A wicker man was purportedly a large wicker statue in which the druids (priests of Celtic paganism) sacrificed humans and animals by burning. The primary evidence for this practice is a sentence by Roman general Julius Caesar in his Commentary on the Gallic War (1st century BC), [1] which modern scholarship has linked to an earlier Greek writer, Posidonius. [2] [3]
There is some archaeological evidence of human sacrifice among Celtic peoples, although rare. [4] The ancient Greco-Roman sources are now regarded somewhat sceptically, considering it is likely they "were eager to transmit any bizarre and negative information" about the Celts, as it benefited them to do so. [5] [6]
The British horror film The Wicker Man (1973) brought the wicker man into contemporary popular culture. In the latter half of the 20th and early 21st centuries, a wicker man (without human or animal sacrifices) has been burned at some neopagan ceremonies and festivals such as Burning Man. [7] It has also been referenced in music and art.
While other Roman writers of the time described human and animal sacrifice among the Celts, only the Roman general Julius Caesar and the Greek geographer Strabo mention the wicker man as one of many ways the druids of Gaul performed sacrifices. In the mid-1st century BC, Caesar wrote in his Commentary on the Gallic War that a large wickerwork figure with limbs was filled with living men and set on fire. [3] He says criminals were the preferred victims, but innocent people might also be burned if there were no criminals. [8] Writing slightly later, Strabo says in his Geographica that men and animals were burned in a large figure of wood and straw, although he does not make clear whether the victims were burned alive. He adds that the ashes were believed to help the crops grow. [3]
Also in the 1st century BC, Greek historian Diodorus Siculus wrote in Bibliotheca historica that the Celts sacrificed human and animal captives by burning them on huge pyres along with the first fruits. [9] It has been suggested that both Diodorus [9] and Strabo [3] got their information from the earlier Greek historian Posidonius, whose work has not survived. [9]
In the 1st century AD, Roman writer Lucan mentioned human sacrifices to the Gaulish gods Esus, Toutatis and Taranis. In a commentary on Lucan—the Commenta Bernensia dating from the 4th century and later—an unnamed author added that sacrifices to Taranis were burned in a wooden container. [10] [11]
There is some archaeological evidence of human sacrifice among Celtic peoples, although rare. [4] There is also evidence of Celtic animal sacrifice, sometimes by burning. [12] Some modern historians and archaeologists stress that the ancient Greco-Roman accounts should be viewed with caution, as Greeks and Romans "had good reason to dislike a long-term enemy" and it may have benefited them to "transmit any bizarre and negative information" about the Celts. Their desire to depict Celtic peoples as "barbarians" may have "led to exaggeration or even fabrications". [9]
There are accounts of large wickerwork figures being burnt in France during the 18th and 19th centuries. Wilhelm Mannhardt recorded that a wickerwork giant was burnt each Midsummer Eve in Brie. [13] Until 1743, a large wickerwork figure of a soldier or warrior was burnt every 3 July on the Rue aux Ours in Paris, as the crowd sang "Salve Regina". [13] At Luchon in the Pyrenees, snakes were burnt alive in a tall wickerwork column decked with leaves and flowers on Midsummer Eve. Young men with torches danced around the burning column, and the townsfolk and clergy sang hymns. [13] An Englishman who watched the ceremony in 1890 said the figure was somewhat "shaped like a mummy" and stood about 20 ft (6.1 m) tall. [14]
The British horror film The Wicker Man (1973) brought the wicker man into modern popular culture. [7] In recent times, a wicker man (without human or animal sacrifices) has been burnt at some neopagan ceremonies, folk festivals, as well as festivals such as Burning Man in the United States [7] and the former Wickerman Festival in Scotland. [15]
In Northern Portugal, the traditional Caretos Festival ends with the burning of a gigantic human effigy with horns while young people run around it. [16]
In Badalona (Catalonia), and within the framework of the local Major Festival in May (Festes de Maig), every year a sizeable wooden figure representing a devil is burnt. The decoration of each statue is themed depending on the current political and social main topics of that year and is chosen by popular vote through a public contest. Documented at least since the 18th century, the modern version of this old tradition began just after the Spanish Civil War in 1940. [17] [ circular reference ]
The Boii were a Celtic tribe of the later Iron Age, attested at various times in Cisalpine Gaul, Pannonia, present-day Bavaria, in and around present-day Bohemia, parts of present-day Slovakia and Poland, and Gallia Narbonensis.
The Helvetii, anglicized as Helvetians, were a Celtic tribe or tribal confederation occupying most of the Swiss plateau at the time of their contact with the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC. According to Julius Caesar, the Helvetians were divided into four subgroups or pagi. Of these, Caesar names only the Verbigeni and the Tigurini, while Posidonius mentions the Tigurini and the Tougeni (Τωυγενοί). They feature prominently in the Commentaries on the Gallic War, with their failed migration attempt to southwestern Gaul serving as a catalyst for Caesar's conquest of Gaul.
The Wicker Man is a 1973 British folk horror film directed by Robin Hardy and starring Edward Woodward, Britt Ekland, Diane Cilento, Ingrid Pitt and Christopher Lee. The screenplay is by Anthony Shaffer, inspired by David Pinner's 1967 novel Ritual, and Paul Giovanni composed the film score.
Commentarii de Bello Gallico, also Bellum Gallicum, is Julius Caesar's firsthand account of the Gallic Wars, written as a third-person narrative. In it, Caesar describes the battles and intrigues that took place in the nine years he spent fighting the Celtic and Germanic peoples in Gaul that opposed Roman conquest.
Posidonius "of Apameia" or "of Rhodes", was a Greek politician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, historian, mathematician, and teacher native to Apamea, Syria. He was considered the most learned man of his time and, possibly, of the entire Stoic school. After a period learning Stoic philosophy from Panaetius in Athens, he spent many years in travel and scientific researches in Spain, Africa, Italy, Gaul, Liguria, Sicily and on the eastern shores of the Adriatic. He settled as a teacher at Rhodes where his fame attracted numerous scholars. Next to Panaetius he did most, by writings and personal lectures, to spread Stoicism to the Roman world, and he became well known to many leading men, including Pompey and Cicero.
The Nervii or Nervians were one of the most powerful Belgic tribes of northern Gaul at the time of its conquest by Rome. Their territory corresponds to the central part of modern Belgium, including Brussels, and stretched southwards to Cambrai in French Hainaut. During their first century BC Roman military campaign, Julius Caesar's contacts among the Remi stated that the Nervii were the most warlike of the Belgae. In times of war, they were known to trek long distances to take part in battles. Being one of the northerly Belgic tribes, with the Menapii to the west, and the Eburones to their east, they were considered by Caesar to be relatively uncorrupted by civilization. According to Tacitus they claimed Germanic descent. According to Strabo they were of Germanic origin.
The Menapii were a Belgic tribe dwelling near the North Sea, around present-day Cassel, during the Iron Age and the Roman period.
Ariovistus was a leader of the Suebi and other allied Germanic peoples in the second quarter of the 1st century BC. He and his followers took part in a war in Gaul, assisting the Arverni and Sequani in defeating their rivals, the Aedui. They then settled in large numbers into conquered Gallic territory, in the Alsace region. They were defeated, however, in the Battle of Vosges and driven back over the Rhine in 58 BC by Julius Caesar.
Ancient Celtic religion, commonly known as Celtic paganism, was the religion of the ancient Celtic peoples of Europe. Because there are no extant native records of their beliefs, evidence about their religion is gleaned from archaeology, Greco-Roman accounts, and literature from the early Christian period. Celtic paganism was one of a larger group of polytheistic Indo-European religions of Iron Age Europe.
The Parisii were a Gallic tribe that dwelt on the banks of the river Seine during the Iron Age and the Roman era. They lived on lands now occupied by the modern city of Paris, whose name is derived from the ethnonym.
The Nantuates or Nantuatae were a Gallic tribe dwelling around present-day Massongex, in the modern Canton of Valais (Switzerland) and adjacent areas of France, during the Iron Age and the Roman period.
The Gauls were a group of Celtic peoples of mainland Europe in the Iron Age and the Roman period. Their homeland was known as Gaul (Gallia). They spoke Gaulish, a continental Celtic language.
The Namnetes were a Gallic tribe dwelling near the modern city of Nantes during the Iron Age and the Roman period.
Gaius Valerius Troucillus or Procillus was a Helvian Celt who served as an interpreter and envoy for Julius Caesar in the first year of the Gallic Wars. Troucillus was a second-generation Roman citizen, and is one of the few ethnic Celts who can be identified both as a citizen and by affiliation with a Celtic polity. His father, Caburus, and a brother are named in Book 7 of Caesar's Bellum Gallicum as defenders of Helvian territory against a force sent by Vercingetorix in 52 BC. Troucillus plays a role in two episodes from the first book of Caesar's war commentaries, as an interpreter for the druid Diviciacus and as an envoy to the Suebian king Ariovistus, who accuses him of spying and has him thrown in chains.
The Segusiavī were a Gallic tribe dwelling around the modern city of Feurs (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes) during the Iron Age and the Roman period.
Celtic mythology is the body of myths belonging to the Celtic peoples. Like other Iron Age Europeans, Celtic peoples followed a polytheistic religion, having many gods and goddesses. The mythologies of continental Celtic peoples, such as the Gauls and Celtiberians, did not survive their conquest by the Roman Empire, the loss of their Celtic languages and their subsequent conversion to Christianity. Only remnants are found in Greco-Roman sources and archaeology. Most surviving Celtic mythology belongs to the Insular Celtic peoples. They preserved some of their myths in oral lore, which were eventually written down by Christian scribes in the Middle Ages. Irish mythology has the largest written body of myths, followed by Welsh mythology.
A druid was a member of the high-ranking priestly class in ancient Celtic cultures. Druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no written accounts. While they were reported to have been literate, they are believed to have been prevented by doctrine from recording their knowledge in written form. Their beliefs and practices are attested in some detail by their contemporaries from other cultures, such as the Romans and the Greeks.
Ictis, or Iktin, is or was an island described as a tin trading centre in the Bibliotheca historica of the Sicilian-Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, writing in the first century BC.
Gallia Celtica, meaning "Celtic Gaul" in Latin, was a cultural region of Gaul inhabited by Celts, located in what is now France, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the west bank of the Rhine River in Germany.
The Cimbrian seeresses were priestesses of the Cimbri. The people they belonged to appears to have been a Germanic tribe that became a Celto-Germanic federation during its migrations from southern Scandinavia into southern Europe where they were annihilated by the Romans. The priestesses are mentioned in Strabo's Geographica concerning sacrifices performed after a victory towards the end of the 2nd century BC. The account tells that the seeresses led prisoners of war up a platform where they cut their throats and watching the blood stream down into a cauldron they made predictions about the future. They also cut up their bellies and studied their entrails. They are compared by scholars with attestations of similar customs among Celts and Germanics, involving cauldrons, platforms and divinations from blood and entrails, and there are also supporting finds in archaeology. Some scholars consider the account to have been fabricated based on traumatic memories of Germanic customs by Roman legionaries and knowledge about the seeresses among Germanic tribes. Memories of such practices performed by pagan priestesses, Valkyrie women, may have contributed to the demonization that Christian scribes targeted towards female ritual practitioners after Christianization.
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