Vates

Vates (m / f, Latin for " seer ", " prophet " ) is one of the three classes Inspired in Celtic society. Under " Inspired " are the cult functionaries, so to understand priests in the broader sense.

Name

The three classes are Latinized druides ( Druid ) Vates ( seer ) and bardi ( poets, bards ) called. In pre-Christian Ireland, the corresponding names are Druid, fáithi and baird or filid, in Wales ( kymrische language ) Dryw or Derwydd, dewin and bard or awenydd. For the etymology of VATES and dewin writes J. M. Jones:

Another name for the VATES was Carag [i ] i, resulting from the Greek spelling ούάτεις incurred misspellings euhages or ovates result. The latter word is in " neudruidischen " circles ( Ovate ) is still very common.

Training

The training of all Inspired was a purely oral tradition traditional knowledge.

People with the so-called " second face" there have been in ancient times, and they still play today in the insular Celts a big role. However, the formation of the visionaries involved a certain -to-learn technique that was practiced by the druides and VATES. In this oral knowledge transfer was the Triad form as an element of text structuring for easy learnability usual ( " truth in our hearts, Strength in our arms, Fulfillment in our tongues "). However, it was just a goidelischsprachiger Druid who invented somewhere between the 2nd and 4th century Ogamschrift as a mnemonic system.

The training of both the Druids and the seer included - albeit in a high intensity - mythology, tribal ethnology, history of Druidism, traditions, prayers, ritual ceremonies, semantic methods, medicine, ethics and law knowledge.

Function

An accurate delineation of the areas of responsibility of druids and seers is hardly possible so far because, firstly, the Druids also mantic practices ( divination ) conducted, on the other hand, this was the actual activity of the Vates. What is the work of one of the others, if any, difference remains quite open. Your prophetic function strengthened the political significance of the seers at both the continental Celts, as well as in the British Isles. They prophesied in the throes of sacrificed people by entrails with sacrificial animals and by the augury, the prophecy from the flight of birds and screaming. The Roman Cicero was surprised by a conversation with the Gauls Diviciacus that these contrary interpretations of the flight of birds than the Romans.

Another common task was the offering of sacrifices (especially human sacrifice ), which required as executor of an Inspired. Other researchers assume a stricter separation of functions so that the vates was especially the sacrificial priest, seer, and prophet.

In Christian times, when the Druids were "replaced" by monks and priests and went up in this state, then took over the seers and poets many problems on its own, especially the divination.