Two Pathic Subcultures in Ancient Rome

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Two Pathic Subcultures in Ancient Rome 333 points are strikingly similar." The hijras studied by modern anthropologists belong to the cult of Bahuchara Mata, one of the mother-goddesses of the cultic network in rural India. Like the Galli, they practice emasculation-in fact, the complete removal of penis and testicles-as a means of spiritual purification and identification with the goddess and are characterized by effeminacy of manner and dress, even to the point of caricature.45 There are numerous other parallels,46 including certain elements of their respective castration rituals. 44 "During their spring festival of the Cybele/Attis cult in Rome, the Galli would throw themselves into a frenzy, lacerating their arms and scourging one another to the accompaniment of drums, cymbals, and pipes. The arch-priest sacrificed a bull to Attis on the Ides. Several days after the vernal equinox, the lavatio took place. The image of Cybele-the Anatolian meteorite that was thought to contain the goddess-was brought outside the pomerium [the religious boundary of the city] in a wagon procession and ritually washed" (James, pp. 172-74; see Frazer, 1: 273 and n. 4). The image of the Mother Goddess in southern India is often just a plain stone standing upright outside the boundaries of the village. During periods of illness or epidemic the image is bathed and sheep or water buffalo are sacrificed "amid wild dancing, drumming and horn-blowing.... Food is then poured out before Ankamma [the local name of the goddess] and the festival closes with the usual procession of carts round the temple" (James, p. 117). 45Serena Nanda, "The Hijras of India: A Preliminary Report," Medicine and Law 3 (1984): 59-75 (hereafter referred to as 'A Preliminary Report"), "The Hijras of India: Cultural and Individual Dimensions of an Institutionalized Third Gender Role," Journal of Homosexualitv 11 (1985): 35-54 (hereafter referred to as "Cultural and Individual Dimensions"), and Neither Man nor Woman: The Hijras of India (Belmont, CA, 1990). The newly castrated Gallus "was called 'icv6PqOoq' and, as the male counterpart of the Goddess, by sacrificing his virility he assimilated himself to her so completely that he shared in her life-giving power. Henceforth he adopted female attire, having consecrated himself to her service even at the cost of his manhood" (James, p. 168). Similarly, the emasculated hijra initiate "becomes one of Bahuchara Mata's favorites, serving as a vehicle of her power through [his] symbolic rebirth . . . emasculation certainly brings the hijra devotee into a closer identification with the female object of devotion" (Nanda, "Cultural and Individual Dimensions," p. 40). 46According to Vermaseren (n. 36 above), p. 96, the Galli, whose name can be translated as "cocks" as well as "Galatians," took the rooster as their symbol; the most popular image of the hijras'goddess, Bahuchara Mata, depicts her riding a cock (Nanda, "Cultural and Individual Dimensions," p. 40). Both cults are associated with the emasculation of male mythological figures; in the Cybele cult, it is Attis (Catull. 63); in the Mata cult, it is Arjuna (Nanda, "A Preliminary Report," p. 72, and Neither Man nor Woman, pp. 30-31), Shiva (Nanda, Neither Man nor Woman, pp. 24, 29-30), and Bahuchara (Nanda, "Cultural and Individual Dimensions," p. 39). Both cults feature icons of the mother goddess (Apul. Met. 8.25, 27; Shah, p. 1326; Nanda, "A Preliminary Report," p. 72). Members of both cults are mendicant and live off the charity of others (Cic. Leg. 2.22.40; Apul. Met. 8.24, 28; Shah, pp. 1326-27; Nanda, "A Preliminary Report," p. 69, and "Cultural and Individual Dimensions," p. 41); both share earnings among themselves (Apul. Met. 8.28; Shah, p. 1328; Nanda, "A Preliminary Report," p. 69). They are itinerant (Apul. Met. 8, passim; Shah, pp. 1326-27; Nanda, "A Preliminary Report," p. 67) and are especially active during This content downloaded from 71.172.231.156 on Wed, 24 Jul 2013 18:27:33 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
334 RABUN TAYLOR In his description of the bloodletting rites during the spring festival of the Cybele cult, James Frazer writes, We may conjecture, though we are not expressly told, that it was on the same Day of Blood and for the same purpose that the novices sacrificed their virility. Wrought up to the highest pitch of religious excitement they dashed the severed portions of themselves against the image of the cruel goddess. These broken instruments of fertility were afterwards reverently wrapt up and buried in the earth or in subterranean chambers sacred to Cybele, where, like the offering of blood, they may have been deemed instrumental in recalling Attis [Cybele's consort] to life and hastening the general resurrection of nature, which was then bursting into leaf and blossom in the vernal sunshine. On the Day of Blood the new Galli cast aside their masculine clothing forever.47 In the equivalent ritual for the dea Syria, as Lucian tells it, the initiate castrated himself with a sword and then ran through town with genitals in hand. He would then toss them into a house chosen at random, whose residents would be obligated to dress him in female attire (Syr. D. 51). Serena Nanda says of the ritual of the hijras, "Emasculation is the dharm (caste duty) of the hijras, and the chief source of their uniqueness. The hijras carry it out in a ritual context, in which the client sits in front of a picture of the goddess Bahuchara and repeats her name while the operation is being performed." Nanda describes the operation as follows: festivals (Apul. Met. 8.29; Shah, p. 1327; see Frazcr, 1: 266-73). Morris E. Opler, "Thc Hijara (Hcrmaphrodites) of India and Indian National Character: A Rejoinder," American Anthropologist 62 (1960): 505-11, witnessed a ceremony and dance where the hijras took up a collcction afterward in the folds of their dresses (p. 506), just as the Galli do in Apu- Icius Mct. 8.28. Both groups sing, play music, and dance using drums and cymbals (Apul. Mct. 8.24, 26-27; Catull. 63.21; Suet. Aug. 68; Lucian Syr. D. 50; Opler, p. 506; Shah, p. 1327; Nanda, 'A Preliminary Report," pp. 66, 68); both arc expected to be lewd and sexually suggestivc (Apul. Met. 8.26; Nanda, "A Prcliminary Report," p. 68, and "Cultural and Individual Dimcnsions," p. 38); both are capable of issuing curscs in the namc of their goddesses (Apul. Mct. 8.25; Shah, pp. 1327-28; Nanda, "A Prcliminary Report," p. 60). Both groups think of thcmsclves as primarily femalc or "not-mcn" (Apul. Mct. 8.26; Shah, p. 1328; Nanda, "Cultural and Individual Dimensions," pp. 38, 44, and Neither Man nor Woman, pp. 15-17, 114-16) and engage in ridiculous public behavior or are ridiculed by the public (Apul. Met. 8.25; Nanda, "Cultural and Individual Dimensions," p. 38; Shah, p. 1328). Many parallels to the citations in Apulcius can be found in Pseudo-Lucian's Asinus, upon which Apulcius's story is based. 47 Frazer, 1:268-70; Vermaseren, p. 97. This content downloaded from 71.172.231.156 on Wed, 24 Jul 2013 18:27:33 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
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Two Pathic Subcultures in Ancient Rome

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