Editing Galli (section)

==Origins==
Cybele's cult may have originated in Mesopotamia,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Penzer|first=Norman Mosley|title=The Harem: an account of the institution as it existed in the Palace of the Turkish Sultans with a history of the Grand Seraglio from its foundation to modern times|publisher=Dorset Press|year=1993|location=New York|orig-year=1936}}</ref> arriving in Greece around 300 BCE.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Taylor|first=Gary|title=Castration: An Abbreviated History of Western Manhood|publisher=Routledge|year=2000|isbn=0415927854}}</ref> It originally kept its sacred symbol, a [[baetyl|black meteorite]], in a temple called the Megalesion in [[Pessinus]] in modern Turkey.

The earliest surviving references to the ''galli'' come from the ''[[Greek Anthology]]'', a 10th-century compilation of earlier material, where several epigrams mention or clearly allude to their castrated state. 

[[Stephanus Byzantinus]] (6th century CE) said the name came from King Gallus,<ref>Maarten J. Vermaseren, ''Cybele and Attis: the myth and the cult'', translated by A. M. H. Lemmers,  London: Thames and Hudson, 1977, p.96: "But according to others their name was derived from King Gallus 495 who in a state of frenzy had emasculated himself..." and p.199, "495. Steph. Byz. ''s.v. γάλλος'' (= H. Hepding, ''Attis'', 74)."</ref> while [[Ovid]] (43 BC – 17 CE) said it derived from the Gallus River in Phrygia.<ref>Maarten J. Vermaseren, ''Cybele and Attis: the myth and the cult'', translated by A. M. H. Lemmers, London: Thames and Hudson, 1977, p.85, referencing Ovid, ''Fasti'' IV.9</ref> The same word (''gallus'' singular, ''galli'' plural) was used by the Romans to refer to [[Celts]] and to [[rooster]]s, and the latter especially was a source of puns.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kuefler|first=Mathew|title=The Manly Eunuch: Masculinity, Gender Ambiguity, and Christian Ideology in Late Antiquity|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=2001|location=Chicago and London|pages=248}}</ref> Considering the Mesopotamian connection, and the similarities between Cybele and [[Inanna]], a common etymology between the ''galli'' and the much earlier Sumerian priests of Inanna, known as the [[Gala (priests)|Gala]], is plausible, but this is not as yet conclusive.