Nemeton

A nemeton was a sacred space of ancient Celtic religion. Nemeta appear to have been primarily situated in natural areas, and, as they often utilized trees, they are often interpreted as sacred groves.[1] However, other evidence suggests that the word implied a wider variety of ritual spaces, such as shrines and temples.[2][3] Evidence for nemeta consists chiefly of inscriptions and place-names, which occur all across the Celtic world. Toponyms related to the word nemeton occur as far west as Galicia, Spain, as far north as Scotland, and as far east as central Turkey.[2] The word is related to the name of the Nemetes tribe living by the Rhine between the Palatinate and Lake Constance in what is now Germany, and their goddess Nemetona.[1]

Contemporary description

Pliny and Lucan wrote that druids did not meet in stone temples or other constructions, but in sacred groves of trees. In his Pharsalia Lucan described such a grove near Massilia in dramatic terms more designed to evoke a shiver of delicious horror among his Roman hearers than meant as proper natural history:

no bird nested in the nemeton, nor did any animal lurk nearby; the leaves constantly shivered though no breeze stirred. Altars stood in its midst, and the images of the gods. Every tree was stained with sacrificial blood. the very earth groaned, dead yews revived; unconsumed trees were surrounded with flame, and huge serpents twined round the oaks. The people feared to approach the grove, and even the priest would not walk there at midday or midnight lest he should then meet its divine guardian.

Examples

Descriptions of such sites have been found all across the formerly Celtic world. Attested examples include Nemetobriga near Ourense in northwestern Spain, Drunemeton in Galatia, and Medionemeton near the Antonine Wall in what is now Scotland.[2]

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 Koch, p. 1350.
  2. 1 2 3 Green, p. 448.
  3. Dowden, p. 134.
  4. Xavier Delamarre, Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise (Éditions Errance, 2003), 2nd edition, p. 200.
  5. Helmut Birkham, entry on "Loucetius," in Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, edited by John Koch (ABC-Clio, 2006), p. 1192; Bernhard Maier, Dictionary of Celtic Religion and Culture (Boydell Press, 1997, 2000, originally published 1994 in German), p. 207.
  6. Miranda J. Green. "Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend" (Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1997), p. 142.
  7. E.Ekwall, Concise Oxford Dictionary of Place-Names (Oxford) 1936:320 col. a.
  8. W.G. Watson, History of the Celtic Place-Names of Scotland (Edinburgh) 1920.
  9. Louis H. Gray, "`Et Toz les Bons Sains de Namet'" Speculum 28.2 (April 1953), pp. 76-377
  10. E. Hogan, Onomasticon Goidelicum (Dublin) 1910, noted by Gray 1953.
  11. Compare drys, "oak".
  12. https://www.academia.edu/310734/La_contribution_de_la_prospection_g%C3%A9omagn%C3%A9tique_pour_la_compr%C3%A9hension_de_la_pal%C3%A9oforme_de_Matabodes_Beja_Portugal_

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, October 03, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.