Did Celts worship Greek gods?

[agorman]

I recently read the Celts worshipped a Moon goddess that was just like Diana/Artemis; her name was Arduinna, which gave name to the current Ardennes. Do you think the Celts worshipped the same gods as the Greeks but with different names?

My UPG with Venus is that they were the same gods worshipped throughout Europe with different names, so I'd like to verify it.

Maybe I should just call them "Goddess of Love", "Goddess of the Moon", "God of Jupiter", etc. so I don't become entangled with myths and cultures.

 

[The Emperor of Mankind]

My UPG with Venus is that they were the same gods worshipped throughout Europe with different names, so I'd like to verify it.

How would you go about verifying something like this? What's your standard of evidence?

 

[shunyadragon]

It is possible that the Greeks worshiped Celt Gods. The Celt civilization has a long and rich history, and a good relationship with the Greeks and at times they were military allies. The sophistication of the Celts is often greatly underestimated. They were the first to have a trade route to China and the first to have Chinese silk, before Rome and the Greeks.

For along time the Greeks greatly admired the Celt civilization, but after the Celts sacked a Greek city they were labeled Barbarians, and their relationship went down hill

 

[Nietzsche]

Well, they're Indo-Europeans, so odds are those Gods sprung from the same root. Exactly the same? Probably not. Very similar? Yes.

 

[The Kilted Heathen]

I recently read the Celts worshipped a Moon goddess that was just like Diana/Artemis; her name was Arduinna, which gave name to the current Ardennes. Do you think the Celts worshipped the same gods as the Greeks but with different names?

No. It's the common modern outlook that Thunder God A and Thunder God B are the exact same thing, just different names. This unfortunately ignores large portions of who those gods were, beliefs regarding them, and the cultures to which they belong. Even Diana and Artemis have significant differences.

 

[agorman]

How would you go about verifying something like this? What's your standard of evidence?

Others having the same UPG would be something. And what others know about mythology, could suggest me if I'm just imagining things or really receiving thought messages from the gods (channelings). Most ancient cultures believed celestial bodies had souls. Later people invented stories about those spirits and those became our known myths.

What I don't know if e.g. the Moon spirit is the same one that appeared in trance and dreams in a different aspect, gender and name to each ancient culture or if there are many Moon spirits, one for each culture. Since most cultures are supposed to derive from a single old one, maybe it's only one spirit. The Moon is only one (duh) so there should be only one spirit of the Moon, but I don't know if the thing is really that simple. When I call the Moon goddess, it's always Diana who gives me signs now (I end up finding the name Diana everywhere). I don't know why isn't it Mani, Chandra, Arianrhod or any other.

Heck, I should just hear a drum and try a shamanic trip to clarify this!

 

[The Kilted Heathen]

When I call the Moon goddess, it's always Diana who gives me signs now. I don't know why isn't it Mani...

Well, Mani is a God, not a Goddess. So there's one answer.

Heck, I should just hear a drum and try a shamanic trip to clarify this!

Trust me, a shamanic journey isn't so simple to perform...

 

[Shiranui117]

It is possible that the Greeks worshiped Celt Gods. The Celt civilization has a long and rich history, and a good relationship with the Greeks and at times they were military allies. The sophistication of the Celts is often greatly underestimated. They were the first to have a trade route to China and the first to have Chinese silk, before Rome and the Greeks.

For along time the Greeks greatly admired the Celt civilization, but after the Celts sacked a Greek city they were labeled Barbarians, and their relationship went down hill

Could you give some examples? All I can think of for Celtic-Greek relations are the Galatians... I'd love to know more about this.

 

[agorman]

Well, Mani is a God, not a Goddess. So there's one answer..

Well Mani could have answered exactly that to me somehow: "I'm a god, not a goddess".

Trust me, a shamanic journey isn't so simple to perform...

For me just some sleep and a drum has been enough to enter in a trance a few times. It's not that difficult, although I can't always fall in a trance. Lack of time and relaxation are the main problems.

 

[Ingledsva]

I recently read the Celts worshipped a Moon goddess that was just like Diana/Artemis; her name was Arduinna, which gave name to the current Ardennes. Do you think the Celts worshipped the same gods as the Greeks but with different names?

My UPG with Venus is that they were the same gods worshipped throughout Europe with different names, so I'd like to verify it.

Maybe I should just call them "Goddess of Love", "Goddess of the Moon", "God of Jupiter", etc. so I don't become entangled with myths and cultures.

Read The Golden Bough by Frazer, and The White Goddess by Graves.

They both discuss where the religious myths came from, and where and when they overlapped, - especially White Goddess.

*

 

[The Kilted Heathen]

Well Mani could have answered exactly that to me somehow: "I'm a god, not a goddess".

In large part, Sunna and Mani don't really interact with mankind. While they are the embodiment of the sun and moon, and thus have an affect on us, their either not always present or on a much higher "necessity" level to come down and do stuff for us. It would be like the captain of a highly important plane strolling around the passenger deck.

For me just some sleep and a drum has been enough to enter in a trance a few times.

A trance, perhaps, but a shamanic journey is much more than a trance.

 

[shunyadragon]

Could you give some examples? All I can think of for Celtic-Greek relations are the Galatians... I'd love to know more about this.

From: Celts and Greeks. The acquaintance of two cultures.

The ancient Greeks knew about the existence of Celts since the 6th century BC. It was the time of the second Greek colonization during which the ancient Greeks founded colonies in the Western Mediterranean.

Massilia(Nowadays Marseilles in France) was the first Greek colony which developed contacts and diplomatic relationships with the Celts in Gaul. These relations were from time to time either peaceful or hostile. The ancient Greeks considered the Celts among the nations with the largest population in the world. They also created myths about the origins of the Celts. According to one tradition, the Cyclops Polyphemus and the Nereid Galateia were the parents of Galatis(meaning Gaul the ancestor of Gauls) while in an alternative version Hercules who wandered in Western Europe was the father of Galatis.

The ancient Greeks were using two names for the Celts: Keltai and Galatae. The names derive from the Celtic language meaning probably strong, valiant or prominent.

The place where the Celts originated from, was Southern Germany. From there , they expanded and until the 5th century BC they had settled allover the western Europe. During the 5th century they invaded the Po valley in Northern Italy and drove back the Etruscans. In the beginning of the 4rth century they invaded further into the Italian peninsula and sacked Rome(390 BC). The Romans never forgot this and when they rose to power and conquered the Gaulish lands they treated the Celts with ferocity. The Celts also expanded towards the East reaching even the Northern shores of the Black sea."

 

[shunyadragon]

Early Celtic trade with China.

From: The Independent 30366.html

A meeting of civilisations: The mystery of China's celtic mummies

Solid as a warrior of the Caledonii tribe, the man's hair is reddish brown flecked with grey, framing high cheekbones, a long nose, full lips and a ginger beard. When he lived three thousand years ago, he stood six feet tall, and was buried wearing a red twill tunic and tartan leggings. He looks like a Bronze Age European. In fact, he's every inch a Celt. Even his DNA says so.

But this is no early Celt from central Scotland. This is the mummified corpse of Cherchen Man, unearthed from the scorched sands of the Taklamakan Desert in the far-flung region of Xinjiang in western China, and now housed in a new museum in the provincial capital of Urumqi. In the language spoken by the local Uighur people in Xinjiang, "Taklamakan" means: "You come in and never come out."

The extraordinary thing is that Cherchen Man was found - with the mummies of three women and a baby - in a burial site thousands of miles to the east of where the Celts established their biggest settlements in France and the British Isles.

DNA testing confirms that he and hundreds of other mummies found in Xinjiang's Tarim Basin are of European origin. We don't know how he got there, what brought him there, or how long he and his kind lived there for. But, as the desert's name suggests, it is certain that he never came out.

His discovery provides an unexpected connection between east and west and some valuable clues to early European history.

The rest of this reference is worth the read.

 

[shunyadragon]

By the way there are also pieces of Celtic plaid found with these mummies of Tarim Basin.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

No. They had their own pantheons but not much is known about them.