The Religion of the Ancient CeltsMacCulloch, J. A. (John Arnott)
Religion
The Religion of the Ancient Celts
MacCulloch, J. A. (John Arnott)
Celts -- Religion; Mythology, Celtic
If the native Celts of Ireland had images, there is no reason to
suppose, especially considering the evidence just adduced, that the
Gauls, or at least the Druids, were antagonistic to images. This last is
M. Reinach's theory, part of a wider hypothesis that the Druids were
pre-Celtic, but became the priests of the Celts, who till then had no
priests. The Druids prohibited image-worship, and this prohibition
existed in Gaul, _ex hypothesi_, from the end of palæolithic times.
Pythagoras and his school were opposed to image-worship, and the
classical writers claimed a connection between the Pythagoreans and the
Druids. M. Reinach thinks there must have been some analogy between
them, and that was hostility to anthropomorphism. But the analogy is
distinctly stated to have lain in the doctrine of immortality or
metempsychosis. Had the Druids been opposed to image-worship, classical
observers could not have failed to notice the fact. M. Reinach then
argues that the Druids caused the erection of the megalithic monuments
in Gaul, symbols not images. They are thus Druidic, though not Celtic.
The monuments argue a powerful priesthood; the Druids were a powerful
priesthood; therefore the Druids caused the monuments to be built. This
is not a powerful argument![984]
As has been seen, some purely Celtic images existed in Gaul. The Gauls,
who used nothing but wood for their houses, probably knew little of the
art of carving stone. They would therefore make most of their images of
wood--a perishable material. The insular Celts had images, and if, as
Cæsar maintained, the Druids came from Britain to Gaul, this points at
least to a similarity of cult in the two regions. Youthful Gauls who
aspired to Druidic knowledge went to Britain to obtain it. Would the
Druids of Gaul have permitted this, had they been iconoclasts? No single
text shows that the Druids had any antipathy to images, while the Gauls
certainly had images of worshipful animals. Further, even if the Druids
were priests of a pre-Celtic folk, they must have permitted the making
of images, since many "menhir-statues" exist on French soil, at Aveyron,
Tarn, and elsewhere.[985] The Celts were in constant contact with
image-worshipping peoples, and could hardly have failed to be influenced
by them, even if such a priestly prohibition existed, just as Israel
succumbed to images in spite of divine commands. That they would have
been thus influenced is seen from the number of images of all kinds
dating from the period after the Roman conquest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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