Gala (priests)

Ancient Sumerian statuette of two gala priests, dating to c. 2450 BC, found in the temple of Inanna at Mari

The Gala (Sumerian: 𒍑𒆪, romanized: gala, Akkadian: kalû) were priests of the Sumerian goddess Inanna. They made up a significant number of the personnel of both temples and palaces, the central institutions of Mesopotamian city-states.

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, the god 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 may have originally been female professions, so that the males who entered the role adopted its more feminine 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 feminine names and roles.

Homosexual proclivities are implied by a Sumerian proverb which reads, "When the gala wiped off his anus [he said], ‘I must not arouse that which belongs to my mistress [i.e., Inanna]’ ". In fact, the word gala was written using the sign sequence UŠ.KU, the first sign having also the reading g̃iš₃ ("penis") & nita ("male"), and the second one bed₃ ("anus") & dur₂ ("buttocks"), meaning that might be a pun involved. Moreover, gala is homophonous with gal₄-la (𒊩𒆷) meaning "vulva".

There are references to their 'effeminate' character (especially in the Sumerian proverbs), many administrative texts make mention of heterosexual gala who had children, wives, and large families. In addition, some gala priests were women.

See also

• Enaree
• Galli
• Hijra

Sources

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