Galli

The Roman name for the Corybantes, the emasculated priests of the goddess Cybele or Magna Mater. Their processions were accompanied by wild dances and music (galliambi) and they celebrated self-mutilation. The high priest was called Archigallus.

They were said by some to have derived their name from the Gallus, a small river in Bithynia, because its water made those who drank of it mad.1

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References

Notes

  1. Ovid. Fasti iv, 364.

Sources

  • Aken, Dr. A.R.A. van. (1961). Elseviers Mythologische Encyclopedie. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
  • Pliny the Elder. The Natural History v, 42.
  • Plutarch. Adversus Colotem, 33.
  • Strabo. Geography xiii, 4.