-1- Eunuchs and the Postgender Jesus: Matthew 19:12 and ...

to name a few. Perhaps its most famous adherent (or infamous, if one accepts the judgment
of the Historia Augusta 79 ) is the Syrian-born emperor Elagabulus (ruled 218-222 CE),
whose efforts at religious reform called for the unification of all religious practices across
the Empire under the worship of the Mother of the Gods (Mater Deum). Later, the emperor
Julian (355-363) attempted something similar, and it was not until the 5th century that
worship of the Mater Deum eventually disappeared.
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Priestly devotees of these syncretistic movements were known as galli, 80 and were
widely recognized by the female garb they wore. Many of them were castrati, often
emasculating themselves with their own hands. Explanations of the reasons for and the
symbolic significance of ritual castration by the galli were varying and are difficult to sort
out. 81 Regardless of the variations among myths, religious rites were well known: in
75 Philo, Special Laws i.324-325, iii.37-42.
76 Livius, Roman History xxix.14,10.
77 Lucian of Samosata, Concerning the Syrian Goddess.
78 Augustine, City of God, esp. books ii, vi, vii.
79 Historia Augusta, Elagabulus xviii.14-xxxiii.7; compare, however, Herodian, Basileia Historia v.5.5.
80 The etymology of this term is disputed; cf. Keufler, The Manly Eunuch, 248.
81 Certain myths (reported, e.g., by Catullus, Carmina lxiii) suggest that Attis castrated himself as a result of an
“amorous rage, his mind gone.” This act he subsequently regrets, at which point, Cybele overhearing him,
sends her lions to drive her into madness back into the forests of Dindymus, where she served the Goddess
for the rest of her life. Similarly, Lucretius reports that the galli are emasculate:
...since thus
They wish to show that men who violate
The majesty of the Mother and have proved
Ingrate to parents are to be adjudged
Unfit to give unto the shores of light
A living progeny. (On the Nature of Things ii)
Other myths suggest that it was the Goddess herself who castrated her consort when he was found to be
unfaithful. Due to this act, he bled to death, whereupon the Goddess out of love for him returned him to life,
but as a eunuch. Still other myths spoke of an enemy of the consort who killed him, cut him to pieces and