Speaking of "Celtics", many people may first think of the team in the Us NBA. In fact, the founder of this team, Walter Brown, was originally a famous "barbarian nation" active in the history of Western Europe, the Celts, who used this nation to name his team.
【Celtic team logo】
Linguistically, the Celts are of Indo-European origin. The latter first lived in the Ukrainian plains of northern black sea and southern Russia. From 2000 BC, the Aryans began to migrate to India and Europe, and since then have had a huge impact on the history of both the East and the West. In 1000 BC, the Celts arrived in the Harz Mountains region of Germany and merged with the local urn coffin people (named after their funerary customs, after the deceased was cremated, the ashes were buried in a clay urn), and in 800 BC, the Celtic culture was formed. From the 7th to the 3rd century BC, the Celts poured into present-day France, Italy, Spain, the British Isles, and the Balkan Peninsula, and split into many different ethnic groups. The ancient Romans referred to the Celts in France, Belgium, Germany, and Italy as "Gauls"; the People of Asia Minor as "Galatians" or "Galatians"; those from Bohemia as "Boites"; and those from the British Isles as "Britons".
Before the roman conquest, the Celts did not have their own script, so their early history was written by both the Greeks and Romans. "Celt" first appeared in 500 BC in the fragment of the Greek geographer Hecateus's book History of Greece. According to one hypothesis, the term derives from an axe-like artifact used by the Celts. In the writings of classical writers, the Celts were a tall, fair-skinned, ruddy-faced, blonde race. They used lime water to bleach their hair white and tied it in the shape of a tassel, sometimes dying their bodies blue, and the nobles often had long beards. When fighting, they wore bronze helmets decorated with reliefs of bull horns or busts of birds and beasts. Interestingly, however, the Celtic bodies were unprotected, preferring to go to war bare-chested or completely naked. Imagine that during the war, a large group of tall and mighty naked men rushed forward, such a powerful visual impact, I am afraid that not many troops can hold it.
[Celtics who like to be half-naked or fully naked]
Savagery and belligerence were the primary impression given by the Celts. The Romans referred to the Celts as one of the three great barbarians of Europe, the other two being Slavs and Germans. The Celtics have a flamboyant personality and like to pick quarrels and provoke trouble. The Greek historian Strabo described the Celts as "war maniacs of the whole nation." In the absence of external enemies, infighting often broke out between different Celtic tribes. And the Celts were an alcoholic. Ancient Roman soldiers drank wine with water, while the Celts drank pure wine like water. There was also an incident in which a Celtic army was captured on the battlefield during the Roman attack on Gaul. Stimulated by alcohol, celts are more likely to clash, and holding a banquet without making a few lives is not a Celtic banquet. Caesar said in the Gallic War that Celtic had a frivolous personality, was easily frustrated, and was complacent when the fight was won, and dejected when the fight was lost.
Not only are Celtic men very aggressive, but so are Celtic women. An ancient Roman writer once jokingly said, "If a Celtic man calls his wife to help, even an army will not be able to stop them." That's a very tough woman. ”
One of the most criticized acts of the Celts is their custom of headhunting. They would cut off the heads of their enemies and take them home to save. In The Bull Raid, when Kuchurin returns from an attack on Connacht, his car is covered with enemy heads. However, this is not a sign of torture or brazenness. In the eyes of the Celts, the power of the other party can be absorbed through headhunting, and placing the heads of powerful warriors in the home can also play the role of a town house. Therefore, headhunting behavior actually represents recognition of the other party's strength.
【Celtic】
However, it was such a barbaric and warlike people, on the other hand, skilled craftsmen, who were good at making iron and pottery, and the processing skills of bronze and gold and silver were also very skilled. Moreover, the Celts also have a pink and tender girlish heart, they like delicate and gorgeous things, and they are keen to dress up. Strabo wrote: "They wore gold ornaments with metal collars around their necks and armbands and bracelets on their arms and wrists. The upper celts wore dyed robes decorated with shiny gold flakes. "Even the Celtic weapons were filled with ornaments, and the harnesses were copper and painted with enamel.
Among them, weapons and production tools are the most numerous, but in addition, they also make a large number of bracelets, pins and other jewelry. These metal objects are often decorated with fine patterns and are also inlaid with gold and silver. The patterns used by the Celts were mainly geometric patterns, and these lines were melodious and graceful, constituting a variety of realistic or abstract symbols. Around 800 AD, monks on the Scottish island of Iona painted the Book of Kells with a strong Celtic art style.
[The Secret of the Book of Kells" is full of Celtic art]
Moreover, the relationship between the Celts and the Greeks and Romans was not always hostile. They established a well-developed trading network in the Mediterranean region, exchanging their own iron and salt and other items with the Greeks and Romans for wine, precious metals and other luxury goods. Celts' pickles were a popular delicacy among the Romans. From the 2nd century BC onwards, the Celts also minted money in the style of Greece.
The Celtic nation is a people of equality between men and women, and women can participate in all the affairs of the tribe and can also serve as tribal leaders. The queen Maeve in the Celtic epic The Bull Is a typical example, whose power trumps that of a male king. During the Roman conquest of Britain, a heroine, Budica, proclaimed herself king and led her tribe against the Roman invasion. However, after the Roman conquest of the Celts, it was stipulated in legal form that women could not inherit tribal power. Influenced by Roman culture, the Celtic fashion of equality between men and women gradually disappeared.
The religion of the Celts was very different from that of the Greeks and Romans. They were still in the primitive animist stage, believing that gods existed in every corner of the world, so they did not build temples and worship gods in the open air. Nor did the Celts give a concrete image to God. Therefore, when they first saw the Greeks worshiping idols, it was very incredible, but in the process of Romanization they gradually adapted to the custom of building temples and standing statues. Moreover, the Celts also absorbed a large number of gods from Greeks, Romans and other foreign races. When Caesar arrived in Gaul, he changed the names of many Celtic gods to Roman gods, for example, the Celtic sun god Bellenus changed to Apollo.
【One of the gods of the Celts】
The Celts used the oak tree as a sacred tree, and their priests called it "druids," a word that literally means "a man familiar with the oak tree." The Druids were the true rulers of the Celts, and the Celts had to consult the Druids for advice on everything in their lives, and the thing they feared most was to be expelled from the Druids. Once expelled by the Druids, it also meant being expelled by the entire tribe, unable to hold any position in the tribe, and the members of the tribe tried to avoid communicating with them.
The Celts believed that the soul could live forever and reincarnate, and when one life died, its soul would transfer to another body, so they also believed that in order to save one's life, one's life must be sacrificed.
The Celts were used as another sign of barbarians when sacrificing living people. In addition to saving lives or salvaging a war that is about to be lost, the Druids also hold human sacrifices on some festivals. The people who performed the sacrifices were generally prisoners of war or criminals, and if not, they were chosen among the people, and sometimes even fell to the nobles and children. In some documents in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, the Celts decided on the victims by choosing bread, and whoever picked the burnt bread from the black bread became a sacrifice to the gods. Several sacrifices are used at a time. They are generally put in human cages woven of wicker and then burned to death or killed with sharp objects. The film Wicker Man, starring Nicholas Cage, reflects this barbaric sacrifice.
【Wicker Man】】
One of the most sacred "triple deaths" rituals in the human sacrifice will only select highly respected Celtic nobles as sacrifices. The victims first ate a baked wheat cake sprinkled with acorns or mistletoe parasitism, then knocked them unconscious, strangled them with a rope tied with three knots, cut their throats, and finally soaked the animal face down in water four feet deep, indicating that they had drowned. However, human sacrifice is not a tradition unique to the Celts, and many peoples around the world have had this custom.
The Druid forbade the recording of religious knowledge in writing. Because the power of the druids comes from their knowledge, if this knowledge is recorded, it means that everyone can read this knowledge, and the power of the druid will be greatly weakened. This monopoly led to the later loss of Celtic culture. During the Roman conquest of the Celts, they killed a large number of druids, resulting in cultural faults. Today we see many Celtic myths and legends, all recorded by Christians, and thus heavily infiltrated by Christian culture.
【Druid Fantasy Diagram】
In the 6th and 4th centuries BC, when the Celts were at their best, they invaded the city of Rome and occupied it for about a year. In the end, because the barbarians were not accustomed to living in the big cities, coupled with a small plague, they retreated. Before leaving, the Celts also took a large amount of reparations from the Romans. This is the most humiliating page in the history of the Republic. Even Alexander the Great had to conclude a treaty of friendship with the Celtic tribes before his expedition to Asia. However, more than 100 years after the sacking of Rome, the Celts looted the Temple of Delphi, the Holy Land of the Greeks.
By 58 BC, the Romans were finally able to avenge the Celts, and they launched an attack on Gaul under Caesar's leadership. Gaul was divided into tribes and occupied vast tracts of land that encompassed today northern Italy, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany, and parts of the Netherlands and Switzerland. It took Caesar 8 years and 8 expeditions to suppress the Gaulish tribes in these areas. The French best-selling comic Adventures of the Gallic Warriors is based on this history. After Caesar, the Romans conquered the island of Britain.
[The Adventures of Ascretes: The Palace of the Gods is based on the comic strip Adventures of the Gallic Warriors]
The reason why the Celts lost to the Romans in later wars was largely due to the loose political structure of the Celts and the lack of a unified state. Moreover, they were frivolous, belligerent, and easily instigated by nature, and the Romans took advantage of their character flaws to often provoke wars between Celtic tribes and wait until they were defeated before taking over their lands. By the time the Celts woke up, it was too late.
The Romans ruled In Britain for about 4 centuries, and by the 5th century AD, due to the Germanic offensive, the Romans had no choice but to abandon Britain. But after the departure of the Romans, a new group of invaders were ushered in on the British Isles, the Anglo-Saxons, who belonged to the Germanic peoples. This history of the Celts rebelling against the Anglo-Saxon invasion later gave birth to legends of King Arthur and knights of the Round Table.
After two centuries of war, the Celts on the British Isles were conquered by the Anglo-Saxons and merged with them to form the English. The Celts who survived in other regions gradually formed different states. Today's Cornish, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, French Brittanians, and Isle of Man in England are all descendants of the Celts.
<h1>bibliography:</h1>
Prehistoric Heroes: Celtic Mythology
Celts: Iron Age Europeans
Celtic myths and legends
Celtic mythology