Editing Galli (section)

== Interpretations ==
Shelley Hales wrote: "Greek and Roman literature consistently reinforces the sexual and racial difference of eunuchs by stressing how different they look. They were presented as wearing bright clothes, heavy jewellery, make-up and sporting bleached and crimped hair."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hales|first=Shelley|title=Eunuchs in Antiquity and Beyond|publisher=The Classical Press of Wales and Duckworth|year=2002|editor-last=Tougher|editor-first=Shaun|pages=91|chapter=Looking for eunuchs: The galli and Attis in Roman art}}</ref> Because the galli castrated themselves and wore women's clothing, accessories and makeup, some modern scholars have interpreted them as [[transgender]].<ref>Kirsten Cronn-Mills, ''Transgender Lives: Complex Stories, Complex Voices'' (2014, {{ISBN|0761390227}}), page 39</ref><ref>Teresa Hornsby, Deryn Guest, ''Transgender, Intersex and Biblical Interpretation'' (2016, {{ISBN|0884141551}}), page 47</ref>

The galli may also have occupied a "third gender" in Roman society. Jacob Latham has connected the foreign nature of Magna Mater and her priests' nonconforming gender presentation. They may have existed outside Roman constructions of masculinity and femininity altogether, which can explain the adverse reactions of Roman male citizens against the galli's transgression of gender norms.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Latham|first=Jacob|date=2012|title="Fabulous Clap-Trap": Roman Masculinity, the Cult of Magna Mater, and Literary Constructions of the galli at Rome from the Late Republic to Late Antiquity|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/662205|journal=The Journal of Religion|volume=92|issue=1|pages=84–122|doi=10.1086/662205|jstor=10.1086/662205|s2cid=170360753|issn=0022-4189}}</ref>

Some scholars have linked the episode of the self-castration of [[Attis]] to the ritual castration of the galli.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Denova| first=Rebecca I.|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1243160502|title=Greek and Roman religions|year=2018| publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-78785-765-0|oclc=1243160502}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bremmer|first=Jan N.|date=2004|title=Attis: A Greek God in Anatolian Pessinous and Catullan Rome|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4433594|journal=Mnemosyne|volume=57|issue=5|pages=534–573|doi=10.1163/1568525043057892|jstor=4433594|issn=0026-7074}}</ref> At [[Pessinus]], the centre of the Cybele cult, there were two high priests during the Hellenistic period, one with the title of "Attis" and the other with the name of "Battakes". Both were eunuchs.<ref>A. D. Nock, ''Eunuchs in Ancient Religion'', ''ARW'', XXIII (1925), 25–33 = ''Essays on Religion and the Ancient World'', I (Oxford, 1972), 7–15.</ref> The high priests had considerable political influence during this period, and letters exist from a high priest of Attis to the kings of Pergamon, Eumenes II and Attalus II, inscribed on stone. Later, during the Flavian period, there was a college of ten priests, not castrated, and now Roman citizens, but still using the title "Attis".<ref>Maarten J. Vermaseren, ''Cybele and Attis: the myth and the cult'', translated by A. M. H. Lemmers,  London: Thames and Hudson, 1977, p. 98.</ref>