Gala (priests)


The Gala were priests of the Sumerian goddess Inanna, significant numbers of the personnel of both temples and palaces, the central institutions of Mesopotamian city states, individuals with neither male nor female gender identities.
Originally specialists in singing lamentations, gala appear in temple records dating back from the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. According to an old Babylonian text, Enki created the gala specifically to sing "heart-soothing laments" for the goddess Inanna. Cuneiform references indicate the gendered character of the role. Lamentation and wailing originally may have been female professions, so that men who entered the role adopted its forms. Their hymns were sung in a Sumerian dialect known as eme-sal, normally used to render the speech of female gods, and some gala took female names. Homosexual proclivities are clearly implied by the Sumerian proverb that reads, "When the gala wiped off his anus , ‘I must not arouse that which belongs to my mistress ’". In fact, the word gala was written using the sign sequence UŠ.KU, the first sign having also the reading giš3, and the second one dur2, so perhaps there is some pun involved. Moreover, gala is homophonous with gal4-la "vulva". However, in spite of all their references of their effeminate character, many administrative texts mention gala priests who had children, wives, and large families. In addition, some gala priests were cisgender women.