Gala (priests)

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.

[1] According to an old Babylonian text, Enki created the gala specifically to sing "heart-soothing laments" for the goddess Inanna.

[5] Homosexual proclivities are implied by the 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 spite of all their references of their effeminate character (especially in the Sumerian proverbs), many administrative texts make mention of heterosexual gala priests who had children, wives, and large families.