Music and Silence of the Roman Galli: Voicelessness of Magna Mater's priests in the Late Antique Visual Culture
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| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | The "oriental mystery" of Magna Mater was practised in Rome until about 390 CE. Its priests galli and cultic music are described in Roman sources as typically Eastern – and socially burdensome. Scholarship has proven that Christians used Metroac rituals as a literary figure to define themselves against the "pagan religion", while polytheists are considered relatively objective, especially when their accounts correspond with Metroac images. This paper focuses on Roman Orientalism beside the Christian reinvention of paganism, and the role – or lack thereof – of the galli in the extant visual production of fourth-century adherents of the Mother. |