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Teutates
Teutates (spelled variously Toutatis, Totatis, Totates) is a Celtic god attested in literary and epigraphic sources. His name, which is derived from a proto-Celtic word meaning "tribe", suggests he was a tribal deity. The Roman poet Lucan's epic ''Pharsalia'' mentions Teutates, Esus, and Taranis as gods to whom the Gauls sacrificed humans. This rare mention of Celtic gods under their native names in a Latin text has been the subject of much comment. Almost as often commented on are the scholia to Lucan's poem (early medieval, but relying on earlier sources) which tell us the nature of these sacrifices: in particular, that victims of Teutates were immersed headfirst into a small barrel and drowned. This sacrifice has been compared with a poorly understood ritual depicted on the Gundestrup cauldron, some motifs in Irish mythology, and the death of the bog body known as the Lindow Man. Teutates appears in a number of inscriptions, most of which have been found in border or f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Esus
Esus is a Celtic god known from iconographic, epigraphic, and literary sources. The 1st-century CE Roman poet Lucan's epic ''Pharsalia'' mentions Esus, Taranis, and Teutates as gods to whom the Gauls sacrificed humans. This rare mention of Celtic gods under their native names in a Greco-Roman text has been the subject of much comment. Almost as often commented on are Commenta Bernensia and Adnotationes Super Lucanum, the scholia to Lucan's poem (early medieval, but relying on earlier sources) which tell us the nature of these sacrifices: in particular, that Esus's victims were suspended from a tree and bloodily dismembered. The nature of this ritual is obscure, but it has been compared with a wide range of sources, including Welsh mythology, Welsh and Germanic mythology, as well as with the violent end of the Lindow Man. Esus has been connected (through an inscription which identifies him and an allied character, Tarvos Trigaranos, by name) with a pictorial myth on the Pillar o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pharsalia
''De Bello Civili'' (; ''On the Civil War''), more commonly referred to as the ''Pharsalia'' (, neuter plural), is a Latin literature, Roman Epic poetry, epic poem written by the poet Lucan, detailing the Caesar's civil war, civil war between Julius Caesar and the forces of the Roman Senate led by Pompey, Pompey the Great. The poem's title is a reference to the Battle of Pharsalus, which occurred in 48 BC near Farsala, Pharsalus, Thessaly, in Northern Greece. Caesar decisively defeated Pompey in this battle, which occupies all of the epic's seventh book. In the early twentieth century, translator J. D. Duff, while arguing that "no reasonable judgment can rank Lucan among the world's great epic poets", notes that the work is notable for Lucan's decision to eschew divine intervention and downplay supernatural occurrences in the events of the story. Scholarly estimation of Lucan's poem and poetry has since changed, as explained by commentator Philip Hardie in 2013: "In recent decades ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taranis
Taranis (sometimes Taranus or Tanarus) is a Celtic thunder god attested in literary and epigraphic sources. The Roman poet Lucan's epic ''Pharsalia'' mentions Taranis, Esus, and Teutates as gods to whom the Gauls sacrificed humans. This rare mention of Celtic gods under their native names in a Latin text has been the subject of much comment. Almost as often commented on are the scholia to Lucan's poem (early medieval, but relying on earlier sources) which tell us the nature of these sacrifices: in particular, that the victims of Taranis were burned in a hollow wooden container. This sacrifice has been compared with the wicker man described by Caesar. These scholia also tell us that Taranis was perhaps either equated by the Romans with Dis Pater, Roman god of the underworld, or Jupiter, Roman god of weather. Scholars have preferred the latter equation to the former, as Taranis is also equated with Jupiter in inscriptions. Both identifications have been studied against Caes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Celtic God
The gods and goddesses of the pre-Christian Celtic peoples are known from a variety of sources, including ancient places of worship, statues, engravings, cult objects, and place or personal names. The ancient Celts appear to have had a pantheon of deities comparable to others in Indo-European religion, each linked to aspects of life and the natural world. By a process of syncretism, after the Roman conquest of Celtic areas, most of these became associated with their Roman equivalents, and their worship continued until Christianization. Epona was an exception and retained without association with any Roman deity. Pre-Roman Celtic art produced few images of deities, and these are hard to identify, lacking inscriptions, but in the post-conquest period many more images were made, some with inscriptions naming the deity. Most of the specific information we have therefore comes from Latin writers and the archaeology of the post-conquest period. More tentatively, links can be made be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tongu Do Dia Toinges Mo Thúath
is an Old Irish oath which translates to 'I swear by the god by whom my people () swear'. It is the standard oath in early Irish literature. Such formulae are common in early Irish literature, and especially in the heroic sagas, where they are sworn for emphasis when a character declares they will perform some feat. Some scholars have interpreted this oath as a relic of Irish Celtic paganism, preserved in Irish literature. Along these lines, Joseph Vendryes argued that the god behind this oath was the Celtic god Teutates, and Calvert Watkins that the oath had roots in Proto-Indo-European. On the other hand, Ruairí Ó hUiginn has argued that the oath was a scholarly Christian invention, contrived to suit the pagan background of the Old Irish sagas. The aspect of taboo in this oath has also been discussed, with John T. Koch suggesting that it originated as a taboo deformation (i.e., modification of a phrase to avoid a taboo word). in early Irish literature Early Irish literatu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mars (god)
In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Mars (, ) is the god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome. He is the son of Jupiter and Juno, and was pre-eminent among the Roman army's military gods. Most of his festivals were held in March, the month named for him ( Latin ''Martius''), and in October, the months which traditionally began and ended the season for both military campaigning and farming. Under the influence of Greek culture, Mars was identified with the Greek god Ares,''Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia'', The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215. whose myths were reinterpreted in Roman literature and art under the name of Mars. The character and dignity of Mars differs in fundamental ways from that of his Greek counterpart, who is often treated with contempt and revulsion in Greek literature. Mars's altar in the Campus Martius, the area of Rome that took its name from him, was supposed to have been dedicated by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commenta Bernensia And Adnotationes Super Lucanum
The ''Commenta Bernensia'' and ''Adnotationes Super Lucanum'' are two 9th-century compilations of scholia (explanatory notes) on the Latin poet Lucan's ''Pharsalia''. Lucan's poem was very popular in late antiquity and the middle ages, which created a demand for commentaries and scholia. In the absence of a canonical late antique commentator, the scholia to Lucan were combined and elaborated at will by medieval scribes, creating a very diverse commentary tradition. The ''Commenta'' and ''Adnotationes'', which have layers dating between the 4th and 9th century CE, are among the earliest such commentaries, and contain much information found nowhere else in classical literature. Background Manuscript transmission of Lucan Lucan's ''Pharsalia'' (the poet's only surviving, certainly-attributed work) was an intensely popular text from late antiquity to the middle ages, especially as a school text. The historical subject matter (Caesar's civil war) and heightened style appealed to read ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National God
A national god or tribal god is a guardian deity whose special concern is supposed to be the safety and well-being of an 'ethnic group' (''nation''). This is contrasted with other guardian figures such as family gods responsible for the well-being of individual clans or professions, or personal gods who are responsible for the well-being of individuals. Ancient gods In antiquity (and to some extent continuing today), religion was a characteristic of regional culture, together with language, customs, traditions, etc. Many of these ethnic religions included national god(s) in their pantheons, such as * Amaterasu of the Japanese; * Amun, Amun-Ra and Horus for the Egyptians; * Apollo for the people of Troy; * Aramazd for Armenians; * eponymous Assur for the Assyrians; * Ashtoret for the Sidonians; * the eponymous Athena-Mykene for the Athenians and Mycenaeans; * Baal for the Phoenicians; * Bathala of the Tagalogs; * Chemosh for the Moabites; * Dagon for Philistia; * Gaut for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scansion
Scansion ( , rhymes with ''mansion''; verb: ''to scan''), or a system of scansion, is the method or practice of determining and (usually) graphically representing the Metre (poetry), metrical pattern of a line of Poetry, verse. In classical poetry, these patterns are quantitative based on the different lengths of each syllable, while in English poetry, they are based on the different levels of stress placed on each syllable. In both cases, the meter often has a regular Foot (prosody), foot. Over the years, many systems have been established to mark the scansion of a poem. Overview Systems of scansion, and the assumptions (often tacit or even subconscious) that underlie them, are so numerous and contradictory that it is often difficult to tell whether differences in scansion indicate opposed metrical theories, conflicting understandings of a line's linguistic character, divergent practical goals, or whether they merely constitute a trivial argument over who has the "better ear" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haplology
Haplology (from Greek "simple" and , "speech") is, in spoken language, the elision (elimination or deletion) of an entire syllable or a part of it through dissimilation (a differentiating shift that affects two neighboring similar sounds). The phenomenon was identified by American philologist Maurice Bloomfield in the 20th century. Linguists sometimes jokingly refer to the phenomenon as "haplogy", an autology. As a general rule, haplology occurs in English adverbs of adjectives ending in "le", for example ''gentlely'' → ''gently''; ''ablely'' → ''ably''. Examples * Basque: → ('apple cider') * German: → (female 'wizard' or 'magician'; male: der Zauberer; female ending -in); this is a productive pattern applied to other words ending in (spelt) ''-erer''. * Dutch: → ('narcissism') * French: → ('femininity') * English: ** Old English → ''Engle lond'' → ''England'' (expected form would be *''Engelland'') ** Old English ''cyning'' → English ''king'' ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vowel Length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived or actual length (phonetics), duration of a vowel sound when pronounced. Vowels perceived as shorter are often called short vowels and those perceived as longer called long vowels. On one hand, many languages do not distinguish vowel length phoneme, phonemically, meaning that vowel length alone does not change the meanings of words. However, the amount of time a vowel is uttered can change based on factors such as the phonetic characteristics of the sounds around it: the phonetic environment. An example is that vowels tend to be pronounced longer before a voiced consonant and shorter before a voiceless consonant in the standard accents of General American English, American and Received Pronunciation, British English. On the other hand, vowel length is indeed an important phonemic factor in certain languages, meaning vowel length can change word-meanings, for example in Arabic phonology#Vowels, Arabic, Czech phonology, Czech, Dravidia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
