Celtic religion in pre-Christian times / by Edward Anwyl.

  • Edward Anwyl
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Celtic religion in pre-Christian times / by Edward Anwyl. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    a writer like Clement of Alexandria goes so far as to regard the Druids of the ‘ Galatse ’ along with the prophets of the Egyptians, the ‘ Chaldseans * of the Assyrians, the ‘ philosophers of the Celts,’ and the Magi of the Persians as the pioneers of philosophy among the barbarians before it spread to the Greeks. The reason for the distinction drawn in this passage between the ‘Druids of the Galatae ’ and ‘ the philosophers of the Celts ’ is not clear. Diodorus Siculus calls attention to the Druidic doctrine that the souls of men were immortal, and that after the lapse of an appointed number of years they came to life again, the soul then entering into another body. He says that there were certain ‘ philosophers and theolo¬ gians ’ that were called Druids who were held in exceptional honour. In addition to these, the Celts, he says, had also seers, who foretold the future from the flight of birds and by means of the offering of sacrifices. According to him it was these priestly seers who had the masses in subjection to them. In great affairs they had, he says, the practice of divination by the slaughter of a human victim, and the observation of the attitude in which he fell, the contortions of the limbs, the spurting of the blood, and the like. This, he states, was an ancient and established 4 6