Priests of the goddess: Gender transgression in ancient religion

History of Religions

Volumn 35, Issue 3, 1996, Pages 195-229

  Roscoe, Will ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0347699204     PISSN: 00182710     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/463425     Document Type: Article

References (352)

1. Except where noted, translations of Greek and Latin sources are my own. The earliest Christian attacks on the cult of Cybele and Attis focus on the galli and their sexuality (Tatian, Oratio ad Graecos, 8.2;
2. Justin Martyr, Apologia, 1.15).
3. See G. Sanders, "Les galles et le gallat devant l'opinion chrétienne," in Hommages a Maarten J. Vermaseren, ed. Margreet de Boer and T. A. Edridge, 3 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 1978), 3:1062-91.
4. For earlier discussions of the galli, see Franz Cumont, "Gallos," in Realencyclopadie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft, ed. A. Pauly, G. Wissowa, and W. Kroll, rev. ed. (Stuttgart: Druckenmiiller, 1910), 13:674-82
5. and The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism (New York: Dover, 1956), pp. 46-72;
6. Grant Showerman, "The Great Mother of the Gods," Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, Philology and Literature Series 1, no. 3 (1901): 221-333;
7. James G. Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris: Studies in the History of Oriental Religion, vols. 5 and 6 of The Golden Bough, 3d ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1935), 5:265-78, 6:253-64;
8. Henri Graillot, Le culte de Cybele, mere des dieus, a Rome et dans I 'empire romain, Bibliothèque des écoles françhises d'Athénes et de Rome, vol. 107 (Paris: Fonte-moing, 1912), see esp. chap. 8;
9. Hugo Hepding, Attis: Seine Mythen und sein Kult (Gieszen: Richer'sche, 1903);
10. Arthur D. Nock, "Eunuchs in Ancient Religion," in Arthur Darby Nock: Essays on Religion and the Ancient World, ed. Z. Stewart, 2 vols. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1972), 1:1-15.
11. For more recent studies, see Maarten J. Vermaseren, The Legend of Attis in Greek and Roman Art, Etudes préliminaires aux réligions orientales dans l'empire romain, vol. 9 (Leiden: Brill, 1966)
12. and Cybele and Attis: The Myth and the Cult (London: Thames & Hudson, 1977);
13. P. Lambrechts, Allis: Van Herdersknaap tot God (Brussels, 1962);
14. G. M. Sanders, "Gallos," in Reallexikon fur Antike und Christentum, ed. Theodor Klauser, vol. 8 (Stuttgart, 1972), cols. 984-1034;
15. Giulia S. Gasparro, Soleriology and Mystic Aspects in the Cult of Cybele and Attis, Etudes préliminaires aux réligions orientales dans l'empire romain, vol. 103 (Leiden: Brill, 1985).
16. A major new resource is Maarten J. Vermaseren's comprehensive Corpus Cultus Cybelae Attidisque, 7 vols. (Leiden, 1977-1989), henceforth cited as CCCA, with numbers referring to volume and catalog number.
17. See R. Duthoy, The Taurobolium: Its Evolution and Terminology, Etudes préliminaires aux religions orientales dans l'empire romain, vol. 10 (Leiden: Brill, 1969);
18. Garth Thomas, "Magna Mater and Attis," in Religion, ed. W. Haase, vol. 17, no. 3 of Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, pt. 2, ed. H. Temporino and W. Haase (Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 1984), pp. 1522-25;
19. Vermaseren, Cybele and Attis, pp. 101-7.
20. Duncan Fishwick, "The Cannophori and the March Festival of Magna Mater," Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 97 (1966): 193-202.
21. A Syrian inspired by the closely related goddess Dea Syria led the Sicilian slave revolt of 133 B.C.E. (Keith R. Bradley, Slavery and Rebellion in the Roman World, 140 B.c-70 B.C. [Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989], pp. 46-65).
22. In the mid-first century B.C.E., Cicero accused Clodius of turning Cybele's festival into a "servorum Megalesia" (Cicero, De haruspicum responsis, 11.24-12.25; 13.27-28; 21.44).
23. See also Agnes K. Michels, "Lucretius, Clodius and Magna Mater," Melanges darchéologie, depigraphie et dhistoire afferts a Jérôme Carcopino (Paris: Hachette, 1966), pp. 675-79;
24. John O. Lenaghan, A Commentary on Cicero's Oration "De Haruspicum Responso," Studies in Classical Literature 5 (The Hague: Mouton, 1969).
25. See Marshall G. Hodgson, Rethinking World History: Essays on Europe, Islam, and World History, ed. E. Burke (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
26. James Mellaart, çatal Hüyük: A Neolithic Town in Anatolia (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967);
27. CCCA, 1:773.
28. E. LaRoehe, "Koubaba, déesse anatolienne, et le probléme des origines de Cybéle," in Elements orientaux dans 1a religion grecque ancienne: Colloque de Strasbourgh, 22-24 mai 1958 (Paris: Universitaires de France, 1960);
29. Maurits N. van Loon, Anatolia in the Second Millennium B.C., Iconography of Religions, sec. XV, Mesopotamia and the Near East, fasc. 12 (Leiden: Brill, 1985)
30. and Anatolia in the Earlier First Millennium B.C., Iconography of Religions, sec. XV, Mesopotamia and the Near East, fasc. 13 (Leiden: Brill, 1991);
31. Friederike Naumann, Die Ikonographie der Kybele in der Phrygischen und der Griechischen Kunst, Istanbluer Mitteilungen, vol. 28 (Tubingen, 1983);
32. Claude Brixhe, "Le nom de Cybéle," Die Sprache 25 (1979): 40-45;
33. Lynn E. Roller, "The Great Mother at Gordion: The Hellenization of an Anatolian Cult," Journal of Hellenic Studies 111 (1991): 128-43;
34. "Attis on Greek Votive Monuments: Greek God or Phrygian?" Hesperia 63, no. 2 (1994): 245-62
35. and "Phrygian Myth and Cult," Source: Notes in the History of Art 7, no. 3/4 (1988): 44-50;
36. O. R. Gurney, Some Aspects of Hittite Religion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977), pp. 6-18.
37. A priest of Kubabat, i.e., Kubaba, is mentioned three times in the cuneiform records of the Assyrian trading posts at Caesarea (J. D. Hawkins, "Kubaba. A, Philologisch," in Reallexikon der Assyriologie, ed. D. O. Edzard [Berlin: de Gruyter, 1981], 6:257).
38. A relief from Bogaskoy depicts a goddess in a tall headdress attended by small male figures playing a lyre and flute (Naumann, pp. 62-88, pi. 7:1;
39. Similar figures have been found at Gordion (Roller, "Phrygian Myth and Cult," p. 44)
40. and at Ephesus (van Loon, Anatolia in the Earlier First Millennium B.C, pp. 34, 47, pi. XLIIb).
41. Roller, "Attis," pp. 253-55. It also appears in the Lydian royal names Alyattes and Adyattes and in the names of the Attalid dynasty. In Herodotus, Atys is the son of a Lydian king (1.34.2).
42. See Gurney, chap. 2.
43. Letters addressed to this figure written from 163 to 156 B.C.E. have been published in C. Bradford Welles, Royal Correspondence in the Hellenistic Period: A Study in Greek Epigraphy (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1934), pp. 241-53, nos. 55-61. The Galatians entered Phrygia as mercenaries in 278 B.C.E.
44. Hepding (pp. 128-29) and Sanders ("Gallos" [n. 2 above], cols. 994-96) present the traditional view of this practice as a late accretion to Phrygian religion.
45. On Pessinus and its priests, see Cicero, Pro Sestio, 56, 58, 59;
46. Diodorus Siculus, 3.59.8;
47. Herodian, 1.11.1-4;
48. Pausanias, 1.4.5-6;
49. Polybius, 31.37.4;
50. Strabo, 12.567 (12.5.3);
51. Lenaghan, pp. 130-33, 134;
52. Livy, 37.9.9; 38.18.9-10;
53. Polybius 21.6.7, 37.4-7;
54. In 103 B.C.E. a Battakes made an official visit to Rome-the Romans assumed he was a castrated galli (Diodorus Siculus, 36.13;
55. Plutarch, Marius. 17;
56. Graillot, pp. 95-96).
57. Esther V. Hansen, The Attalids of Pergamon, 2d ed. (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1971), p. 179;
58. van Loon, Anatolia in the Second Millennium B.C., pp. 16-17;
59. W. M. Ramsay, The Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1895-97), 1:10, 101-5; Gurney, p. 1.
60. From (mother) + (mendicant priest). This is the most common Greek word for priests of the Mother Goddess before the third century. See Philippe Bourgeaud, "L'écriture d'Attis: Le récit dans l'histoire," in Metamorphoses du mythe en Gréce antique, ed. C. Calame (Geneva: Labor et Fides, 1988), pp. 87-103.
61. Related Greek terms include Ba; (Anthologia Palatina, 7.709.2-3; Lucian, Saturnalia, 12; s.v. Etymologicum magnum) and Ki5pnJ3oc., which Photius defines as "possessed by a god" (s.v. Lexicon).
62. Photius, Lexicon, s.v. Mn,Tprav (in Literary and Epigraphical Testimonia, ed. R. E. Wycherly, The Athenian Agora, vol. 3 [Princeton, NJ.: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1957], p. 155);
63. Julian, Oration, 5.8.1;
64. Aristophanes Scholia, Plutus, 431.
65. William S. Ferguson, "The Attic Orgeones," Harvard Theological Review 37, no. 2 (1944): 107-9;
66. Gasparro, pp. 49-56;
67. Hepding, pp. 135-37.
68. At Lokroi the name K, appears in a late seventh-century-B.C.E. inscription (M. Guarducci, "Cibele in un' epigrafe arcaica di Locri Epizefiri," Klio 52 [1970]: 133-38;
69. CCC4, 4:128).
70. Another ancient site of Cybele worship was Colle Orbo near Acrae, Sicily (CCCA, 4:152-65;
71. Artifacts from Marseilles include an early depiction of Attis (CCCA, 5:292;
72. Literary references from the fourth and third centuries B.C.E. to Attis and/or his followers include Theopompus, 1.740 (Fragmenta comicorum Graecorum, 2.800);
73. Hermesi-anax (in Pausanias, 17.9-10);
74. Anthologia Palatina, 6.217-20, 237;
75. Neanthes of Cyzicus (Harpocration, s.v. A);
76. Manetho, Apotelesmaticorum, 4.218-23; 5.177-80; 6[3].295-99; Theocritus, 20.40.
77. Lewis R. Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, 5 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1896), 1:297, 300;
78. Walter Burkert, Ancient Mystery Cults (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987), p. 35.
79. On the importation of Cybele to Rome, see G. Thomas, pp. 1502-8;
80. Lenaghan, pp. 129-31;
81. Graillot, pp. 25-69;
82. Jan Bremmer, "The Legend of Cybele's Arrival in Rome," in Studies in Hellenistic Religions, ed. M. J. Vermaseren (Leiden: Brill, 1979), pp. 9-22.
83. On the development of the megalensia, see Michele Salzman, On Roman Time: The Codex-Calendar of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1990), pp. 87-89.
84. See also Je'rome Carcopino, "La réforme romaine du culte de Cybéle et d'Attis," in his Aspects mystiques de 1a Rome paienne, 6th ed. (Paris: L'artisan du livre, 1941), pp. 49-171;
85. Grail-lot, pp. 74-78;
86. Burkert, p. 36;
87. Grant Showerman, "Was Attis at Rome under the Republic?" Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 31 (1900): 46-59;
88. Hepding, pp. 142-44.
89. Literary references include Catullus, 63;
90. Lucretius, De rerum natura, 2.611-43;
91. Varro, Menippearum fragmenta, 119-21, 131-32, 149-50, 364.
92. CCCA, 3:14-199.
93. Cicero, De legibus, 2.6.40.
94. Joannes Lydus, Liber de mensibus, 4.59;
95. G. Thomas, pp. 1518-21;
96. Sanders, "Gallos," col. 1002;
97. Hepding, pp. 145-60;
98. Salzman, pp. 164-69.
99. Compare Lucian, Asinus, 35-41;
100. Babrius, Fabulae, 141.6-9.
101. Plato, Euthydemus, 277D;
102. Leges, 7.790d-791A;
103. Phaedrus. 244A-245A, 265B;
104. Ion, 533D-536D;
105. Symposium, 215C-215E.
106. See also Plutarch, Amatorius, 758E-763B;
107. Strabo, 10.3.7-22;
108. Iamblichus, De mysteriis, 3.4-11;
109. Ivan M. Linforth, "The Corybantic Rites in Plato," University of California Publications in Classical Philology 13, no. 5 (1946): 121-62
110. and "Telestic Madness in Plato, Phaedrus 244DE," University of California Publications in Classical Philology 13, no. 6 (1946): 163-72;
111. Arthur D. Nock, "A Cabiric Rite," American Journal of Archaeology 45, no. 4 (1941): 577-81;
112. Such at least is suggested in the fragment published in Peter H. Parsons, "A Greek Satyricon?" Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 18 (1971): 53-68.
113. Teitullian, Ad nationes, 1.20.4;
114. Scriptores historiae Augustae, Alexander Severus, 23.7;
115. Prudentius, Peristephanon, 10.1071.
116. See Sanders, "Les galles et le gallat" (n. 1 above), pp. 1080-81.
117. See, e.g., Mircea Eliade, Mephislopheles and the Androgyne: Studies in Religious Myth and Symbol, trans. J. M. Cohen (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1965), pp. 78-124.
118. This is the conclusion of Marjorie Garber, Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety (New York: Routledge, 1992).
119. The Nag Hammadi Library in English, ed. James M. Robinson (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1977), p. 121.
120. See also Robert Murray, Symbols of Church and Kingdom: A Study in Early Syriac Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975); Eliade, pp. 104-8;
121. Marie Delcourt, Hermaphrodite: Myths and Rites of the Bisexual Figure in Classical Antiquity, trans. Jennifer Nicholson (London: Studio, 1961), pp. 75-83. There is also the passage in Matthew 19 in which Jesus appears to acknowledge three kinds of men called "eunuchs" who are not predisposed to marry and therefore should not (Matt. 19:12).
122. Eliade, pp. 116-17.
123. Especially revealing is the occurrence of in the context of the initiation of a gallus in Oxyrhynchus Papyi, 42,3010 (Parsons). See the discussions of cinaedi in John J. Winkler, The Constraints of Desire: The Anthropology of Sex and Gender in Ancient Greece (New York: Routledge, 1990);
124. Amy Richlin, "Not before Homosexuality: The Materiality of the Cinaedus and the Roman Law against Love between Men," Journal of the History of Sexuality 3, no. 4 (1993): 523-73;
125. Maud V. Gleason, "The Semiotics of Gender: Physiognomy and Self-Fashioning in the Second Century CE." in Before Sexuality: The Construction of Erotic Experience in the Ancient Greek World, ed. D. M. Halperin, J. J. Winkler, and F. I. Zeitlin (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1990), pp. 389-415.
126. See Delcourt, pp. 84-102;
127. E. Castelli, "Virginity and Its Meaning for Women's Sexuality in Early Christianity," Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 2, no. 1 (1982): 61-88;
128. John Anson, "The Female Transvestite in Early Monasticism: The Origin and Development of a Motif," Viator 5 (1974): 1-32;
129. Aline Rousselle, Porneia: On Desire and the Body in Antiquity, trans. Felicia Pheasant (New York: Blackwell, 1988);
130. Wayne A. Meeks, "The Image of the Androgyne: Some Uses of a Symbol in Earliest Christianity," History of Religions 13, no. 3 (1974): 165-208;
131. Peter Brown, The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988);
132. Joyce E. Salisbury, Church Fathers, Independent Virgins (London: Verso, 1991).
133. Vermaseren, Cybele and Allis, pp. 137-38.
134. See, e.g., Eusebius, Historia ecclesias-tica, 5.1; Passio sancti Symphoriani martyris.
135. For parallels to Attis worship in the Montanist movement, see Wilhelm Schepelern, Der Montanhmus und die Phrygischen Kuile: Eine Religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchung (Tubingen: Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1929), pp. 10-33, 53-59, 89-91, 130-59.
136. For example, the Apostolic Canons 21-24 (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. A. Roberts and J. Donaldson [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1956], 7:387-505);
137. Commands of Mar Rab-bula 55 ("Commands and Admonitions of Mar Rabbula, Bishop of Edessa to the Priests and the Benai Qeiama',' in Syriac and Arabic Documents Regarding Legislation Relative to Syrian Asceticism, ed. Arthur Vööbus, Papers of the Estonian Theological Society in Exile 11 [Stockholm, 1960], p. 4);
138. Synod of Mar Isaac 2, Synod of Mar Ezechial 2, and Canons of Mar Aba 20 (Synodicon orientale ou recueil des synodes nestoriens, ed. J. B. Chabot, Notices et extraits des manuscrits de 1a bibliothéque nationale et autres biblio-théques [Paris: Klinckseick, 1902], pp. 263, 375, 558).
139. See also Th. Nöldeke, "Die Selbstentmannung bei den Syrern" Archiv fur Religionswissenshaft 10, no. 1 (1907): 150-52;
140. Nirmal Mitra, "The Making of a 'Hijra,'" Onlooker National Newsmagazine (February 28, 1983): 22.
141. The following description of the hijra is based primarily on Serena Nanda, Neither Man nor Woman: The Hijra of India (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 1990);
142. see also The Ocean of Story, Being C. H. Tawney's Translation of Somadeva's "Kathā Sarit Sāgara" {or Ocean Streams of Story), ed. N. M. Penzer, 10 vols. (London: Sawyer, 1924), 3:319-29;
143. A. M. Shah, "A Note on the Hijadās of Gujarat," American Anthropologist 63 (1961): 1325-33;
144. A. P. Sinha, "Procreation among the Eunuchs," Eastern Anthropologist 20, no. 2 (1967): 168-76;
145. Satish K. Sharma, "Eunuchs: Past and Present," Eastern Anthropologist 37, no. 4 (1984): 381-89.
146. For historical references, see J. A. Dubois, Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, trans. H. K. Beauchamp (Oxford: Clarendon, 1906), pp. 311-12;
147. Fazá-lullah L. Faridi, "The Musálmdns" in Gujardt Population: Musalmans and Parsis, Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, ed. J. M. Campbell, vol. 9, p. 2 (Bombay: Government Central Press, 1899), pp. 21-22;
148. Bhimbhái Kirpárám, Gurarát Population: Hindus, Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, ed. J. M. Campbell, vol. 9, pt. 1 (Bombay: Government Central Press, 1901), pp. 506-8;
149. R. N. Saletore, Sex Life under Indian Rulers (Delhi: Hind Pocket, 1974), pp. 43-47, 93-95, 192-222.
150. Terms used interchangeably with hijra in the late nineteenth century include mukhanna in northwest India (William Crooke, The Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh [Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, 1896], 2:495), fatada and pavaya/pâweeâ/pavaiya in Kathiawar, Baroda, and Gujarat (Kirárám, p. 506;
151. R. E. Enthoven, The Tribes and Castes of Bombay [Bombay: Government Central Press, 1922], 3:226;
152. Alexander K. Forbes, Râs Mâlâ, or Hindoo Annals of the Province of Goozerat in Western India, rev. ed. [London: Richardson & Co., 1878], p. 428;
153. R. E. Enthoven, Folklore of the Konkan, Compiled from Materials Collected by the Late A. M. T. Jackson, Indian Civil Service [1915; reprint, Delhi: Cosmo, 1976], app. xxv), khasua in the central provinces, and khoja in Madras and Jaipur (Penzer, ed., p. 321;
154. H. Ebden, "A Few Notes, with Reference to The Eunuchs,' to Be Found in the Large Households of the State of Rajpootana," Indian Annals of Medical Science 3 [ 1856]: 522).
155. Related roles include those of jogappa in southern India and Kalhapur (Nicholas Bradford, "Transgenderism and the Cult of Yellamma: Heat, Sex, and Sickness in South Indian Ritual," Journal of Anthropological Research 39, no. 3 [1983]: 307-22;
156. Enthoven, Folklore of the Konkan, app. xv), the ali in Tamilnadu (Alf Hiltebeitel, "Siva, the Goddess, and the Disguises of the Pandavas and Draupadi," History of Religions 20, nos. 1/2 [1980]: 163)
157. and the priests of the goddesses Chatushsrngi (near Poona) and Huligamma (Karnataka) (J. H. Hutton, Caste in India: Its Nature, Function, and Origins [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1946], p. 142).
158. Prostitution is reported in nineteenth-and early twentieth-century, as well as more recent, sources (Enthoven, Tribes and Castes of Bombay, p. 226;
159. Forbes, p. 428).
160. Nanda, p. 28.
161. Hepding, pp. 158-65, 182-201.
162. Nanda, pp. 26-29.
163. Mitra, p. 25;
164. Nanda, pp. 10, 28.
165. Nanda, pp. xxiv, 11, 118.
166. See P. N. Pimpley and S. K. Sharma, "Hijaras: A Study of an Atypical Role," Avadh Journal of Social Sciences 2 (1985): 381-89. According to these authors (who appear to be referring to practices in the Punjab region), despite the adoption of a feminine persona in public, a system of gender differentiation exists in some hijra collectives. Less feminine hijra are given masculine names and perform the heavier chores, while others have female names and specialize in traditional female activities. The overall organization of the collective, these authors argue, is that of a matrilineal, matrilocal household.
167. Nanda, pp. 6-7;
168. Kirparam, p. 507;
169. Laurence W. Preston, "A Right to Exist: Eunuchs and the State in Nineteenth-Century India," Modern Asian Studies 21, no. 2 (1987): 371-87.
170. In Gujurat, for example, the cult of the hijra is closely linked to the worship of Bahu-charā Mātā. A temple was erected on the spot where she cut off her breasts and died, in present-day Bechraji. In 1783 CE. a much larger temple was constructed next to it by Mânâjee Row Guikowâr (Manajirao Gaekwad), whose descendants remain the trustees of the site to this day. A collection of poems praising the goddess, the "Boucherâjee Poorân" was composed around 1744. Jeto/Jetho, whose story is often cited as an origin myth by hijra, is said to have been the son of a Gaekwad maharaja, which lends the story a veneer of historicity and suggests that the hijra cult as presently organized originated in the mid-eighteenth century (Mitra, p. 19). Forbes provides a description of the temple and its personnel in the early nineteenth century, referring to the "Paweea [see n. 47], who are eunuchs, and who, if universal belief be true, prostitute themselves to unnatural practices. They wear the dress of females, with the male turban. They are about four hundred in number, of whom half reside at Teekur, near Hulwud, while others rove about the country extorting alms.... Some of the Paweeas, it is commonly asserted, have amassed considerable wealth" (Forbes, pp. 427-29;
171. see also Mitra, pp. 18-19.
172. This occurs in the fourth book, Virātaparvan. See also Hiltebeitel, pp. 165-66.
173. G. R. Salunke, "The Cult of the Hijaras," Illustrated Weekly of India [August 8, 1976]: 20). In fact, it takes a combination of the traits of Arjuna and Bhlsma to get the complete configuration of the historical hijra cult. Arjuna lives as a palace eunuch and dancer, but there is no religious dimension to this status. Bhīsma, on the other hand, takes a vow of celibacy in order to remove himself from patrilineal succession so that his father can marry a maiden and ensure that her children inherit his kingdom. Hijra, like Arjuna, are eunuchs and dancers, but, like Bhīśma, they are also religious ascetics who have taken vows of (heterosexual) celibacy.
174. Compare Kātyāyana Śrautasūtra (ca. 500-350 B.C.E.), 14.1.14; 15.5.22.
175. Compare Mahābhārata, 4.10.7, 36.30; 13.145.52. See Hiltebeitel, pp. 164-65.
176. See also the Punjabi epic Pûran Bhagat, in which eunuchs who dance at the door during a woman's pregnancy cause lameness and baldness (R. C. Temple, The Legends of the Panjâb, 2 vols. [Bombay: Education Society's Press, 1884-1900], 2:396). Hijra are widely believed to take away infants with ambiguous genitalia. Clearly, in ancient and modern India pregnancy and childbirth are viewed as a liminal and dangerous period. Both the child's survival and its sex are in doubt. The Artharvaveda addresses this crisis with a charm for warding off sexchanging demons. The blessing rite of the hijra represents yet another solution: bribe the ambivalent figures with alms so that they will use their powers to bless instead of curse. From this perspective, the continuity of belief and practice from the Atharvaveda to contemporary hijra becomes apparent.
177. William Crooke, "Indian Charms and Amulets," in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, ed. James Hastings (New York: Scribner's Sons, 1911), 3:447.
178. Kāmasūtra (ca. 200 B.C.E.-200 C.E.), 2.9; Mahābhārata, 4.59 (northern variant); Ubhayābhisā rikā, v. 21.
179. Kāmasūtra, 2.9;
180. Mahābhārata, 5.189.5;
181. Śuka-saptati, in Erotic Indian Tales from the Sanskrit Classic Suksaptati, trans. G. L. Mathur (Delhi: Hind, 1971), pp. 179-81;
182. George T. Artola, "The Transvestite in Sanskrit Story and Drama," Annals of Oriental Research of the University of Madras (1975): 65.
183. Nātyafāstra, 24.68-69;
184. Ayurveda, in Patanjali Sethi, "The Hijras," Illustrated Weekly of India (December 13, 1970): 42. Interestingly, one of the oldest Sanskrit terms for "eunuch," vadhri (Atharvaveda 6.138.3;
185. from vadh, "strike"), appears to be related to the old Indo-Iranian root for "berdache" (The American Heritage Dictionary, 3d ed. [Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992)).
186. Gautama-dharmasūtra (ca. 300-100 B.C.E.), 28.43;
187. Arthaśāstra (ca. 324-300 B.C.E.), 3.5;
188. Vasistha-dharmasūtra (ca. 300-100 B.C.E.), 17.52-53; 19.35;
189. Manusmrti, 9.201.
190. Arthaśāstra, 1.12, 20;
191. Fo-Sho-Hing-Tsan-King, 1.5.388.
192. Artola, pp. 58-59;
193. Sethi, p. 45.
194. Compare Bhāva-prakāśana 11-12, 19-20 (cited in Artola, p. 59).
195. See Michael J. Sweet and Leonard Zwilling, "The First Medicalization: The Taxonomy and Etiology of Queerness in Classical Indian Medicine," Journal of the History of Sexuality 3, no. 4 (1993): 590-607. Greek travelers to India provide evidence of religious begging (Strabo, 15.60) and of the cult of the Ardhanarisvara, the androgynous half-male, half-female incarnation of Siva and Parvati (Stobaeus, Physica, 1.56). The episode of the Mahabharata where Arjuna is disguised as a member of the third gender recalls other Indo-European myths involving heroes who pass a period of time dressed as girls or women-Hercules, Theseus, and Achilles of the Greeks, for example, and Odin and Loki of the Norse. Gender-transgressive priests who practiced a form of shamanism existed among the ancient Scythians (on 'Ev, see Herodotus, 4.67;
196. pseudo-Hippocrates, Airs, Waters, Places, 17-22).
197. Faridi [n. 46 above], p. 22; A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province, Comp. H. A. Rose [Lahore, Pakistan: Civil and Military Gazette Press, 1911], 2:332.
198. For an overview of the function, nature, and status of gala, see Henrike Hartmann, Die Musik der Sumerischen Kultur (Frankfurt am Main, 1960), pp. 129-46;
199. I. J. Geib, "Homo Ludens in Early Mesopotamia," Studia Orientalia 48 (1976): 43-76;
200. Johannes Renger, "Untersuchungen zum Priestertum der altbabylonischen Zeit, 2. Teil," Zeitschrift fur Assyriologie 59 (n.s. 25) (1969): 187-95 (summary of cuneiform occurrences of the term, pp. 188-89);
201. Joachim Krecher, Sumerische Kultlyrik (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1966), pp. 27-42;
202. Stephen Langdon, Babylonian Liturgies: Sumerian Texts from the Early Period and from the Library of Ashurbanipal (Paris: Geuthner, 1913);
203. J. N. Postgate, Early Mesopotamia: Society and Economy at the Dawn of History (New York: Routledge, 1992), pp. 126-27;
204. H. de Genouillac, Tablettes sumeriennes archaïiques: Materiaux pour senir a Ihistoire de 1a societe sumerienne (Paris: Geuthner, 1909), pp. lix-lx;
205. Allotte de 1a Fuÿe, "Les US KU dans les textes archaiques de Lagaš," Revue dAssyriologie 18, no. 3 (1921): 101-22.
206. Samuel Kramer, "BM 29616: The Fashioning of the Gala'' Acta Sumerologica 3 (1981): 1-12, p. 2.
207. See also Krecher, p. 37;
208. Mark Cohen, "Balag"-Compositions: Sumerian Lamentation Liturgies of the Second and First Millennium B.C., Sources from the Ancient Near East, vol. 1, fasc. 2 (Malibu, Calif.: Undena, 1974).
209. On inferior gala, see Stephen Langdon, Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms (Paris, 1909), p. 61
210. (citing Allotte de 1a Fuye, Documents presargoniques [Paris: Leroux, 1909], no. 99).
211. On the gala-mah, see Hartmann, pp. 129-30;
212. Langdon, Babylonian Liturgies, p. xi
213. (citing Fuye, Documents presargoniques, no. 132;
214. see also Genouillac, p. lix).
215. Hartmann, p. 141.
216. See also Renger, pp. 194-95.
217. On families of gala, see Renger, p. 193;
218. Krecher, p. 36.
219. On female gala, see Hartmann, p. 132;
220. (citing François Thureau-Dangin, Recueil de tablettes chaldeennes [Paris: Leroux, 1903], no. 17);
221. Hartmann, pp. 133, 142.
222. One tablet lists 62 gala distributed among seven temples in the reign of Shulgi, 2095-2047 B.C.E. (Geib, p. 50).
223. Langdon, Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms, p. ix.
224. Fuye, "Les US KU," p. 102.
225. Whether this was a dialect actually spoken by Sumerian women is unknown (see Hartmann, p. 138;
226. Krecher; Cohen, pp. 11, 32).
227. J. A. Scurlock, "Was There a 'Love-Hungry' Enfu-Priestess Named Etirtum?" Archiv fur Orientforschung 36/37 (1989/90): 107;
228. J. Bottero and H. Petschow, "Homosexualitat," in Reallexikon der Assyriologie, ed. D. O. Edzard (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1975), 4:464.
229. For a critical overview of so-called temple prostitution, see Gerda Lerner, "The Origin of Prostitution in Ancient Mesopotamia," Signs 11, no. 2 (1986): 236-54.
230. Geib, p. 73. See also the Assyrian letter with the line, "He is a kulu'u, he is not a male" (Ernst F. Weidner, "Aus den Tagen eines Assyrischen Schattenkonigs," Archiv fǖr Orientforschung 10 [1935]: 3, no. 1a;
231. Bottéro and Petschow, p. 465).
232. Hartmann, p. 132;
233. Krecher, pp. 36, 38.
234. Some took female names as well (Bottéro and Petschow, p. 465).
235. Edmund Gordon, Sumerian Proverbs: Glimpses of Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia (Philadelphia: University Museum, 1959), no. 2.100.
236. Piotr Steinkeller, Third-Millennium Legal and Administrative Texts in the Iraq Museum, Baghdad (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1992), p. 37.
237. There are also occasional references to female kurgarru (SAL.KUR.GAR.RA), although B. Groneberg argues that these were cross-dressing kurgarru ("Die sumerischakkadische Inanna/Ištar: Hermaphroditos?" Die Welt des Orients 17 [1986]: 36, n. 74).
238. Gertrud Farber-Fliigge, DerMythos "Inanna undEnki" unter desonderer Beriicksichtigung der Liste der "m e" (Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1973), p. 54.
239. Diane Wolkstein and Samuel N. Kramer, Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns front Sumer (New York: Harper & Row, 1983), pp. 64-67.
240. Assinnu appear in the first millennium Akkadian version of "The Descent of Ishtar" and in the Erra myth. See Carl Frank, Studien zur Babylonischen Religion (Leipzig: Hinrichs', 1911), 1:20-21, 79-80.
241. For these and other Assyrian religious personnel, see Brigitte Menzel, Assyrische Tempel, vol. 1 (Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1981).
242. Hartmann, p. 143. Possibly derived from "gala" is gala-tur-ra, "little, or junior, gala," a figure created by Enki along with kur-gar-ra to rescue Inanna from the underworld (not to be confused with the gal5-lá-tur-ra, the "small demons" who torment the god Dumuzi).
243. See the relevant entries in The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (Chicago, 1956-).
244. All these terms are treated as synonyms in the lexical lists, as are sag-ur-sag and giri-ba-da-ra Samuel N. Kramer, History Begins at Sumer: Thirty-Nine Firsts in Man's Recorded History, rev. ed. [Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 1981], p. 96
245. D. D. Reisman, "Iddin-Dagan's Sacred Marriage Hymn," Journal of Cuneiform Studies 25 [1973]: 187;
246. Rivkah Harris, "Inanna-Ishtar as Paradox and a Coincidence of Opposites," History of Religions 30, no. 3 [1991]: 277;
247. 4-ra: A Hymn to the Goddess Inanna," Zeitschrift fur Assyriologie 65, no. 2 [1976]: 228
248. and "A Hymn to Inanna and Her Self-Praise," Journal of Cuneiform Studies 40, no. 2 [1988]: 177;
249. Thorkild Jacobsen, The Harps That Once ...: Sumerian Poetry in Translation [New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1987], p. 115, n. 8), pi-li-pi-li/pilpilû
250. 4-ra," pp. 223, 226)
251. sinnisanu, "woman-like," which appears in the Babylonian Theodicy, ca. 1000 B.C.E. (4.3, in W. G. Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature [Oxford: Clarendon, 1960], pp. 218, 219) and the Erra myth (4.56
252. in Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others, trans. Stephanie Dailey [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991], p. 305), and hubbubu (Harris, p. 276). Other related statuses are mentioned in Bottero and Petschow.
253. quot;The kurgarru and the assinnu who have put on the mask of (the goddess) Narudu" (Assyrian Dictionary, A/2: 341;
254. Francois Thureau-Dangin, Rituels accadiens [Paris: Leroux, 1921], p. 117, no. 115, r. 7).
255. Compare Adam Falkenstein, Literarische Keilschrifttexte aus Unik ([Berlin: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Vorderasiatische Abteilung, 1931], p. 17, no. 51.18), "the kurgarru masks his head"; Assyrian Dictionary, K: 558.
256. See also A. L. Oppenheim, "Akkadian pulu(u)h(t)u and melammu," Journal of the American Oriental Society 63 (1943): 31-34;
257. Svend A. Pallis, The Babylonian Akitu Festival, Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, Historisk-Filologiske Meddelelser 12, no. 1 (Copenhagen: Bianco Lunos Bogtryklceri, 1926), p. 153;
258. Groneberg, p. 35. The neo-Sumerian sacred marriage hymn of Iddin-Dagan describes the sag-ur-sag as dressing one side of their bodies as male, the other as female (Reisman, p. 187;
259. 4-ra," p. 224;
260. Jacobsen, The Harps, p. 116, lines 60-63).
261. Langdon, Babylonian Liturgies (n. 73 above), p. ix; Franz H. Weissbach, Babylonische Miscellen, Wissenschaftliche Veroffentlichung der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft, no. 4 (Leipzig: Hinrichs', 1903), p. 32, pi. 12;
262. Assyrian Dictionary, K: 93.
263. Falkenstein, Literarische Keilschrifttexte aus Uruk (Berlin: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Vorderasiatische Abteilung, 1931), p. 17, no. 51.18.
264. Assyrian Dictionary, K: 558
265. (citing James A. Craig, Assyrian and Babylonian Religious Texts, vol. 1, Assyriologische Bibliothek 13 [Leipzig: Hinrichs', 1895], tablet no. 55, col. 1, lines 9-10);
266. Frank, Studien zur Babylonischen Religion, p. 80, n. 233.
267. On trance states, see Groneberg, p. 39.
268. On bloodletting, see the passage in the Iddin-Dagan hymn to Inanna in W. H. Ph. Romer, Sumerische "Königshymnen" der Isin-Zeit, Documenta et Monumenta Orientis Antiqui 13 (Leiden: Brill, 1965), 131, line 76; Reisman, p. 188, lines 76-78;
269. On cult games, see Anne D. Kilmer, "An Oration on Babylon," Altorientalische Forschungen 18, no. 1 (1991): 9-22;
270. Harris, p. 273.
271. For galli lampooning Rhea, see Hephaestion Scholia, 12.38.13.
272. Frank, Studien zur Babylonischen Religion, pp. 20-21, 120, line 10;
273. Peter C. A. Jensen, Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, Texte zur Assyrisch-Babylonischen Religion, Assyrisch-Babylonische Mythen und Epen, vol. 6, pt. 2 (Berlin: Reuther & Reichard, 1915), pp. 33-34;
274. Heinrich Zimmern, Zum Babylonischen Neujahrsfest, Berichte iiber die Verhandlungen der Koniglich Sachsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Philologischhistorische Klasse, vol. 58, no. 3 (Leipzig: Teubner, 1906), pp. 140-41;
275. Pallis, pp. 145-46, 217-18;
276. Hartmann, p. 145.
277. Erich Ebeling, Quellen zur Kenntnis der Babylonischen Religion, vol. 2, Mitteilungen der Vorderasiatisch-Aegyptischen Gesellschaft, vol. 23, no. 2 (Leipzig: Hinrichs', 1919), tablet no. 2, lines 29, 48, 67.
278. See A. L. Oppenheim, "The Interpretation of Dreams in the Ancient Near East," Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 46 (1956): 179-374.
279. Assyrian Dictionary, A/2:341; Bottero and Petschow, p. 464.
280. See also Bruno Meissner, "Homosexualitat bei den Assyrern," Assyriologische Studien IV, Mitteilungen der Vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft, vol. 12, pt. 3 (Berlin: Peiser, 1907), pp. 9-13;
281. Ch. Virolleaud, L'astrologie chaldeenne: Le livre intutuU "enuma (Anu)"u Bei," vol. 3 (Paris: Geuthner, 1909), tablet no. 12, lines 12-13.
282. See Carl Frank, "Zu kalu und kurgarru und ihren Kultgeraten," Zeitschrift fur Assyriologie 29 [1914/15]: 200;
283. Bottero and Petschow, p. 466.
284. Strabo, 14.1.23;
285. Xenophon, Anabasis, 5.3.6-7;
286. This does not exhaust the references to eunuch priests in the Mediterranean world. At Lagina in Caria inscriptions refer to a eunuch who holds a sacred office in service of Zeus and Hekate (J. Hatzfeld, "Inscriptions de Lagina en Carie," Bulletin de Correspon-dance Hellénique 44 [1920]: 78-81 [no. lid]; p. 84 [no. 16];
287. M. Philippe Le Bas, Voyage archeologique en Gréce et en Asie Mineure, 1842-1844, pt. 5, Asie Mineure, ed. Salomon Reinach [Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1888], p. 142, no. 519-20, line 19. References to eunuch priests also exist for Egypt (Eusebius, Vitae Constantinae, 4.25) and the Deo-Demeter cult (Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticus, 2.15.1).
288. Qedesh (pi. qedeshim) appear in Deut. 23:17;
289. 1 Kings 14:24; 15:12; 22:46;
290. 2 Kings 23:7;
291. and Job 36:14 and in texts found at Ugarit (Ch. Virolleaud, "Etat nominatifs et pieces compatables provenant de Ras-Shamra," Syria 18 [1937]: 164-65;
292. William F. Albright, Archaeology and the Religion of Israel, 4th ed. [Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1956], pp. 158-59;
293. D. Winton Thomas, "Kelebh 'Dog': Its Origin and Some Usages of It in the Old Testament," Veins Testamentum 10 [1960]: 410-27;
294. David F. Greenberg, The Construction of Homosexuality [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988], pp. 94-96).
295. They apparently lived in the temple precincts, kept busy with sacrifices, cared for sacred objects, and, if we are to believe the ancient Hebrew rhetoric, engaged in some form of religious sexual acts (see also Beatrice A. Brooks, "Fertility Cult Functionaries in the Old Testament," Journal of Biblical Literature 60 [1941]: 227-53).
296. D. W. Thomas, p. 425; Brooks;
297. W. Robertson Smith, The Religion of the Semites: The Fundamental Institutions (New York: Schocken, 1972), p. 292, n. 2;
298. William F. Albright, "Historical and Mythical Elements in the Story of Joseph," Journal of Biblical Literature 37 [1918]: 116).
299. In Deut. 23:18 it is used as a synonym for "qedesh." It also occurs in Akkadian, Phoenician, Ugaritic, Arabic, Aramaic, Syriac, Ethiopic, and at Mari ca. 2000 B.C.E. Another related western Semitic term is komer, which appears as kumru in a second-millennium Egyptian text, as kumrum and kumra in Old Assyrian texts from Cappadocia, and as kumrum in Syriac (William F. Albright, From the Stone Age to Christianity: Monotheism and the Historical Process [Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1946], pp. 177-78, 325, n. 46).
300. Compare kemarim in Zeph. 1:4 (William F. Albright, Archaeology, p. 159).
301. Some of these roles include those of the crossing-dress male shamans in Burma (Melford Spiro, Burmese Supernaturalism, rev. ed. [Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1978], pp. 205-6, 219-26;
302. cf. Alexander Hamilton, A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages and Travels, ed. John Pinkerton [London, 1811], 8:427)
303. the kathoey of Thailand, a contemporary role with pre-Buddhist literary precedents (Rosalind Morris, "Three Sexes and Four Sexualities: Redressing the Discourses on Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Thailand," Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique 2, no. 1 [1994]: 15-43)
304. the bayoc/bayot of the northern Philippines, noted as early as 1680 (Emma H. Blair and James A. Robertson, The Philippine Islands 1493-1898 [Cleveland: Clark, 1907], 42:300-303)
305. the manang ball of northern Borneo (Vinson H. Sutlive, Jr., "The Iban Manang in the Sibu District of the Third Division of Sarawak: An Alternative Route to Normality," in Oceanic Homosexualities, ed. S. O. Murray [New York: Garland, 1992], pp. 273-84;
306. Robert J. Barrett, "Performance, Effectiveness and the Iban Manang" in The Seen and the Unseen: Shamanism, Mediumship and Possession in Borneo, ed. R. L. Winzeler, Borneo Research Council Monograph Series, vol. 2 [Williamsburg, Va.: Borneo Research Council, 1993], pp. 235-79;
307. Henry L. Roth, The Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo [London:
308. Edwin H. Gomes, Seventeen Years among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo [Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1911], 178-80;
309. Charles Hose and William McDougall, The Pagan Tribes of Borneo [London: Cass, 1966], p. 116)
310. the basir of southern Borneo (Hans Scharer, Ngaju Religion: The Conception of God among a South Borneo People, trans. R. Needham, Koninklijk Instituut Voor Taal-, Landend Volkenkunde Translation Series 6 [The Hague: Nijhoff, 1963], pp. 43,56-59, 132, 137;
311. Justus M. Van der Kroef, "Transvestitism and the Religious Hermaphrodite in Indonesia," Journal of East Asiatic Studies 3, no. 3 [1954]; 257-65;
312. Sian E. Jay, "Canoes for the Spirits: Two Types of Spirit Mediumship in Central Kalimantan," in Winzeler, ed., pp. 160-65)
313. and the bissu and bajasa of Sulawesi (Claire Holt, Dance Quest in Celebes [Paris: Archives Internationales de 1a Danse, 1939], pp. 27-35;
314. Van der Kroef, pp. 260-62;
315. Matthew Kennedy, "Clothing, Gender and Ritual Transvestism: The Bissu of Sulawesi" [paper presented 91st annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, San Francisco, 1992]).
316. Here I follow Jane Collier and Sylvia Yanagisako's methodological program encompassing the cultural analysis of meaning, construction of systemic models of social systems, and historical analysis ("Toward a Unified Analysis of Gender and Kinship," in Gender and Kinship: Essays toward a Unified Analysis, ed. Jane F. Collier and Sylvia J. Yanagisako [Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1987], pp. 14-50).
317. Thorkild Jacobsen, The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1976), pp. 113-14;
318. Kramer, History Begins at Sumer (n. 92 above), p. 107.
319. Compare Benjamin Foster, Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature (Bethesda, Md.: CDL, 1993), 1:183;
320. Jacobsen, Treasures of Darkness, p. 120.
321. Thomas Laquer, Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990); Brown (n. 40 above), esp. chap. 1;.
322. Brown, p. 11.
323. Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980);
324. Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York: Routledge, 1990).
325. On kinship and social structure in the ancient Near East, see Wolfram von Soden, The Ancient Orient: An Introduction to the Study of the Ancient Near East, trans. Donald G. Schley (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1994), pp. 72-74;
326. H. W. F. Saggs, The Greatness That Was Babylon: A Survey of the Ancient Civilization of the Tigris-Euphrates Valley (New York: Mentor, 1962)
327. and The Might That Was Assyria (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1984).
328. For an anthropological perspective on gender and reproduction in agrarian societies, see Charlotte G. O'Kelly and Larry S. Carney, Women and Men in Society: Crosscultural Perspectives on Gender Stratification, 2d ed. (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 1986), chap. 5.
329. Nārada, Brhaspati, trans. Julius Jolly, pt. 1 of The Minor Law-Books, Sacred Books of the East, vol. 33 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1889), pp. 167-69.
330. See Harriet Whitehead, "The Bow and the Burden Strap: A New Look at Institutionalized Homosexuality in Native North America," in Sexual Meanings: The Cultural Construction of Gender and Sexuality, ed. S. B. Ortnerand H. Whitehead (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), pp. 80-115;
331. Will Roscoe, "How to Become a Berdache: Toward a Unified Analysis of Multiple Genders," in Third Sex, Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History, ed G. Herdt (New York: Zone, 1993), pp. 329-72
332. and The Zuni Man-Woman (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1991).
333. Gala appear frequently in economic texts pertaining to the management of temple estates and land (Hartmann [n. 73 above], pp. 134-37). In the later Byzantine, Persian, Muslim, and Indian states, gender-altered males frequently filled administrative roles (see Cengiz Orhonlu, "Khāsī." in Encyclopaedia of Islam, ed. E. van Donzel et al., rev. ed. [Leiden: Brill, 1978], 4:1087-93;
334. Kathryn M. Ringrose, "Living in the Shadows: Eunuchs and Gender in Byzantium," in Herdt, ed., pp. 85-109).
335. Harriet Crawford, Sumer and the Sumerians (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), pp. 16, 21-28, 170-72;
336. A. Leo Oppenheim, Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization, rev. ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977), pp. 95-109; von Soden, pp. 233-34;
337. See Richard Caldwell, "The Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Greek Myth," in Approaches to Greek Myth, ed. L. Edmunds (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990), pp. 344-89.
338. Vermaseren, Legend of Allis (n. 2 above);.
339. For Freud's oedipalizing reading of Attis, see "Totem and Taboo," in The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud, trans, and ed. A. A. Brill (New York: Random House, 1938), pp. 807-930;
340. and Edith Weigert-Vowinkel, "The Cult and Mythology of the Magna Mater from the Standpoint of Psychoanalysis," Psychiatry 1, no. 3 (1938): 347-78.
341. Sudhir Kakar, too, falls back on the orthodox view of the hijra role as a pathological attempt to escape from the mother, without reference to its political and creative dimensions-what the individual who becomes a hijra might gain as well as what he loses (Sudhir Kakar, The Inner World: A Psychoanalytic Study of Childhood and Society in India [Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1978], pp. 96-99;
342. see the critique of Kakar by Stanley N. Kurtz, All the Mothers Are One: Hindu India and the Cultural Reshaping of Psychoanalysis [New York: Columbia University Press, 1992]). Rather than treating myths as if they were unmediated representations of psychological complexes of actual individuals, I view them as cultural maps or models, in the Geertzian sense, employed by individuals to express and represent any number of personal and societal patterns and motifs. Myths are a good point of reference for understanding how a given culture constructs behavior and attitudes, whether as desirable and undesirable, but they do not necessarily portray the actual child-rearing and life experiences of individuals in a given historical period. Consequently, I focus on what the myths of galli and hijra reveal about the cultures that told them and the meaning ascribed to selfcastration. Psychoanalysis has become a mystery religion whose origin myth is the story of Oedipus. The myth of Attis, on the other hand, represents a completely other psychological complex, an alternative to Oedipus, not a failed version of it. Reading Attis against Oedipus, as I do here, offers a corrective to the ethnocentrism of orthodox psychoanalysis.
343. Wendy Doniger O'FIaherty, Siva: The Erotic Ascetic (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973), p. 130
344. Macrobius, Saturnalia, 1.21.7;
345. Porphyry in Eusebius, Praeparatio evangelica, 3.11;
346. Plotinus, Ennead, 3.6.19;
347. Sallustius, De Deis et mundo, 4.4;.
348. See also Will Roscoe, "Review of Neither Man nor Woman: The Hijras of India by Serena Nanda," Journal of Homosexuality 21, no. 3 (1991): 117-25.
349. O'FIaherty points out that blood in the Vedic symbolic system was an androgynous substance, the source of both male and female "seed" (Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts, p. 33). Later, it came to be thought of as female and negative. From this perspective, the loss of blood in the hijra initiation rite is a draining away of the agent of gender itself, the source of maleness and femaleness.
350. According to Shah, "They are considered to be the medium of the mātās ([n. 46 above], p. 1327).
351. The underlying image is that of transmission. Compare the Old Babylonian omen text that advises, on the occasion of the breaking of a pot, "Look upon a kurgarrû"-presumably the kurgurru, being like a broken pot, could draw away the bad luck (Franz Kocher and A. L. Oppenheim, "The Old-Babylonian Omen Text VAT 7525," Archiv fur Orientforschung 18 [1957-58]: 62-77;
352. The body that is a "broken vessel" might be compared to what Mikhail Bakhtin terms the "grotesque body" of Rabeleis: "The grotesque body ... is a body in the act of becoming. It is never finished, never completed; it is continually built, created, and builds and creates another body. Moreover, the body swallows the world and is itself swallowed by the world.... This is why the essential role belongs to those parts of the grotesque body in which it outgrows its own self, transgressing its own body, in which it conceives a new, second body: the bowels and the phallus. These two areas play the leading role in the grotesque image, and it is precisely for this reason that they are predominantly subject to positive exaggeration, to hyperbolization; they can even detach themselves from the body and lead an independent life" (Rabelais and His World [Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984], pp. 317-18).