Galli
The Galli were transgendered Roman priestesses of the Phrygian goddess Cybele.There is considerable uncertainty about the history of the Galli. The Christian church massacred every follower of Cybele it could find. All of her temples were destroyed, with orders that they should never be built upon (in contrast to the usual practice of converting non-Christian religious sites). As a result the only surviving records of the Galli come from historians and archivists. The accuracy of such records is in doubt; transgenderism is typically quite poorly understood.
The name Galli is probably derived from the Gallus river in Phrygia. One of the first temples to Cybele was built near this river, which led to a rumor that drinking from the Gallus would cause such madness that the drinker would castrate himself. It has also been supposed that Galli is derived from the Latin word for rooster. Hieronymus believed the name was given by the Romans as a sign of their contempt for the Gauls. However, in that case, gallus would have been borrowed from Asia or Greece, where it meant eunuch.
It should be noted that the Galli were not eunuchs. Though they castrated themselves, they did so voluntarily. This was typically done in an ecstatic celebration called Dies Sanguinis, or Day of Blood, which took place on March 24.
Cyebele's Galli were similar in form to other colleges of priests in Asia Minor that ancient authors described as "eunuchs", such as the priests of Atargatis described by Apuleius and Lucian, or the galloi of the temple of Artemis at Ephesus.
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