|
Celtic polytheism, commonly known as Celtic paganism,〔Ross, Anne (1974). ''Pagan Celtic Britain: Studies in Iconography and Tradition''. London: Sphere Books Ltd.〕〔Hutton, Ronald (1991). ''The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy''. Oxford, UK and Cambridge, USA: Blackwell.〕〔Jones, Prudence and Pennick, Nigel (1995). ''A History of Pagan Europe''. Routledge.〕 comprises the religious beliefs and practices adhered to by the Iron Age people of Western Europe now known as the Celts, roughly between 500 BCE and 500 CE, spanning the La Tène period and the Roman era, and in the case of the Insular Celts the British and Irish Iron Age. Celtic polytheism was one of a larger group of Iron Age polytheistic religions of the Indo-European family. It comprised a large degree of variation both geographically and chronologically, although "behind this variety, broad structural similarities can be detected"〔Cunliffe, Barry (1997). ''The Ancient Celts''. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. p. 184.〕 allowing there to be "a basic religious homogeneity" among the Celtic peoples.〔Ross, Anne (1986). ''The Pagan Celts''. London: B.T. Batsford. p. 103.〕 The Celtic pantheon consists of numerous recorded theonyms, both from Greco-Roman ethnography and from epigraphy. Among the most prominent ones are Teutatis, Taranis and Lugus. Figures from medieval Irish mythology have also been adduced by comparative mythology, interpreted as euhemerized versions of pre-Christian Insular deities. The most salient feature of Celtic religion as reflected in Roman historiography is their extensive practice of human sacrifice. According to Greek and Roman accounts, in Gaul, Britain and Ireland, there was a priestly caste of "magico-religious specialists" known as the druids, although very little is definitely known about them.〔Hutton, Ronald (2009). ''Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain''. Yale University Press. p. 17.〕 Following the Roman Empire's conquest of Gaul (58–51 BCE) and southern Britannia (43 CE), Celtic religious practices began to display elements of Romanisation, resulting in a syncretic Gallo-Roman culture with its own religious traditions with its own large set of deities, such as Cernunnos, Artio, Telesphorus, etc. In the later 5th and the 6th centuries, the Celtic region was Christianized and earlier religious traditions were supplanted. However, the polytheistic traditions left a legacy in many of the Celtic nations, influenced later mythology, and served as the basis for a new religious movement, Celtic Neopaganism, in the 20th century. ==Sources== Comparatively little is known about Celtic polytheism because the evidence for it is fragmentary, due largely to the fact that the Celts who practiced it wrote nothing down about their religion.〔Miranda J. Green. (2005) ''Exploring the world of the druids.'' London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-28571-3. p. 24.〕〔Emrys Evans (1992) ''Mythology'' Little Brown & Company. ISBN 0-316-84763-1. p. 170.〕 Therefore, all we have to study their religion from is the literature from the early Christian period, commentaries from classical Greek and Roman scholars, and archaeological evidence.〔Emrys Evans (1992) ''Mythology'' Little Brown & Company. ISBN 0-316-84763-1. pp. 170–171.〕 The archaeologist Barry Cunliffe summarised the sources for Celtic religion as "fertile chaos", borrowing the term from the Irish scholar Proinsias MacCana. Cunliffe went on to note that "there is more, varied, evidence for Celtic religion than for any other example of Celtic life. The only problem is to assemble it in a systematic form which does not too greatly oversimplify the intricate texture of its detail."〔Cunliffe, Barry (1997). ''The Ancient Celts''. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. p. 183.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Celtic polytheism」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|