms would have looked like.122 While the ritual dance of a gallus is looked upon with contempt here, the rhythm of the ritual songs had already made its way to the upper class as well. Cult songs like these were performed in the so-called Galliambic meter, known to us because the metre had even made its way to high literature.123 In Met. 8.30, the melody of the Phrygian song is enough to draw a religious man out in order to welcome the priests:124

Inibi vir principalis, et alias religiosus et eximie deum reverens, tinnitu cymbalorum et sonu tympanorum cantusque Phrygii mulcentibus modulis excitus procurrit obviam deamque votivo suscipiens hospitio nos omnis intra conseptum domus amplissimae constituit numenque summa veneratione atque hostiis opimis placare contendit.

There, one of the notables, a religious man with a particular reverence for that Goddess, roused by the cymbals tinkling, the drums beating and the plaintive music of the Phrygian flute, came running out to meet us, and receiving the Goddess with the hospitality of a devotee, he settled us within the walls of his extensive mansion, and strove to win the Goddess’ favour with deep reverence and rich sacrifice.

Apul.Met.8.30. Translation: A.S. Kline (2013).

120 Mary Beard, “The Roman,” 64-190.

121 Apul. Met. 8.28; see also Onos, 37.

122 Hijmans, Metamorphoses-VIII, 229-230 (commentary on 198, 2).

123 Cf. Catullus 63: ◡◡——ˌ◡◡—— ǁ ◡◡——ˌ◡◡◡

124 This detail is not found in the Onos, cf. 39.

45 Galli in a bath house, sexual debauchery (Met. 8.30; 200, 10 – 201, 3)

A Roman priest should be the embodiment of a Roman vir, not a person who would threaten the masculine standard, which had to be upheld.125 A gallus was a castrated man and did not meet the standard from the outset. So, according to Roman consensus, a gallus was not to be considered a real priest or even a person at all, being deprived of his gender parts.126 Since a gallus is no vir, he is automatically categorised as his counterpart: a cinaedus (Table 3).127 Roman prejudice stated that there was no such thing as a chaste or asexual cinaedus. A cinaedus can only take on a passive role in a sexual relationship and is implied to submit to any form of penetration.128 Besides that, the way the galli presented themselves, in their oriental attire, wearing long hair and make-up, was considered highly effeminate. Philebus even calls his associates puellae (8.26) with his non-masculine, shrieked voice (rauca et fracta). Roman writers associated effeminacy, or mollitia, with political, social and moral weakness, with inferiority and sexual passive behaviour, which was considered “unmanly” and therefore un-Roman.129 In Roman literature, a gallus is often perceived as a shameless character who indulges in sexual activities, similar to his Greek counterpart, the metragyrt (a collector of alms for Meter), who might have played a frequent roll in debauched memes or comedy, as I referred to earlier.130 Apuleius constantly anticipates the audience that the wandering priests will lay

125 Martijn Icks, “Chapter 4. Transvestism, power and the balance between the sexes in the literary discourse of the Roman Empire” in TransAntiquity, Cross-dressing and Transgender Dynamics in the Ancient World, eds Domitilla Campanile, Filippo Carlà-Uhink, Margherita Facella (Oxon, New York: Routledge, 2017), 66: “To the ancient Romans, one’s masculine status was conditional, something that had to be upheld and could always be contested. In the words of Maud Gleason, it was ‘an achieved state, radically underdetermined by anatomical sex’. Above all, ‘being a man’ was associated with an active sexual role – that is, with being the penetrating sexual partner – and with martial qualities such as military prowess and courage on the battlefield.”

126 Blänsdorf, no. 18 = DTM 6: nec illi in numero hominum sunt. (see footnote 18).

127 Or perhaps an even lower status, as footnote 18 suggests, as well as the case of Genucius (Valerius Maximus 7.7.6), who was legally declared a ‘non-person’. Roller, “Ideology,” 2: “There appear to be two unspoken assumptions which underlie negative reactions to the gender status of a self-castrating eunuch priest. The first is the automatic assumption of male superiority, in particular of the superiority of masculine appearance. The second is the firm conception that it was necessary to have gender and to play the biological and social role assigned to one’s gender to be fully human.”

128 Catherine Edwards, “Mollitia, reading the body”, in The Politics of Immorality in ancient Rome, ed. Catherine Edwards (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1993), 70-1.

129 Edwards, “Mollitia,” 65.

130 Footnote 20 and 85.

46 their hands on Lucius the ass (Met. 8.24-6) by deliberately placing Lucius in several settings that probably alluded to “classic cinaedi-performing-shameless-acts-with-donkey scenes” from ancient mime or comedy. Aware of his fictionality, Lucius-the-ass recognizes the depicted scenes all too well and realizes he is being transformed into a comedy caricature every single time, much to his satirized dismay. However, with an intended comic effect of false prolepsis,131 Lucius’ expectations are not fulfilled: the priests of Dea Syria visit a public bath house (balneae), where they pick up one of the local men for sex:

probeque disposita cenula balneas obeunt, ac dehinc lauti quendam fortissimum rusticanum, industria laterum atque imis ventris bene praeparatum, comitem cenae secum adducunt.

When they had their little supper all nicely laid out, they went to the bathhouse, from which they returned after their bath with a dinner-guest, a sturdy country fellow well equipped with sturdy limbs and loins.

Apul.Met.8.30. Translation: A.S. Kline (2013).

Like the market-scene and the dressing scene, the element of the bathhouse is not found in the Onos. I think that the narrator here, like in the other added scenes, gives us yet another clue that these men are not galli. In fact, they might not even be (self-)castrated at all. Entering the bathhouse, where men and women were strictly separated and walked around naked, would require visible genitalia, that could not be covered up.132 Since galli were considered no real men and no women either, one should wonder how plausible it is that they were allowed to enter and take a bath (lauti), based on the perception we have of the galli so far. After the men have picked up a suitable “mate”, Lucius is exposed to witnessing the priests’ sexual acts. He does not refrain from expressing his moral disapproval (nec… meis uculis tolerantibus/ “my eyes could not endure such misconduct”) regarding their homosexual activities and his repulsive outcry causes the priests to be caught red-handed by the townspeople.133 The priests hastily leave town. But why exactly? For not being chaste priests? Was a gallus not allowed to have sex? Is this the reason why allusions were being made by

131 De Jong, Narratology, 85.

132 Garrett G. Fagan, Bathing in Public in the Roman World (Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2002).

133 Hijmans, Metamorphoses-VIII, 259, states that Lucius’ braying might not only be caused by indignation, but also by jealousy, due to the many “false” meta-references he has been given. Apuleius thus not only makes fun of the gender identity of the cinaedi, but also of Lucius’ identity as a vir.

47 both the Greek as the Romans on their supposedly promiscuous behaviour? Martial writes about the gallus Beaticus, who pleases women with his tongue: sacra tamen Cybeles decipis: ore vir es (“yet you betray the rites of Cybele: with your mouth, you still are a vir”).134 The sacred rites of Cybele required that a gallus was to be castrated and behave like he was no longer a man. Catullus 63 and the Hellenistic poems on the gallus versus the lion inform us that by depriving himself of his manhood, a gallus deprived himself of his identity as well: because he no longer has a body that will fit in in the “normal world”, he secluded himself from his family, his property and his world as he is now part of the world of Cybele.135 It could well be that a truly devoted gallus considered himself to be a part of a divine world, and preferred celibacy or merely the company of other galli. Epitaphs from Pessinus show that the local archigalli (high priests) of Cybele did not marry.136 Instead of picturing third gender hijra’s, like Dirven and Roller, we should perhaps consider picturing asexual, “enlightened” monks.137 Our image of the galli is merely based on the perception of biased Romans, for whom having a masculine identity meant everything. From their point of view, it was hard to understand why someone would voluntarily wish to give it up, and therefore, they revelled in making jokes on the expense of the priests’ reputation. Of course, there must have been exceptions. For those who could not identify with the sexual frame of a vir, becoming a gallus could have been an informed choice as well.

134 Martialis 3.81.

135 Roller, “Ideology,” 552. Catullus 63, 58-62; 70-2:

egone a mea remota haec ferar in nemora domo? patria, bonis, amicis, genitoribus abero? 60. abero foro, palaestra, stadio, et gymnasiis? …. 70. ego viridis algida Idae nive amicta loca colam? ego vitam agam sub altis Phrygiae columinibus, ubi cerva silvicultrix, ubi aper nemorivagus?

I, shall I from my own home be borne far away into these forests? from my country, my possessions, my friends, my parents, shall I be absent? 60. absent from the market, the wrestling-place, the racecourse, the playground? …. 70. I, shall I dwell in icy snow-clad regions of verdant Ida, I pass my life under the high summits of Phrygia, with the hind that haunts the woodland, with the boar that ranges the forest?

136 Cf. Strubbe, Cat. Pessinus 53, 57. Often their mothers or other relatives erected a tombstone for the archigallus.

137 See Roller, “Ideology,” footnote 1; Dirven,“Galli,” 4ff.

48 Especially since Roman culture did not believe in a third gender.138 A man deprived of his genitals was considered to be a non-man, a cinaedus, or a semi-woman, which was as close to the female sex as a born male could come. In an epigram ascribed to Philodemus (first century BCE), Trygonion (“Little Dove”) is being described as “the flower of the eunuch band in their clubhouse; she alone among the half-women loved the rites of Aphrodite.”139 An inscription from Cyzicus (46 BCE) informs us of a gallus named Soterides (Fig. 7) who publicizes having a male partner (συμβίος).140 For all one knows, being caught in inappropriate sexual acts was enough to drive the wandering priests of the Metamorphoses out of town. But perhaps the debauchery was not the only thing that had been exposed: for the “true nature” of the swindling priests had become clearly visible (palam) as well. Lucius, telling his tale in hindsight, nowhere calls the priests galli or bellonarii. Perhaps this is why.

Theft and selling (false) prophecies (Met. 9.8; 208, 4 - 210, 10)

From now on, the “galli” seem to have reach a point of no return and start committing one impious crime after another that will eventually lead to their arrest. First, while staying in another town, they devise fake prophecies (Met. 9.8). As I mentioned earlier in this case study, galli selling prophecies could very well have been a usual practice in the Roman Empire.141 Finally, the reputation of the priests reaches its lowest point: they become temple robbers. In the narration of both the Onos and Apuleius, the priests enter a sacred precinct and manage to steal a golden cup.142 In the Metamorphoses, the priests pretend that they have to carry out a religious ceremony (simulatione sollemnium) inside the temple in order to gain access; in the Onos, the priests enter the precinct by picking up their deposited sacred shrine.

138 Roller, “Ideology,” 555: “Nowhere in the literature of Mediterranean antiquity is there any intimation that the eunuch priest represented a third gender, a holy state to be respected, as is true of eunuchs in some other cultures.”

139 AP.7.222, 2 - 4. Translation: Roller, “Ideology,” 551.

140 CIG 3668 = IMT Kyz Kapu Dağ 1541.

141 See footnote 6. Inscriptions containing prophecies and metrical spells have been found across the Roman world. See for example CIL 12, 2173-2139.

142 Onos 41; Ap. Met. 9.9.

49 Both explanations however, raise the same question: were galli allowed to enter the temple precinct, since they were considered to be impure and no real priests? In one of the satires of M. Terrentius Varro, recounting on mystery cults in Rome during the days of the Republic (c. 60 BCE), the protagonist dresses up as a gallus in order to gain access to the temple of Mater Magna on the Palatine Hill, where he witnesses galli performing their rituals.143 In imperial times, galli seem to have been gradually pushed from performing priestly duties, that were taken over by either a sacerdos or an archigallus.144 Perhaps the passage where the priests enter the precinct is not based on reality. On the other hand, it could just as well be based on Apuleius’ own witness reports.145 If the galli were allowed to enter a temple precinct, they were perhaps much more integrated in the Roman street scene than most of the current assumptions of historians suggest.

Conclusion of the case study

The band of cinaedi described by Apuleius are not bellonarii, but swindlers pretending to be priests of Dea Syria. In the Metamorphoses, two kinds of ancient perception on eunuch priests can be distinguished. Firstly, there is the perception of the overt, biased narrator Lucius, who, as a male member of the Roman elite, has to uphold his privileged status of a vir and therefore openly reviles men who present themselves as galli and act like cinaedi, the social antithesis of a vir. This kind of revilement is often found in Roman literature and has formed the base of our perception. Secondly, there is the perception of the narrated world, that is much kinder and suggests that there was a public that accepted and recognized the eunuch priests as devotees of the Mother Goddess. These people were willing to do business with them, allowing the galli to visit public places and rent lodges; they consulted galli for prophecies, provided them with alms and even welcomed them into their house, thus providing the galli in their livelihood.

143 Varro, Eumenides, frs. 16-27, see Roller, God the Mother, 308. Dionysius from Halicarnassus (first century BCE) also attests for the presence of galli at the Palatine (D.H. 2.19).

144 See chapter 4.

145 Hijmans, Metamorphoses-IX, 7-14 on the (meta)narrative elements of Apuleius’ Metamorphoses.

50 4. THE PRESENTATION OF GALLI IN EPIGRAPHY

A funerary portrait from Lanuvium (second century AD) in the Capitoline Museums shows a priest of Mater Magna in full attire (Fig. 6).146 After his castration, a gallus is said to wear a stola, a women’s dress, mostly yellow or varicoloured.147 The gallus in this portrait also wears a feminine looking gown with long sleeves (tunica manicata).148 According to Juvenal, a gallus of Cybele wore a “Phrygian tiara”, a head-dress with long earflaps which could be tied under the chin.149 As Apuleius demonstrates in Met.8.27, there were variations in the attire: a gallus who considered himself to be a follower of Dea Syria could also wear a mithra (turban) or an oriental garment that left the arms exposed.150 The veil of the Lanuvian priest is adorned with an oriental-inspired headband containing portraits (τύποι or tupoi) of Attis and Jupiter. Προστηθίδια (ornaments) and tupoi were worn on the chest, besides other jewellery like necklaces, earrings and finger-rings. In the Anthologia Palatina, the gallus is typically described as χαιτήεις (with long flowing hair).151 The hair could also be bleached.152 The knotted strings on both sides of the priest’s head in the Lanuvian portrait are identified by Beard as braids of the priest’s own hair, but I think that these are actually ritual strings of cord that are part of the ceremonial head dress, as is shown on a statue found in Cherchell.153 Several authors mention that galli wore heavy make-up: they accentuated their eyes and painted their face white.154 The stele, that has some similarities with funerary portrait steles from the east, like Palmyra, also presents us the attributes that are characteristic for a priest of Cybele: the cymbals, tympanum and double flute were the goddess’ favoured instruments and the galli played these instruments while they performed wild dances, perhaps accompanied by self-flagellation: you can see the priest holding a whip made out of knucklebones under his

146 Beard, North, Price, Religions, Volume 2, 222.

147 Dionysius Halicarnassus, Ant.Rom.2.19.5: ποικίλην ἐνδεδυκὼς στολὴν.

148 Vermaseren, Cybele, 99.

149 Ibid., 97; Juvenal. Sat.6.516: plebeia et Phrygia vestitur bucca tiara.

150 Apul. Met. 8.27.

151 AP. 6.234.

152 Vermaseren, Cybele, 97.

153 Vermaseren, “CCCA-V, 53, no. 146.

154 Apul. Met. 8.27; Aug. Civ.Dei. 7.26.

51 left arm.155 In his open left palm, the priest is holding a bowl of fruit, containing almonds and a pine cone. Both refer to the myth of Attis, who was said to have castrated himself under a pine tree, after which almonds sprang from his blood.156 In his right hand, the priest presents some sort of fan or holder with tree myrtle-branches in his right hand. According to Vermaseren (1977, 99), this was an aspergillum, intended for the “aspersion of the faithful.” Right below is the cista, a round basket that contained cult items. Now if these elements of oriental attire, effeminacy and even the apparent symbolic references to emasculation were considered offensive to the Roman people, why were effigies like these -for over a dozen of similar tomb portraits have been found all across the Roman world- allowed to be put on public display?157 My claim is that the self-presentation of this priest was not considered offensive at all, but rather the opposite, especially to the faithful followers of the cult. Also, the Lanuvian portrait does not depict a gallus, but an archigallus, an official Roman state priest who presented himself as a gallus and yet, as the epigraphical evidence shows, stood in high esteem.

The archigallus

Under Augustus, Roman citizens were prohibited to become galli, since (self-)castration (eviratio) was considered a forbidden and morally reprehensible practice.158 Galli were either foreigners or (discharged) slaves.159 Already as early as the reign of emperor Claudius (41-54 AD), the interpretation of Attis and his emasculation changed.160 In the second century, Attis entered the world of the divine as the story of his self-castration and death as a mortal was openly commemorated and celebrated during the Hilaria.161 This new emphasis on the consort of the Mother Goddess must have had an impact on the perception and the social position of

155 Beard, North, Price, Religions, Volume 2, 222.

156 Ibid., 222.

157 Several grave reliefs of archigalli have been found in Isola Sacra and Ostia, see for example Vermaseren, “CCCA-III,” no. 446, 447.

158 Vermaseren, Cybele, 96.

159 Cf. Smyrna 136 (Zosas) and SIG 763 (Soterides). Many names of (archi)galli reveil a Greek-oriental background. Since galli were not considered “persons” by Roman law, they were no citizens either (see the case of the gallus of servile rank Genucius in V.Max.7.6).

160 Lancellotti, Attis, 116 ff.

161 Ibid., 115-118. See also chapter 4 for the interpretation(s) of the cult of Attis and Table 2.

52 the eunuch priest as well. The ban on eviratio may even have been temporarily lifted.162 According to Carcopino (1942) and Karković (2016), the archigallus was introduced during the reforms of emperor Claudius. Lambrechts (1962) and Turcan (1992) support the theory that the archigallus was introduced in the second century AD -perhaps during the reforms of Antoninus Pius.163 In contrast to the epigraphical evidence on galli, there is a considerable number of inscriptions on archigalli. The inscriptions from the eastern provinces are in Greek, the Latin inscriptions are found in Italy and the western provinces. Names on inscriptions reveal that archigalli were mostly persons of oriental, freedman origin who possessed Roman citizenship.164 The study of Karković Takalić on the finding places of the inscriptions suggests that the archigalli mostly worked in cities that held the status of colonia besides important centres of provinces such as Ostia, Salona and Pessinus.165 Since the priests were Roman citizens of stature, they were probably not castrated.166 Unlike a gallus, being an archigallus did probably not imply a lifelong status either, as the epitaph Aurelius Longus suggests (δίς ἁρχίγαλλος, TAM III, 1 578, see below).167 An inscription in Pisidian Antioch even mentions the daughter of an archigallus:

Αὐρηλία/ Οὐενοῦστα/ Ζευσξίδος {²⁶Ζευξίδος}²⁶ / Κλευστιανο[ῦ] / Ἀρχιγάλλο[υ] / [τῆς θε]ᾶς /Ἀ[ρτέ]/ [μίδο]ς τὸν ἀ-/νδριάντα ἐ[κ] / [τῶν] ἰδίων/ ἀναλωμάτ-/ων ἀν[έ]στη-/σεν Ἀρτέ-/μιδι/ Σατιπ[ρ]-/ειζηνῇ εὐχ-/ ήν.

Aurelia Venusta, daughter of the archigallus Zeuxis Kleustianus erected this statue of the goddess Artemis at her own expense as a votive offering for Artemis Satipreizene (‘Artemis of the village’).

(SERP 343:22), third century AD.

162 Suet.Dom.7.1. Suetonius recounts that Domitian felt the need to forbid castration by law.

163 Karković, “Period of introduction,” 91; P. Lambrechts, R. Bogaert, “Asclepios, archigalle,” 404-14; Robert Turcan, Les cultes orientaux dans le monde romain, (Paris: Les Belles lettres, 1989), 54-5.

164 Most names are foreign, but from the Antonine period onwards we also find gentilicia as Publicius or Aurelius. See Karković, “Period of introduction,” 94.

165 Karković, “Period of introduction,” 97.

166 Or perhaps this was Karkovic: Late antique author Firmicus Maternus states that archigalli per- formed ritual castration. We assume that Domitian’s prohibition was modified by this period or castrates that Firmicus referred to were Orientals.

167 It is unclear if Aurelius Longus was re-elected or that he was perhaps also archigallus of a related cult or a neighbouring Metroön.

53 Zeuxis Kleutianus could have been legally married. There is a fragmented inscription that carries the title archigallus and a broken off ‘coniu-…/ cum quo vi…’ right above.168 However, Aurelia Venusta does not carry her father’s name. Children could have been adopted or left under guardianship by testament, but this was only accepted as valid when the adoptive father possessed the legal authority of pater familias. Adopting a girl was quite uncommon, since adoption usually served to produce a legitimate heir to any valuable possessions or a family name.169 Unlike Zeuxis Kleutianus, most archigalli seem to have led a life of celibacy, leaving a grave only for themselves and any members of their family who were dependent on their (financial) care. Read for example the sarcophagus inscription of Aurelius Moles (TAM III,1 619, Termessos), who received a respectable burial in his community, or the inscription of the archigallus Aurelius Longus:

Αὐρήλιος Λόνγος, δίς ἁρχίγαλλος, τὴν σωματοθήκην ἑαυτῶ καὶ τῇ μητρὶ αὐτοῦ Αὐρηλία Πασαγάθη καὶ Αὐρηλίω Κορνούτω, ἀπελευθέρω, καὶ τῆ ἀδελφῆ αὐτοῦ Αὐρηλία Αρτεμει ἄλλω δὲ οὐδενι ἐξέσται ἀνῦξαι ἤ ἐπιθάψε τινά, ἐπεὶ ὁ πειράσας ἐκτείσει Διὶ Σολυμεῖ δηνάρια τρισχείλια πεντακόσια.

Aurelius Longus, twice archigallus, set up this grave for himself and for his mother Aurelia Pasagathe and Aurelius Cornutus, a freedman, and for his sister Aurelia Artemis. May no one destroy this or bury someone here, for whoever does this will have to pay Zeus Solymos. 3500 denarians.170 (TAM III,1 578), late second - third century AD.

Another difference between a gallus and an archigallus is that an archigallus, instead of a begging priest, could also be a benefactor. In 169-180 AD, Quintus Caecilius Gallus, an archigallus of Ostia, endowed the collegium of cannofori, who carried out the procession of the reed on first day of the Hilaria, with two expensive silver statues, one of Mater Magna and one of Attis. The tria nomina reveals that he was also a Roman citizen:

P[ro salute 3]F // [3]II[3 F]/elicis(?) Q(uintus) Caecilius / Fuscus archigal/lus coloniae Ost(i)en/sis

168 CIL VI, 32466. For a similar inscription, see Vermaseren, CCCA-I, no. 801: vow to the Mother of Gods by Dada, daughter of the archigallus Atalus.

169 Hugh Lindsay, Adoption in the Roman World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 73.

170 The penalty for illegally burying a corpse in someone else’s grave or vandalizing a grave is not reserved for archigalli; it is a common formula on grave inscriptions in the region of Termessos.

54 imaginem / Matris deum ar/genteam p(ondo) I cum / signo Nemesem / kannophoris(!) / Ostiensibus d(onum) d(edit).

Quintus Caecilius Fuscus, archigallus of the Colonia Ostia, donated a one-pound silver image of the Mother of Gods holding a statuette of Nemesis to the Cannophori of Ostia.

(CIL XIV, 00034), 169-171 AD.

Q(uintus) Caecilius / Fuscus archigal/lus c(oloniae) O(stiensis) / imaginem At/tis argentam / p(ondo) I cum sigillo / rgem aereo ca/nnophori Ostien/sibus donum de/dit

Quintus Caecilius Fuscus, archigallus of the Colonia Ostia, has offered a one-pound silver image of Attis with a bronze sigillum of the sacred fruit to the Cannophori of Ostia.

(CIL XIV, 00035), 169 - 180 AD.

In the gymnasium of Hierapolis, an archigallus is honoured for his piety and for funding a public mess hall:

Ἡ βουλὴ καὶ ὁ δῆμος ἐτίμησαν Μᾶρκον Αὐρήλιον Εὐτυξιανόν ἀρχίγαλλον ἀνδρειάντος ἀναστάσει παρεδρευοντα κοσμιως καὶ ὑπηρετοῦντα τοῖς θεοῖς ἀξιοπρεπῶς

The council and the people have honoured the archigallus Marcus Aurelius Eutuxianus for taking care of setting up an andreion and because he serves the gods properly.

(Alt.v.Hierapolis 33), second - third century AD.

The function of the archigallus seems to have been a Roman invention, related to the reforms regarding the worship of Attis and the March Festivals. The title suggests an overseeing function, probably modelled after the high priesthood of ancient Phrygian cults.171 The fact that a Roman citizen was dressed as a “Phrygian” eunuch priest must have a bald step in the Roman assimilation of the cult.172 It shows, on the one hand, that there still was some sort of common belief in the mystical power and the necessity of the eunuch priests. However, in my opinion, the Roman re-invention of the Phrygian priesthood should not be seen as a step

171 Cf. IK Kyme 37. The cult of the Phrygian god Mandros was headed by an archigallus in Hellenistic times.

172 Perhaps “Italic” Romans were initially hesitant to perform as an archigallus or perhaps the archigalli served as a deliberate link between the Roman and the oriental, since many names on inscriptions, even in the West, reveal an oriental or freedman origin, cf. Karković, “Period of introduction,” 373.

55 forward in the acceptance of the galli, but as a way to exercise control over the “oriental”. The archigalli were actually Romans cross-dressing as Phrygian priests.173 Perhaps at some point, the archigalli were made up as an attempt to replace the Phrygian “non-men” once and for all, but that plan failed; they co-existed. Perhaps some of the activities of the archigalli overlapped with the galli by giving a public performance during the festivals or managing the annual stipes they received during the Megale(n)sia.174 The studies by Karković show that especially in the West, archigalli cooperated with other priests of the cult as well as the collegia involved in the March Festivals.175Archigalli could also be involved in the rites of the taurobolium, a ritual bull-slaying that was usual performed by sacerdotes.176 Several tomb portraits of archigalli from the necropolis of Isola Sacra are very interesting in relation to the way the archigalli wished to be perceived by Roman society (Fig. 8 and 9). 177 Apart from the ritual diadem, an attribute not worn by galli, there is another, striking difference between the Roman priesthood and the “foreign” eunuch priests: the archigalli are portrayed as men, not as women or half-men, like the galli are often described or even depicted.178 The faces of the archigalli are exaggeratedly masculine, often furrowed, with a thick nose. There is no “softness” in there, even the hair underneath the diadem is briskly and short. One relief (Fig. 9) shows an archigallus waving torches in front of a statuette of a youthful and effeminately tender Attis while exposing a tawny, muscled right arm. A thick metal bracelet fits closely around his wrist. The bracelet was clearly designed for a man, not for a woman.179 Even the long-sleeved ceremonial robe is not conducive to an effeminate presentation: the high V-neck even accentuates the Adam’s apple.

173 On male cross-dressing, see Icks, “Transvestism.”

174 Karkovič, “Period of introduction,” 91.

175 Karkovič, “Presence of the archigalli,” 372.

176As proved by Karkovič, “Period of introduction,” 96: “There have been over 134 inscriptions about performing taurobolium, and only four of them mention archigalli. From the mentioned examples we can assume that archigalli were "borrowed" for the needs of rituals.”

177 Iconographic descriptions on various portraits are given in Anja Klöckner, “Tertium genus? Representations of religious practitioners in the cult of Magna Mater,” in Religious Entrepreneurs and Innovators in the Roman Empire, ed. R. L. Gordon, G. Petridou, J. Rüpke (Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2017), 343-84.

178 IMT 1541.

179 Pompeii: Life and Death in a Roman town, Paul Elston, (London: BBC, 2010): 9:55-10:15; Klöckner, “Tertium genus?”, 360-1.

56 With the exception of the “Portus archigallus” lying on a sarcophagus lid,180 all portrait steles show the archigallus in an “active male role” of the (local) elite benefactor carrying out his priestly duties.181 So perhaps, over a time period spanning roughly 300 years, Roman society had finally moulded the “oriental” and effeminate priesthood of the Mother Goddess into a shape they could reconcile with.

Epigraphical evidence of galli

The account of the wandering priests in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses shows us that eunuch priests were a familiar imagery in the Roman world of the second century AD. However, galli did not belong to the same social class as Roman state priests like the archigalli. Galli were “foreigners” with limited civil rights: while their rites and presentation were linked to the Phrygian ancestry hailed by Imperial Rome, the Phrygian exotic and “effeminate” appearance was at the same time something that Romans had given up in order to become superior.182 It is hard to imagine galli on the social scale of Roman society, since they -according to their own rites- did not belong to ‘civil’ society anymore: by voluntarily depriving themselves of their masculine gender, they rejected their place in a community where biological status and social status were inevitably linked.183 To other members of such a community it must have been hard to understand why someone would deliberately give up his biological gender and the social status that was assigned to it, despite the fact that the presence and practises of the galli in the service of the Roman state cult were embraced in order to safeguard the prosperity of the Empire. Whereas Roman literature is filled with judgemental criticism on the identity of the eunuch priest, epigraphical evidence shows ambivalence in their perception and (self-)presentation. A votive relief from 46 BCE (Fig. 7) informs us of a gallus who is depicted as a woman who -interestingly- did not turn away from society: Soterides considered himself to be both a sacred eunuch of Cybele (γάλλος) and a faithful spouse to

180 Museo Ostiense. Inv. 158.

182 See footnote 84.

183 Roller, “Ideology”, 543: “There appear to be two unspoken assumptions which underlie negative reactions to the gender status of a self-castrating eunuch priest. The first is the automatic assumption of male superiority, in particular of the superiority of masculine appearance. The second is the firm conception that it was necessary to have gender and to play the biological and social role assigned to one’s gender to be fully human.”

57 his partner (σύμβιος) Marcus Stlaccius, who was apparently not a eunuch, since he served in the fleet of Julius Caesar.184 The inscription is cracked off at the point where Soterides tells about a divine intervention of Cybele, who had appeared to the gallus in a dream and told him that she had harnessed her power to keep Stlaccius alive, probably succeeding in reuniting the star-struck lovers in the end, since Soterides set up this votive as a token of great gratitude to the Goddess. The relief portrait shows a person in a long woman’s gown and a veil presenting a sacrifice at the altar of the Mother of Gods, accompanied by a small sacrificial procession of a fluteplayer and a servant holding a sheep. The image portrayed here contrasts sharply with the negative stereotype perception of galli by Roman authors like Martialis or Apuleius. Soterides is not depicted as a mad-raving pseudo-version of a woman who lacks virtue and commits sexual misconduct, nor is he social outcast. This inscription is found in Kyzicus in Asia Minor, where the cult of Cybele and the eunuch priests was known and accepted for centuries before it became a Roman imperial cult.185 The relief is perhaps not representative for the part of a Roman society that focused on masculine superiority, but it is still a voice from the Roman world, a world that was more diverse than the biased emphasis in literature misleadingly led modern ancient studies to believe. Even in Rome, more tolerant voices can be found. “Little” Hector was a performer of “Phrygian” descent who was probably born with a form of dwarfism.186 His poetical epitaph evokes the rites of the galli and calls upon them to solemnly mourn for Hector as if he were Attis. The explicit appeal on the galli even led to the interpretation that Hector could have been a gallus himself.187 This cannot be correct however, since Hector is nowhere mentioned as a devotee of Cybele, but rather as a skilled and beloved entertainer, who gave performances in public as a charioteer, a show wrestler, a comedian and a mime-player.188 Yet there is a resemblance in the way Hector is presented as a “freak of nature” with a dubious gender identity, like the galli, since he is referred to as a “versatile thing in a tiny body” (corpore in exiguo res numerosa). Res is used here as a term of endearment rather than an insult. Perhaps

184 CIG 3668 = IMT Kyz Kapu Dağ 1541.

185 Roller, God the Mother, 332-335.

186 Peter Kruschwitz, “Mini-me,” thepetrifiedmuse.blog. Wordpress, accessed May 4, 2020. https://thepetrifiedmuse.blog/2018/04/23/mini-me/

187 Marcel van Doren, “L’évolution des mystères Phrygiens à Rome,” AC 22 (1953): 79-88.

188 Lara Sbriglione, "Nouvelle Lecture De CIL VI,10098. Le Phrygien Hector Et Le Culte De La Mère Des Dieux." Museum Helveticum 68, no. 1 (2011): 86-97.

58 Hector was a eunuch. Or perhaps his sexual development was impaired due to his condition. Another interesting theory has been suggested by Lara Sbriglione (2011, 96-7): she thinks that Hector might have been a member of a professional group of actors that staged religious plays during the Megale(n)sia.

Qui colitis Cybelen et qui Phryga plangitis Attin / dum vacat et tacita Dindyma nocte silent / flete meos cineres non est alienus in illis / Hector et hoc tumulo Mygdonis umbra tegor / ille ego qui magni parvus cognominis heres / corpore in exiguo res numerosa fui / flectere doctus equos nitida certare palaestra / ferre iocos astu fallere nosse fidem / at tibi dent superi quantum Domitilla mereris / quae facis exigua ne iaceamus humo.

You who venerate Cybele and weep for Phrygian Attis,/ when there is time and when the peaks of Dindymon lie quiet in a soundless night, mourn my ashes, for there is no stranger in these:/ I, Hector, a shade of Mygdon no less, am covered by this tomb./ I was that famous little heir of a big name,/ a versatile thing in a tiny body:/ I was skilled in driving horses, to fight in a glorious palaestra, to make jokes, to deceive cunningly, to recognize fidelity./So may the gods grant you, Domitilla, whatever you deserve/, as you see to it that we rest under more than just a small mound of soil.

(CIL VI, 10098; 33961 = CLE 01110), 71-130 AD.

There are other epigraphic sources on galli. The cult of Mater Magna was not only known in the East: the imperial cult of Mater Magna was widespread and popular in the Roman West. During the first century, a temple was built in Mainz (Mogontiacum, the provincial capital of Germania Superior) that served as a sanctuary to Mater Magna and her Egyptian counterpart Isis Panthea.189 The sanctuary was abandoned in the third century and rediscovered in 1999. Several cult-rooms have been unearthed, where firepits were used to make votive offerings. Among ceramic lamps, pot sherds, coins and pinecones, lead curse tablets (defixiones) were found.190 I have already discussed one of these defixiones (DTM no. 2) in the previous chapter on Apuleius and I will examine here what view on the galli can be drawn from these curses. DTM no. 1 starts with a request that a jewelry thief named Gemella will cut herself and not heal, like the galli.191 In the second analogy the curse’s author (defigens) realizes that Gemella is a woman and therefore physically unable to suffer the fate of cutting off male

189 Blänsdorf, “Defixiones,”141-146.

190 Ibid., 143; cf. Blänsdorf, Tabellae. So far, five defixiones referring to galli have been found: DTM no. 1, 2, 6, 10, 12.

191 DTM no 1 is a double sided curse. For the second section and the way the curse might have been practiced, see Blänsdorf, “Defixiones,” 159-161; cf. Veale, “Defixiones,” 282.

59 genitals (nec se secet sic), but he still hopes that she will experience the same anguish somehow and “ritually wail” like a gallus (planctum habeat). The third analogy alludes to the sanctuary and the goddess within the sanctuary: as the galli are costumed to deposit “some of their sacred things” in the sanctuary (sacrorum deposierunt in sancto), so must Gemella abide from her life and health and never be redeemed from her fate. The “sacred things” could perhaps refer to severed genitals: sources note that galli would dedicate these to the goddess after their ritual castration.192 The last part of the inscription is fragmented, but seems to allude to mystical items or a ritual that is connected to the cult: “those hidden golden holy boxes” (cistas caecas aureas sacras). These could be the cistae penetrales that supposedly contained Attis’ severed genitals.193 According to Jürgen Blänsdorf (2010, 160) the defigens wishes that Gemella will be placed beyond social life like the galli. But is this the main point of comparison here? I think that the person who cursed Gemella had unspeakable and irreversible suffering in mind; Gemella had already placed herself on the outskirts of society by stealing brooches. Also, I think that the focus of the analogy of this curse is not merely on the galli, but on a series of rituals that altogether comprised the mystical power of the cult of Mater Magna and Attis in which the anguish of the galli and the grieve over the loss of their social status was an essential part. The entire analogy consists of four main elements regarding the mysteries of the cult that focus on the Tristia: first the suffering of Attis, imitated by the bewilderment and the castration of the galli in the wake of Attis self-castration, followed by a mandatory lamentation on the permanent loss of manhood and its corresponding status in a gender-based society, thirdly an appeal to an implacable Mater Magna and, finally, a reference to Attis and his unavoidable death. On evoking these four elements, the defigens may allude to corresponding ritual cult items, such as the cistae penetrales or perhaps a cult statue of Mater Magna (in sancto). In this line of thought, the wailing of galli could perhaps actually have been heard on the scene, since eunuch priests could have been present near or even within the temple precinct.194 The rhetorical construction of the curse against Quintus (DTM no. 6) follows the same analogy: the defigens wishes that Quintus, who is being accused of fraud, will be ‘cut off’

192 Lucian, Dea Syria 51; HD 010825; CIL XIII, 00510.

193 Blänsdorf, “Defixiones,” 148.

194 Onos 41; Ap. Met. 9.9.

60 (abscissa sit) from social credence, good reputation and any ability to manage business affairs (fides, fama, facul(i)tas), just like the galli and the followers of Bellona castrate themselves and inflict themselves with wounds (ita uti galli Bellonariue absciderunt concideruntue se).195 As the galli are not considered homines, neither should he. The third part of the analogy is related to the goddess: just as Quintus has committed fraud, so must Mater Magna deceive him. The fourth and last analogy refers to a cult item that is related to the death of Attis: just as the pine tree (brought into the temple during the March festival) will decay, so are Quintus’ credence, reputation, fortune and business skills (fides, fama, fortuna, facul(i)tas) to wither.196 The perception of the galli seems negative here: by choosing asexuality, the gallus has become neither man nor woman and is no longer a homo: someone who can take on a masculine place in a society where the only appropriate, fully pledged class were male citizens. However, this does not necessarily mean that they were not considered ‘human beings’, as in Blänsdorf’s interpretation of the word homines.197 We do not know what a gallus’ role or economic value was in Roman Imperial society, nor what the exact motivations were to become a eunuch: we lack sources for that. What these inscriptions do tell us, is that the galli, despite the fact that their asexual status had rendered them an “alien” and perhaps even contemptuous place on the margins of society, were active members of the cult. The relationship between the galli and “their” goddess was very intimate and quite different from any other priesthood in the Roman world. Lancellotti (2002, 99) thinks that the galli considered their emasculation to be a “visible and permanent sign of a privileged connection with the Great Mother. As such, the galli themselves, as well as other followers of the cult, probably did not perceive their exclusion from the civil world as negative. Following the footsteps of Attis’ as the goddess’ chosen favourite, they preferred their emasculated state above any given place in society, for it meant that they had become fully-pledged initiates of the cult.198 The self-castration of Attis was ordained by godly decree: according to Diodorus Siculus, the burial of Attis and a yearly commemoration and honouring of his suffering guaranteed fertility of the land and “the regular rhythm of the seasonal cycle.”199 Both the

195 Veale, “Defixiones,” 285.

196 Blänsdorf, “Defixiones,” 162.

197 Ibid., 187.

198 See Lancellotti, Attis, 105-118 for “mystical” aspects of the cult.

199 Ibid., 86; Dio.Sic.III 59.

61 suffering and the exclusion of the galli were part of a ritual cycle imitating the mythical castration of Attis. While lamenting for Attis, the galli chastised themselves until they started bleeding, a ritual that was performed in public on the Dies Sanguinis, 24 March. The phrase quomodo galli, bellonari, magal[i] sibi sanguin[em] feruentem fundunt, frigid[us] / ad terram uenit (DTM no. 2) seems to make a reference to that event; it is a ritual formula and not so much a pejorative perception on the galli by the defigens, as is suggested by Blänsdorf.200 In 2003, an inscription mentioning the eviratio of a gallus was found in Alzey, a village close to Mainz.201 Pacatia Pacata, the daughter of a decurion from Augusta Treverorum (Trier) received and deposited the testicles (vires) of Patricus Cybelicus and erected an altar for the Mother of Gods to commemorate this event, that took place under the supervision of a sacerdos named Servandius Maternus in 237 AD:

[M(atri) d(eum) M(agnae) et v]iribus / Patrici Cybeli/ci Pacatia Paca/ta filia Pacati / Pacatini d(ecurionis) c(ivitatis) Tr(everorum) consummata per / Servandium Ma/ternum s(acerdotem) d(eum) M(atris) / III Idum Novembri/um Perpetuo et C[or]ne[li]an[o co(n)s(ulibus)]

To the Great Mother of the Gods and the vires of Patricus Cybelicus. Pacatia Pacata, daughter of Pacatus Pacatinus, decurion of the civitas Treverorum, has completed the ceremony, supervised by Servandius Maternus, sacerdos of the Mother of Gods on November 11, under the consulship of Perpetuus and Cornelianus (237 AD).

(HD 010825; http://lupa.at/25518), 237 AD.

The inscription shows us that the galli were perhaps much more included in the rites of the public state cult of the second and third century AD than so far has been concluded by historians. The gallus’ castration is described here as part of a ritual ceremony, where an official priest (sacerdos) was involved. The dedication of the vires of a gallus by a woman is also found in another inscription from the same period: CIL XIII, 00510.202

200 ‘In the way that the galli, bellonarii and maga(l)li shed their warm blood; cold it reaches the ground.’ For the rhetorical and formulaic structure of the phrase, as well as Blänsdorf’s interpretation, see Blänsdorf, “Defixiones,” 158, 181-3.

201 Wolfgang Spickermann, “Women and the cult of Magna Mater,” in Women and the Roman City in the Latin West, eds. Emily Hemelrijk, Greg Woolf (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2013): 159; Walburg Boppert, “Götterpfeiler und Magna Mater-Kult. Überlegungen zu neuen Votivdenkmälern aus dem Vicus von Alzey.” Mainzer Archäologische Zeitschrift, 7 (2008): 1-50.

202 It is notable that in both inscriptions the vires of the gallus are dedicated by women. Perhaps this practice reflects a connection with a fertility ritual (cf. Roller, God the mother, 296), but it may as well be a coincidence.

62 Now if Patricus Cybelicus would have become a social outcast after his castration, as the general consensus on the galli suggests, there would have been no need to mention his name and we would have probably never heard from him ever again. Yet the opposite seems to be the case, for Patricus Cybelicus shows up on another dedication to Mater Magna, found in Trier (EV 1996, 178).203 Although this inscription lacks a date and could have been set up before Patricus Cybelicus became a gallus, both Schwinden and Spickermann see a connection with the inscription found in Alzey.204 Spickermanm concludes that it is more likely that Patricus Cybelicus moved from Mainz to Triers, since the cult of Mater Magna can be seen spreading from Mainz into Gallia Belgica around this period; cult community in Triers could have been set up and Patricus Cybelicus might even have played an active role here.205

Matri Deu[m/ Magnae Ar/cadius ar[u/spex Patr[i/co Cybelic[o/ consumtu[s/ votis con[.

To the Great Mother of Gods. Arcadius, the haruspex, had completed the ceremony in fulfilment of a vow, (assisted by?) Patricus Cybelicus.

(EV 1996, 178), around 237 AD.

Galli of other priesthoods

In 1920, Arthur Strong wrote an article on a tomb portrait he saw in the Biblioteca Vallicielliana in Rome.206 The relief was found in 1729 and once adorned a tomb near the Via Triumphalis. It shows a full-length sculpture of Lucius Lartius Anthus, a cistophorus (bearer of the sacred cista) of Bellona (Fig. 5). The portrait, now in the Capitoline Museums, shows similarities with the Lanuvium tomb portrait of the archigallus of Mater Magna that I described above, but there are also notable differences. Like the Lanuvium priest, Lartius is shown in full attire, as if he is about to perform a ritual dance. Instead of a whip made out of knucklebones, Lartius is holding two double axes

203 Lothar Schwinden, “Neue Trierer Inschrift für die Mater Deum Magna. Ein Haruspex im Kult der Kybele,” Mainzer Archäologische Zeitschrift 7 (2008): 51-66.

204 Schwinden, “Neue Trierer Inschrift,” 59-60. ‘The completion of the ceremony in fulfilment of a vow’ may allude to HD 010825. See Schwinden for the terminology in respect to taurobolic rites.

205 Wolfgang Spickermann, “Women and the cult,” 159-60; Wolfgang Spickermann,“ “Initiation” in the Western Provinces of the Roman Empire," in Group Identity and Religious Individuality in Late Antiquity, ed. Rebillard Éric, Rüpke Jörg (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2015), 215-44, doi:10.2307/j.ctt15zc8w0.12.

206 Arthur Strong, "Sepulchral Relief of a Priest of Bellona," Papers of the British School at Rome 9, no. 7 (1920): 205-13, www.jstor.org/stable/40310348.

63 in his left hand. In his right hand, he is holding a laurel twig to serve as an apergillium that sprinkled the faithful with blood.207 Instead of a tunica mandicata with tight sleeves, he wears a tunic with bare elbows. A long cloak is fastened on his right shoulder with a brooch that resembles a five-petalled flower. Lartius wears his hair long and parted to the sides and unlike the priests of Mater Magna, he wears a beard and a thin moustache. Lartius is crowned with a priestly headdress that resembles the wreaths of the archigalli, made of (gilded?) laurel leaves and adorned with tupoi: a medallion with the goddess Bellona is shown in the centre, flanked by portraits of Mars and Minerva.208 The cult of Bellona became very important from the time of Nero, when the Italic goddess became assimilated with the cult of Dea Syria, a Mother Goddess cult from Asia Minor.209 Bellona was honoured as a “sister goddess” or dea pedisequa of Cybele during the March Festival. On the Dies Sanguinis, an image of Bellona probably followed that of Mater Magna in a procession.210 That means that the galli and the self-lacerating priests of Bellona probably could be seen acting together during the procession, which could explain why Apuleius’ band of wandering priests dressed as members of different priesthoods.211 According to Lucian, the followers of Dea Syria in Hierapolis were eunuch priests (galli) who castrated themselves just like the eunuch priests of Pessinus.212 In defixiones found in Mainz, the bellonarii are mentioned alongside the galli for their self-laceration.213 Another priesthood of eunuch priests is mentioned in the defixiones: the galli of Ma (Magali). In Cappadocia (Commagene) and Pontus, the Mother Goddess was revered under the name of Ma (“Mother”).214 As Ma-Bellona, the goddess was identified with Virtus, the valour of the Roman army, and honoured as a goddess of victory.215 Apart from the reference

207 Strong, “Sepulchral Relief,” 210.

208 Ibid., 209.

209 Hijmans, Metamorphoses-VIII, Appendix III, 286.

210 Strong, “Sepulchral Relief,” 211.

211 Apul. Met.8.27.

212 Hijmans, Metamorphoses-VIII, Appendix III, 286; Lightfoot, Syrian Goddess, 509-10; 78-9; 477-81.

213 DTM no. 2; no. 6.

214 Strabo XI, 521; XII, 535, 53.

215 Strong, “Sepulchral Relief,” 207.

64 in these defixiones, the magali are otherwise unknown.216 Like the archigalli, Lucius Lartius Anthus, a Roman citizen according to his tria nomina, probably represented an institutionalized, cross-dressing version of a eunuch priest and belonged to a higher social class than the “ordinary” galli. His beard also suggests that he was probably not castrated. There is nothing that indicates that Lartius, wearing ritual insignia that refer to eunuch priesthood, belonged to a contemptuous class of people. Several other inscriptions near the Via Triumphalis reveal members of the priesthood of Bellona as well, including a fanaticus of Bellona (CIL VI, 2232).217 Lastly, we have the curious case of CIL VI, 32462 (Fig. 10). The gravestone, set up somewhere near the temple of Isis and Serapus in Rome, honours a gallus of Dea Syria (gallo Diasuriaes), who is described by his sister as “very dutiful” (pientissimo) and bore a citizen’s name: Caius Julius Abdedera. This would go against the assumption that galli were non- citizens. The epitaph seems to have been ignored in modern research, perhaps because the word gallo seems to have been written in a spurious hand. It does not look uncommon, however: a graphium could have been broken during the cutting process or a correction could have been made. If this would have been the result of a vandalizing and offensive joke, why would the stone be kept as a public memorial?218

Conclusion of this chapter

In the imperial era, gallus became an umbrella term for several priesthoods, who performed a cultic role during the Day of Blood. Epigraphical evidence shows that despite their effeminate and oriental look, the perception and (self-)presentation of a gallus or an archigallus is not always negative. Galli were not social outcast; they played an active, visible part within their cult and their community. Contemptuous reactions like the ritual formulas found in Mainz should be interpreted within the context of the gallus’ ritual performance as a “living Attis” rather than general perception.

216 Blänsdorf (2008) leaves the word untranslated; see Jaime Alvar, Romanising Oriental Gods, Myth, Salvation and Ethics in the Cults of Cybele, Isis and Mithras, translated by Richard Gordon (Leiden, Boston: E.J. Brill, 2008), footnote 318.

217 We do not know if a fanaticus was the same as a gallus. Juv. 2, 113 suggests that this might be the case. CIL III, 6681 mentions a fanaticus who was also a Roman citizen.

218 P. Lambrechts, R. Bogaert, “Asclepios, archigalle,” 409.

65 5. CONCLUSION

By distancing from the existing views on the galli that are mostly based on the perception of their social antitheses, male members of the Roman elite, I structured my research to prove that our current image of the eunuch priest within Roman society must be nuanced, broadened and perhaps revised. The first objective that I aimed at with this thesis, was to dislodge the Roman imperial public state cult of Cybele and the perception of the imperial cult officials known as galli from the long and complex history of the cult of the Mother Goddess and the acceptance of the eunuch priests in the Greek and Hellenistic world, as well as the grudging attitude towards the foreign priesthood by the Roman elite during the Republic, when the worship of Mater Magna had not yet turned into an “ancestral” state cult. In order to celebrate “Phrygian” tradition and to ensure the favor of the Goddess, the galli were given increasing prominence during the reigns of Augustus, Claudius and Antoninus Pius respectively. Galli bewailing and commemorating the fate of Attis were considered to be a vital element of the state cult up until the fourth century. To be ostentatiously foreign and unmanly, as well as being openly held in contempt seems to have been a part of the cult identity of the priests, especially on the memorial day that became known as The Day of Blood (Dies Sanguinis). I think that the negative image of the gallus within the ideological framework of Roman identity was accepted and exploited on both sides, which contributed to the contemptuous portrayal of the gender identity of the eunuch priest in Roman literature written by the galli’s social antagonists: male elitist upholders of Roman values. The second problem that I needed to tackle, was to avoid merely parroting this preconceived perception and look for other voices in order to better understand the social identity of the eunuch priest within the historical context of a fully developed imperial civic cult. Both archeological as literary evidence show that the Roman creation of the “lamentable Phrygian” became steadily widespread and a familiar image throughout the Roman world. This could not have happened if the only viewpoint on the galli was that their asexual persona should exclude them from society completely, for it is clear that a gallus would need sustenance and a roof over his head if he was to take part as a presentable member in cult practices during the year. My case study on the wandering priests of Apuleius shows that even in the narrated world of a biased narrator, other voices on the galli can be found, as well as information on their background, even though we must bear in mind that literary fiction is not always based

66 on facts. From the world that is depicted in Apuleius’ novel the image emerges of priest- devotees travelling in small groups from town to town, staying at lodgings and buying clothes, food and other livelihood from their stipes: alms received by performing (private) rituals or money made by selling prophecies. People were willing to pay for those services and may have even welcomed the galli into their home. The eunuch priest did not lead a life in seclusion but was a visible and active member of Roman society. Lucrative practices of the galli could even have attracted swindlers pretending to be conspicuous eunuchs when it suited them, covered by a sacrosanct status, as is shown for the effect of comic relief in the Metamorphoses of Apuleius. From the epigraphical material that I collected in order to support my thesis, new insights emerge that show us that the current hypothesis that galli were social outcast in Roman society is no longer sustainable. The image of the eunuch priest was generally accepted as an essential symbol of the (imperial) state cult. Roman citizens, who took on the mantle of archigallus, an official state cult overseer, proudly displayed the gallus’ effeminate and oriental pomp in their portraits and were held in high esteem according to their grave inscriptions. It is unclear whether an archigallus was a priest-castrate or merely looked like one; most archigalli seem to have led a life of celibacy. Imperial reorganizations of the cult under Claudius, Nero and Antoninus Pius encouraged the veneration of Mater Magna and Attis throughout the Roman world and welcomed related cults of the Mother Goddess into Rome. Gallus became an umbrella term for several “oriental” priesthoods that shared the element of self-flagellation and self- castration. The practices of the galli were accepted by the public as part of a state religion, as proved by ritual formulas on curse tablets found in Mainz. We even have two public documentations of a castration-ceremony attended by Roman officials. Inscriptions EV 1996, 178, CIL VI, 2232 and CIL VI, 32462 indicate that eviratio in imperial times probably did not exclude a gallus from society.

The paradox drawn up by modern historians (Beard, Roller) that the eunuch priest was regarded as disgusting and “un-Roman” even if he was necessary within the religious state rite, does not exist but has arisen because modern studies have uncritically focused on prejudiced voices from antiquity.

67 Further research

The objective of this thesis was to view the galli outside of the frame of biased literary perception. However, due to lack of historical data, the social identity of the galli will remain an unsolved puzzle. Here are several suggestions that might extend the scope on the galli:

1. Historical research should aim at further dislodging historical sources and archeological evidence on the galli and study them closer within the context and the developments of their corresponding timeframe and culture. A study on the priesthood of Hellenistic Pessinus might lead to interesting results, as well as an epigraphical study on the correspondence between the Attalids and the high priest of Pessinus and the three-way relationship that Augustus had in mind as an heir to the scepter of Phrygia.

2. Elements of the imperial cult reforms of Mater Magna were introduced gradually and could be disassembled as well in order to gain insight on the ideology coupled with each reorganization, as well as a better perception regarding the identity of the priesthood involved. Many emperors seem to have had a preference for Romanizing or reorganizing a specific cult to serve as a vehicle for their ideology. It would be interesting to see a study on the cult and the priesthood of Bellona in the imperial era. Further investigation on the relation between the Julio-Claudian cult of Mater Magna and the Flavian Isis Panthea might help placing the imperial priesthood of the galli in a better perspective.

3. We must ignore the judgmental portrayal of the eunuch priest in ancient literature and look for other voices within the existing sources by means of narratological and intertextual methodologies. Epigraphic sources should be studied and utilized in further research as well.

68 Appendix:

Illustrations of material evidence

69

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Figure 1. Fronton of the temple of Mater Magna as presented on the Ara Pietatis Augustae (c. 50 AD). Plaster cast, Museo della civiltà Romana. Photograph taken from Fred C. Albertson. “An Augustan Temple Represented on a Historical Relief Dating to the Time of Claudius,” American Journal of Archaeology 91, No. 3 (July 1987), 448. https://www.jstor.org/stable/505365.

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Figure 2a (above). Reconstruction of the Augustan Metroön with peristyle and unidentified rooms on the left. Claudia Cecamore, Palatium: topografia storica del Palatino tra III sec. A.C. e I sec. D.C. (Rome: “L'Erma” di Bretschneider, 2002), Fig. 40.

Figure 2b (right). Map of the southwest corner of the Palatine under Augustus. Illustration adapted from T.P. Wiseman, “Cybele, Virgil and Augustus,” in Poetry and politics in the Age of Augustus, eds. T. Woodman, D. West (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1984), 124.

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Figure 3. Marble altar relief from the second - early third century AD, showing four men dressed in Phrygian attire (tunica mandicata, Phrygian cap) bearing a ferculum with a throne of Cybele and the cult’s cista mystica. The throne is set amidst trees and is flanked by two statues of men in Phrygian attire. The carriers have been identified as galli. J. Vermaseren, CCCA-VII (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1978), no. 39, plate 28 and 29. The statues could represent Attis, but since there are two, they could represent galli as well. Reproduced courtesy of the

Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

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Figure 4a. Fresco (first century AD) from Pompeii, Via dell’ Abbondanza, IX.7.1., right façade, showing a Megale(n)sian procession to Cybele. On the right, four bearers wearing tunics with purple mantles and yellow shoes have put down the ferculum that holds a cult statue of a seated Cybele, wearing a purple dress and a mural crown. Her throne is flanked by gilded lions. A priest, dressed in a white, long robe, carries utensils. Two men in short tunics and yellow mantles play the double flute. To the extreme left, there are two figures carrying a syrinx and cymbals. Apuleius (Met. 8.27) describes eunuch-devotees who dress in white tunics woven with purple designs “running in every direction like a lance point” and with yellow shoes on their feet. The description could refer to this kind of tunic, that had a purple flap running at the front and at the back (see Fig. 4b).

This photo is taken from Vittorio Spinazolla, Pompei alla luce degli Scavi Novi di Via dell’ Abbondanza, anni 1910 - 1923 (Roma: Libreria della Stato, 1953). https://erenow.net/ancient/invisible-romans-prostitutes-outlaws-slaves-gladiators-ordinary- men-and-women/16.php.

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Figure 4b. Pompeian fresco depicting Roman magistrates (left) and an unidentified procession. First century AD. Photograph: Barbara F. McManus. http://www.vroma.org/images/mcmanus_images/compitaliafresco.jpg.

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Figure 5. Marble sculptured portrait with an inscription of a priest of Bellona (1.30 x 52 cm.), c. 200-300 AD. Rome, Biblioteca Vallicelliana. PBSR, plate 26. CIL 06, 02233 (p 3307, 3827) = D 04182. Photograph: Arthur Strong (Rome, 1920). The portrait is now in the Capitoline Museum. Arthur Strong, "Sepulchral Relief of a Priest of Bellona," Papers of the British School at Rome 9, no. 7 (1920): 205-13. www.jstor.org/stable/40310348.

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Figure 6a. Tomb relief from Luna marble (height 1.20 m., width 1.20 m.) depicting an archigallus, second century AD. Found between Lanuvium and Genzano (I736). Rome, Capitoline Museums, inv. no I207. Photograph: Silvia de Wild (Rome, 2019). See also: CCCA-III, no. 466, 152-3; M. Beard, J. North, S. Price, Religions, Vol.2, 221-2.

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Figure 6b. Detail of Capitoline Museums, inv. no I207. Photograph: Silvia de Wild (Rome, 2019).

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Figure 7. Votive inscription of Soterides. CIG 3668 = IMT Kyz Kapu Dağ 1541. 46 BCE. Cyzicus (Anatolia, Turkey). Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway, Hellenistic Sculpture III: The styles of ca. 100-31 B.C. Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002. Plate 99.

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Figure 8. Marble grave relief of an archigallus. Found at the necropolis of Isola Sacra. Museo Ostiense (Ostia Antica). Photograph: Saiko (Ostia, 2015). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sacerdote_che_sacrifica_a_cibele_(archigallo),_III_s ec,_dalla_necropoli_di_porta_all%27isola_sacra.JPG

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Figure 9. Marble tomb portrait of an archigallus waving torches in front of a statue of Attis. The relief was found at the necropolis of Isola Sacra. Museo Ostiense (Ostia Antica). Photograph: Lalupa (2012). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sacrifice_to_Attis_-_Ostia_Antica.JPG.

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Figure 10. Funerary stele for Caius Julius Abdedera, gallus of Dea Syria. Rome, 100-300 AD. CIL 06, 32462. Photograph: Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss-Slaby. http://db.edcs.eu/epigr/bilder.php?bild=$CIL_06_32462.jpg;pp&nr=1.

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Hendrik Simon Versnel “Beyond cursing: the appeal for Justice in Judicial Prayers”, Magika Hiera. Ancient Greek Magic and Religion, edited by C. A. Faraone and D. Obbink (New York/Oxford, 1991): 60 -106.

Maarten Josef Vermaseren. Cybele and Attis, the myth and the cult. London: Thames and Hudson, 1977.

Maarten Josef Vermaseren. Corpus Cultus Cybelae Attidisque (CCCA) 1–7. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1977-89.

Timothy Peter Wiseman. “Cybele, Virgil and Augustus.” In Poetry and politics in the Age of Augustus, edited by T. Woodman, D. West, 117-128. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.

Greg Woolf. “Provincial perspectives.” In The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Augustus, edited by Karl Galinsky, 106-129. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

92 Source texts and translations

AP 6.218.

Greek Anthology, Volume I: Book 1-6. Christian Epigrams. Translated by W. R. Paton. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1927. Accessed December 19, 2019. https://archive.org/details/greekanthology01pato.

Apuleius’ Metamorphoses 8.24 - 9.10

Source Text:

Ben L. Hijmans Jr., Rudie T. Van der Paardt e.a. Apuleius Madaurensis Metamorphoses. Book VIII. Groningen: E. Forsten, 1995.

Ben L. Hijmans Jr., Rudie T. Van der Paardt e.a. Apuleius Madaurensis Metamorphoses. Book IX . Groningen: E. Forsten, 1995.

Translation:

A. S. (Tony) Kline, “Poetry in Translation, A. S. Kline's Open Access Poetry Archive.” Accessed December 19, 2019. https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/TheGoldenAssVIII.php.

A. S. (Tony) Kline, “Poetry in Translation, A. S. Kline's Open Access Poetry Archive.” Accessed January 15, 2020. https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/TheGoldenAssIX.php.

Ovid. Fasti 4.179-348.

Source text:

Ovid. Fasti. Translated by James G. Frazer. Revised by G. P. Goold. Loeb Classical Library 253. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1931.

93

Translation:

A. S. (Tony) Kline, “Poetry in Translation, A. S. Kline's Open Access Poetry Archive.” Accessed December 19, 2019. https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/OvidFastiBkFour.php#anchor_Toc69367847.

Vergil. Aeneid. 6.781-787.

Source text:

Vergil. Bucolics, Aeneid, and Georgics Of Vergil. J. B. Greenough. Boston: Ginn & Co, 1900.

Translation:

A. S. (Tony) Kline, “Poetry in Translation, A. S. Kline's Open Access Poetry Archive.” Accessed December 10, 2019. https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/VirgilAeneidVI.php#anchor_Toc2242941

Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica (Βιβλιοθήκη Ἱστορική). 3.59.7.

Source text:

Diodorus Siculus. Library of History, Volume II: Books 2.35-4.58. Translated by C. H. Oldfather. Loeb Classical Library 303. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1935. Accessed December 10, 2019. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3D*.html.

Translation:

Diodorus Siculus. Library of History, Volume II: Books 2.35-4.58. Translated by C. H. Oldfather. Loeb Classical Library 303. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1935. Accessed December 10, 2019. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3D*.html.

94 The Defixionum Tabellae of Mainz (DTM)

Source text:

Jürgen Blänsdorf. Die Defixionum Tabellae des Mainzer Isis- und Mater Magna- Heiligtums. Mainz: Generaldirektion Kulturelles Erbe, 2012.

Translation:

Sarah Veale. “Defixiones and the Temple Locus: The Power of Place in the Curse Tablets at Mainz.” Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 12, no. 3 (Winter 2017): 279-313. Project Muse. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/mrw.2017.0033

Inscriptions

Arachne Object database. “CIL open access.” Last accessed June 2, 2020. https://arachne.uni-koeln.de/drupal/?q=en/node/291.

“Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss-Slaby.” Last accessed June 2, 2020. http://www.manfredclauss.de.

The Packard Humanities Institute Project Centers, “Searchable Greek Inscriptions: A Scholarly Tool in Progress.” Cornell University, Ohio State University. Last modified November 2017. https://inscriptions.packhum.org.

“SERP 343:22.” Accessed November 5, 2019. http://www.mikoflohr.org/data/texts/serp_343_22.

“HD 010825.” Accessed June 2, 2020. http://lupa.at/25518.

95 List of Tables and Illustrations

Table 1. “An overview of the Megale(n)sia .” Maarten Jozef Vermaseren. Cybele and Attis, the myth and the cult. London: Thames and Hudson, 1977, 124-5.

Lynn. E. Roller. In Search of God the Mother: The Cult of Anatolian Cybele. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1999, 299.

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.” Maarten Jozef Vermaseren. Cybele and Attis, the myth and the cult. London: Thames and Hudson, 1977, 122.

Maria Grazia Lancellotti, Attis, between myth and history: king, priest and god. Brill: Leiden, 2002, 82-3.

Table 3. “A simplified outline of the categories in the Roman sexual schema or ‘The Grid.’” Holt N. Parker. “The Teratogenic Grid”, Roman Sexualities, edited by Judith. P. Hallett and Marilyn B. Skinner. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1997.

Table 4. “A graphic form of the hierarchy of narrating instances in the Metamorphoses.” Ben L. Hijmans Jr., Apuleius Madaurensis Metamorphoses. Book IX. Groningen: E. Forsten, 1995, 10.

96 Figure 1. Fred C. Albertson. “An Augustan Temple Represented on a Historical Relief Dating to the Time of Claudius,” American Journal of Archaeology 91, No. 3 (July 1987), 448. Last accessed June 2, 2020. https://www.jstor.org/stable/505365.

Figure 2a. Claudia Cecamore, Palatium: topografia storica del Palatino tra III sec. A.C. e I sec. D.C. Rome: “L'Erma” di Bretschneider, 2002.

Figure 2b. Timothy Peter Wiseman, “Cybele, Virgil and Augustus,” in Poetry and politics in the Age of Augustus, edited by T. Woodman, D. West. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1984.

Figure 3. Maarten Jozef Vermaseren, Corpus Cultus Cybelae Attidisque-VII: Musea et collectiones privatae. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1978.

Figure 4a. Vittorio Spinazzola. Pompei alla luce degli Scavi Novi di Via dell’ Abbondanza, anni 1910 – 1923. Roma: Libreria della Stato, 1953. Accessed June 2, 2020. https://erenow.net/ancient/invisible-romans-prostitutes-outlaws-slaves-gladiators-ordinary- men-and-women/16.php.

Figure 4b. Barbara F. McManus. “Index of Images, Part I: ‘Compitalia Fresco.’” Accessed June 2, 2020. http://www.vroma.org/images/mcmanus_images/compitaliafresco.jpg.

Figure 5. Arthur Strong, "Sepulchral Relief of a Priest of Bellona," Papers of the British School at Rome 9, no. 7 (1920): 205-13. Last accessed June 2, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/40310348.

Figure 6a. “Rome, Capitoline Museums, inv. no I207.” Photograph: Silvia de Wild, February 2019.

97 Figure 6b. “Rome, Capitoline Museums, inv. no I207.” Photograph: Silvia de Wild, February 2019.

Figure 7. Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway, Hellenistic Sculpture III: The styles of ca. 100-31 B.C. Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002.

Figure 8. “Sacerdote che sacrifice a Cibele (archigallo), III. sec. dalla necropolis di porta all’Isola Sacra.” Photograph: Saiko (October 2015). Accessed September 20, 2019. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sacerdote_che_sacrifica_a_cibele_(archigallo),_III _sec,_dalla_necropoli_di_porta_all%27isola_sacra.JPG.

Figure 9. “Archigallus making a sacrifice to Attis, Ostia Antica, Museo Ostiense.” Photograph: Lalupa (May 2, 2012). Accessed September 20, 2019. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sacrifice_to_Attis_-_Ostia_Antica.JPG.

Figure 10. “CIL 06, 32462 (p 3827) = D 04280 = SIRIS 00372 = RICIS-02, 00501/0103 = RICIS-03, 00403/0801 = AE 1992, +00092.” Photograph: Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss-Slaby. http://db.edcs.eu/epigr/bilder.php?bild=$CIL_06_32462.jpg;pp&nr=1.

98

99