I'm Getting Too Old for This: A Gallus in Retirement, Greek Anthology 6.234

Name:  Unknown Date:     Unknown Region:    Unknown Citation:    Greek Anthology 6.234

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.

At the end of the rave

A long haired gallus, castrated in my youth,

A dancer on the Lydian shore of the Tmolus River,

Who chanted beautifully,

Now grown older,

dedicates to the revered Bithynian Mother

A tambourine

A whip with many tassels

A set of clanging cymbals made of orichalcum

A fragrant lock of hair.

 

Γάλλος ὁ χαιτάεις, ὁ νεήτομος, ὡπὸ Τυμώλου

Λύδιος ὀρχηστὰς μάκρ᾽ ὀλολυζόμενος,

τᾷ παρὰ Σαγγαρίῳ τάδε Ματέρι τύμπαν᾽ ἀγαυᾷ

θήκατο, καὶ μάστιν τὰν πολυαστράγαλον,

ταῦτὰ τ᾽ ὀρειχάλκου λάλα κύμβαλα, καὶ μυρόεντα

βόστρυχον, ἐκ λύσσας ἄρτια παυσάμενος.

Gallus capillatus, in iuventute exsectus, de Tmolo

Lydius saltator longum ululas,

accolenti Sangarium haec Matri tympana venerandae

posuit, et flagellum multiiugis-talis-tessellatum,

et haec ex-orichalco garrula cymbala, et fragrantem

cincinnum, furore recens deposito.

--Erycius, Greek Anthology, 6.234; Translated into Latin by Hugo Grotius