Gallae, male priestesses, were found in every Goddess religion. Castrating themselves, wearing women's clothes, and living as women these priestesses, sisters to those we call transsexual in modern times, were considered to be living proof that the soul or spirit transcends the flesh. Gallae, spreading across the ancient world, were nowhere more prominent than in the religion of Cybele and Attis. We recommend, among others, the scholarly work of Maarten J. Vermaseren, Cybele and Attis: The Myth and the Cult, translated by A. H. Lemmers and published by Thames and Hudson (London, 1977).

Images found here relate directly to the religion of Gallae, by any name. This subject, these pictures, hidden and denied by Jewish and Christian scholars, presents a picture of the ancient world much different than the one we learned in school. For the most part they speak for themselves ...

Ancient Mother of Attis and the Gallae, from Çatal Höyük, c. 5750 BCE

Mysteries Are Revealed to Those Who Are Open (44K)

Memorial to a Roman Archigalla, from the reign of Antoninus Pius, Appia Via

Hierodule, temple priestess, offering her services

A patron of the hierodule, perhaps ...

A golden maenad

Pan and Hermaphroditus, Pompeii, House of the Dioscuri

Hermaphroditus struggling with a satyr

Satyr and Maenad

Roman sculpture of a reclining hermaphrodite

Antinous, Hadrian's divine, tragic lover

Young Galla as Attis, castrated, wearing women's garb

Reclining Attis from Ostia, Rome's seaport

Attis of Trier, bronze

Melitine, honored Archigalla of the Piraeus Metro'on

Artistic rendition from the myth of Attis

Crowned Galla with totemic "gallus" rooster

Artistic rendition of We'wha, extraordinary Zuni man/woman, 19th cent. CE

Shakti and Shiva, both, even now, express Divine Femininity

A contemporary poster of the Hindu deity Shiva

Krishna inspired femininity in many a saint

Present-day male priestesses from Southeast Asia

They know not what they do?

Return to Museion Index