I'm Getting To Old For This: A Gallus' Dedication, Greek Anthology 6.51

A Gallus in Retirement

Name:  Unknown Date:     Unknown Region:    Unknown Citation:    Greek Anthology 6.51

Galli were worshippers of the goddess Cybele who renounced their masculinity by voluntarily undergoing castration. They lived as women and held a separate legal status from men in ancient Rome. In this poem, the protagonist gallus is dedicating their religious trappings upon their retirement from the fervor of the bacchic rituals.

O Mother Rhea, she who cherishes lions,

Whose sacred mountain no one has befouled with their feet,

The woman [1]Alexis dedicates to you

Her fury-rousing instruments

Taking a pause from her bronze symbols

The low resounding flutes,

Which turned the heads of calves,

The resounding drum,

The sword dripping with blood,

Accept this offering, o Lady, which I reveled in during my youth

And free me now from the same wild abandon in my old age.

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[1] This poem uses the masculine form of the Greek word for woman (θῆλυς).

μῆτερ ἐμή γαίη, Φρυγίων θρέπτειρα λεόντων, Δίνδυμον ἧς μύσταις οὐκ ἀπάτητον ὄρος, σοὶ τάδε θῆλυς Ἄλεξις ἑῆς οἰστρήματα λύσσης ἄνθετο, χαλκοτύπου παυσάμενος μανίης, κύμβαλά τ᾽ ὀξύφθογγα, βαρυφθόγγων τ᾽ ἀλαλητὸν αὐλῶν, οὓς μόσχου λοξὸν ἔκαμψε κέρας, τυμπανά τ᾽ ἠχήεντα, καὶ αἵματι φοινιχθέντα φάσγανα, καὶ ξανθάς, τὰς πρὶν ἔσεισε, κόμας. ἵλαος, ὦ δέσποινα, τὸν ἐν νεότητι μανέντα γηραλέον προτέρης παῦσον ἀγριοσύνης.

O mater mea Tellus, Phrygiorum nutrix leonum, cuius mystis Dindymus mons non incalcatus, tibi hos [feminaeus] Alexis sui insaniae-instrumenta furoris dedicavit, aere-pulso-excitata cessans a-rabie, cymbala acuti-soni, gravisque vocis iubilum tibiarum, quas vituli obliquum flexit cornu, et tympana sonora, et sanguine rubro-infectos gladios, et fulvas, quas pridem iactavit, comas. Propitia, o domina, hunc-qui in iuventute insanivit, senem a priore libera feritate. Translated into Latin by  Hugo Grotius