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In modern English, the nouns vates () and ovate (, ), are used as technical terms for ancient Celtic
bards
In Celtic cultures, a bard is a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise t ...
, prophets and philosophers. The terms correspond to a
Proto-Celtic
Proto-Celtic, or Common Celtic, is the ancestral proto-language of all known Celtic languages, and a descendant of Proto-Indo-European. It is not attested in writing but has been partly Linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed through the compar ...
word which can be reconstructed as *''wātis''.
[Bernhard Maier, ''Dictionary of Celtic Religion and Culture'', trans. by Cyril Edwards (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1997), p. 278 .v. ''vates''_'_"prophet,_seer".
]
_History_of_terminology
The_terminology_discussed_in_this_article_relates_to_an_Old_Celtic_word_which_can_be_reconstructed_as_*''wātis''._This_word_is_not_directly_attested,_but_is_known_from_renderings_into_Greek_and_Latin_and_from_its_descendants_in_later_Celtic_languages.
''Vates''_in_English_is_a_borrowing_of_a_Latin_noun_:wikt:vates.html" ;"title="Irish_language.html" "title="irst published as ''Lexikon der keltischen Religion und Kultur'' (Stuttgart: Kröner, 1994). They are sometimes also used as English equivalents to later Celtic terms such as Irish language">Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
' "prophet, seer".
History of terminology
The terminology discussed in this article relates to an Old Celtic word which can be reconstructed as *''wātis''. This word is not directly attested, but is known from renderings into Greek and Latin and from its descendants in later Celtic languages.
''Vates'' in English is a borrowing of a Latin noun :wikt:vates">''vātēs'' (), 'prophet, poet'. This Latin noun was either a cognate of Celtic *''wātis'' (whereby the two words were descended from a common Italo-Celtic origin),
[Michiel de Vaan, ''Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the Other Italic Languages'', Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series, 7 (Leiden: Brill, 2008), p. 656 [s.v. ''vātēs, -is''].] or the Latin word was a
loanword
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...
directly from Celtic.
Despite being borrowed from the Latin form, the English word is generally used about ancient Celtic seers rather than Roman ones.
''Ovate'' in English is a borrowing and adaptation of a Greek rendering of the same Celtic term *''wātis'', first attested in the work of the Ancient Greek writer
Strabo
Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could see ...
. Strabo rendered the Celtic term in Greek in the plural as ''ouáteis'' (, Koine: ).
["Ovate, n.1." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/134224. Accessed 7 December 2018.] The English word ''ovate'' is pronounced the way it is due to a misunderstanding of how the Greek word was pronounced.
Proto-Celtic *''wātis'' developed in medieval
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
as "prophet, seer". Less directly, it is related to ''gwawd'' "panegyric" in
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
.
Celtic ''wātis'' is widely thought to have cognates in the Germanic languages, such as the Gothic term ''wods'' 'possessed'
(though
Ludwig Rübekeil
Ludwig Rübekeil (born 1958) is a German philologist who is Professor of Germanic philology at the University of Zurich.
Biography
Ludwig Rübekeil enrolled at the Pädagogische Hochschule Weingarten in 1977, from which he graduated with a deg ...
2003 has suggested that the name of the
Common Germanic deity ' may in fact be an early loanword, an adjective ''*'' based on Celtic ').
If the Celtic word *''wātis'', the Latin ''vates'', and similar Germanic words are cognates rather than borrowings, they can be derived from an
Indo-European
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...
word ' "seer".
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...
uses the Latin ' "
winnowing basket" (conceivably from ', compare
Old High German
Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050.
There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old High ...
', modern German ', with the same meaning, from ') for something borne about in the
Bacchic
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Roma ...
festival, suggesting that the root may have had an
ecstatic
Ecstasy () is a subjective experience of total involvement of the subject, with an object of their awareness. In classical Greek literature, it refers to removal of the mind or body "from its normal place of function."
Total involvement with ...
sense in Italic also. The likelihood of this etymology and its relevance to the word ''vates'' is, however, doubtful.
History of the institution
Ancient Rome
The earliest Latin writers used ''vates'' to denote prophets and soothsayers in general; the word fell into disuse in Latin until it was revived by
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...
. Thus
Ovid
Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...
could describe himself as the ' of
Eros
In Greek mythology, Eros (, ; grc, Ἔρως, Érōs, Love, Desire) is the Greek god of love and sex. His Roman counterpart was Cupid ("desire").''Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia'', The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215. In the earli ...
(''
Amores
Amores may refer to:
* ''Amores'' (Ovid), the first book by the poet Ovid, published in 5 volumes in 16 BCE
* ''Amores'' (Lucian), a play by Lucian; also known as ''Erotes''
* Erotes (mythology), known as Amores by the Romans
* ''Amores'', a bo ...
'' 3.9).
In pagan Rome the vates resided on the Vatican Hill, the Hill of the Vates. The Vatican Hill takes its name from the Latin word Vaticanus, a vaticiniis ferendis, in allusion to the oracles, or Vaticinia, which were anciently delivered on the Vatican Hill. (When the papacy was returned to Rome from Avignon (France) in the 14th Century, the Vatican became the residence of the Pope, and the word Vatican came to refer to the enclave in the middle of Rome that had become the seat of the Roman Catholic Church.)
Celtic civilisation
According to the Ancient Greek writers
Strabo
Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could see ...
,
[Ovates or Vates: The Shamans](_blank)
/ref> Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus, or Diodorus of Sicily ( grc-gre, Διόδωρος ; 1st century BC), was an ancient Greek historian. He is known for writing the monumental universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty books, fifteen of which su ...
, and Poseidonius
Posidonius (; grc-gre, Ποσειδώνιος , "of Poseidon") "of Apameia" (ὁ Ἀπαμεύς) or "of Rhodes" (ὁ Ῥόδιος) (), was a Greek politician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, historian, mathematician, and teacher nati ...
, the ' () were one of three classes of Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
* Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Fo ...
priesthood, the other two being the druid
A druid was a member of the high-ranking 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. Whi ...
s and the bard
In Celtic cultures, a bard is a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise t ...
s. The Vates had the role of seer
In the United States, the efficiency of air conditioners is often rated by the seasonal energy efficiency ratio (SEER) which is defined by the Air Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute, a trade association, in its 2008 standard AHR ...
s and performed sacrifice
Sacrifice is the offering of material possessions or the lives of animals or humans to a deity as an act of propitiation or worship. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Greeks, and possibly exi ...
s (in particular administering human sacrifice
Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease gods, a human ruler, an authoritative/priestly figure or spirits of dead ancestors or as a retainer sacrifice, wherein ...
) under the authority of a druid according to Roman and Christian interpretation.
Modern usage
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy.
Born in Ecclefechan, Dum ...
discussed the similarities and differences between the "''Vates'' Prophet" and the "''Vates'' Poet" in ''On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History
''On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History'' is a book by the Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle, published by James Fraser, London, in 1841. It is a collection of six lectures given in May 1840 about prominent ...
'' (1841).
''Vates'' or ''Ovates'' make up one of the three grades of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids
The Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids or OBOD is a Neo-Druidic organisation based in England, but based in part on the Welsh Gorsedd of Bards. It has grown to become a dynamic druid organisation, with members in all parts of the world.
The conc ...
, a neo-druidism
Druidry, sometimes termed Druidism, is a modern spiritual or religious movement that promotes the cultivation of honorable relationships with the physical landscapes, flora, fauna, and diverse peoples of the world, as well as with nature deit ...
order based in England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.
An ovate is also the initial level one can attain in the modern Welsh Gorsedd of Bards. The Gorsedd is not a neo-druidic entity like the one mentioned above, but is more concerned with Welsh arts and culture; however, the ceremony and practices are largely based on reimaginings of druidism by Iolo Morganwg
Edward Williams, better known by his bardic name Iolo Morganwg (; 10 March 1747 – 18 December 1826), was a Welsh antiquarian, poet and collector.Jones, Mary (2004)"Edward Williams/Iolo Morganwg/Iolo Morgannwg" From ''Jones' Celtic Encyclop ...
.
Citations
General sources
* Ellis, Peter Berresford, ''The Druids'', William B. Eerdmans Publishing (1995)
* Perkins, Caroline A.,
Ovid's Erotic Vates
in ''Helios'', March 2000
* Rübekeil, Ludwig,
Wodan und andere forschungsgeschichtliche Leichen: exhumiert
'', Beiträge zur Namenforschung (2003), 25–42.
External links
{{Gallic peoples
Ancient Roman religion
Prophets
Druidry
Italo-Celtic