European Paganism

European Paganismuncovers the facts about pagan rituals and worship, presenting the observations of ancient and medieval pagans themselves and the fulminations of Christian fathers and bishops. Many of the sources cited are available in this book in translation for the first time.

Ken Dowden is Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Birmingham.

List of illustrations

x

Acknowledgements

xii

Foreword

xiii

How to use this book

xvii

Authors and events: a time-chart

xx

Approaching paganism

1

(24)

Pagans, so primitive

1

(3)

Christian ending

4

(1)

Roman government

4

(4)

Germanic invaders

8

(3)

Beyond the Roman pale

11

(2)

Beyond the Byzantine pale

13

(2)

Evidence

15

(1)

Latin and other languages

15

(3)

Greek and Roman windows on barbarian culture

18

(7)

Dividing the landscape

25

(14)

Location

25

(1)

Focus and area

25

(4)

Physical features (absolute position)

29

(2)

Relative position

31

(1)

Ownership: public and private

31

(3)

Power

34

(1)

The god in the stone?

34

(1)

Strength in numbers: tree, stone, spring

35

(4)

Focus I: spring, lake, river

39

(19)

Spring and well

39

(1)

What a spring is

39

(2)

Prevalence

41

(3)

Purity and health

44

(1)

What happens at springs and wells

45

(4)

Saints, the conversion of the aniconic, and heads

49

(1)

Other water

50

(1)

Lake

50

(1)

River

51

(4)

Water worship

55

(3)

Focus II: stone and tree

58

(20)

Stone

58

(1)

What a stone is

58

(1)

Feelings about stones

59

(1)

Personalising stones

60

(1)

Stones and permanence

61

(1)

Stone as the object of cult

62

(2)

What happens at stones

64

(2)

Tree

66

(1)

What trees are like

66

(1)

Personalising trees

67

(3)

Notable trees

70

(3)

What happens at trees

73

(3)

Pagan tree and Christian objectors

76

(2)

Area I: land

78

(11)

Hill and mountain

78

(1)

What mountains are like

78

(1)

Worship on mountains: lightning and fire

79

(3)

Shore and island

82

(1)

Sea: shore and promontory

82

(2)

Islands

84

(3)

Cave

87

(2)

Area II: growth

89

(28)

Meadow

89

(2)

Grove

91

(1)

What a grove is like

91

(13)

Grove and temple-culture

91

(3)

The feel of natural groves

94

(2)

Grove and garden

96

(5)

Groves and barbarians

101

(3)

Groves and placenames

104

(2)

The power of groves

106

(8)

Ancient groves

106

(2)

Inviolability

108

(1)

On the Dusii demons

109

(2)

Divine ownership

111

(3)

Inside the grove

114

(3)

Technology: statues, shrines and temples

117

(32)

Statues

117

(1)

The place of statues

117

(3)

Impressive statues and Christian destruction

120

(7)

Temple, fanum, ecclesia

127

(1)

What a temple is

127

(1)

The shape of temples

127

(5)

Contents and decoration

132

(2)

Shrines, vocabulary and placenames

134

(2)

Temples in less developed cultures

136

(7)

Continuity

143

(1)

Instances

143

(1)

What are Christians to do with temples or fana?

144

(5)

Destroy the fana!

144

(1)

Build churches!

145

(4)

Christian paganism

149

(18)

Christian knowledge

149

(1)

Textuality: coming down from Sinai

149

(3)

Specificity

152

(4)

What pagans do

156

(3)

Eating and drinking

159

(2)

Dance

161

(2)

Particular customs

163

(2)

New Year's Day

163

(1)

Thursday

164

(1)

The moon

164

(1)

Laurel

165

(1)

Catechism: renouncing what?

165

(2)

Pagan rite

167

(25)

Sacrifice

168

(1)

Why sacrifice?

169

(3)

What to sacrifice

172

(1)

The action of sacrifice

173

(2)

Beyond Sacrifice

175

(1)

Non-sacrificial offerings

175

(2)

How to offer things that aren't alive

177

(1)

Dance and song

178

(1)

Human sacrifice

179

(1)

Human sacrifice is `only' execution?

180

(1)

Battle and hanging

181

(4)

Divination and other reasons

185

(3)

Manipulation of place

188

(1)

Procession

188

(2)

Pilgrimage

190

(2)

Pagan time

192

(21)

Time-reckoning

192

(1)

Lunar months

192

(2)

Intercalation and periods of several years

194

(2)

Weeks

196

(1)

Calendar and festival

197

(1)

A Gaulish calendar

197

(5)

Duration of festivals

202

(1)

An English calendar

203

(3)

Equinoxes and other times

206

(5)

The Calendar of Erchia

211

(2)

A few aspects of gods

213

(11)

Christian contrasts

213

(1)

Pagan plurality

213

(2)

Do the pagan gods exist?

215

(2)

Divine functions

217

(1)

Sets of gods

217

(3)

Lightning

220

(4)

Priests

224

(33)

The need for priests

225

(1)

What a priest is

225

(2)

Priestly specialism, development of the state

227

(2)

Religion in the home, without professionals

229

(1)

Priests and government

230

(1)

King-priests

231

(1)

Kings and priests

232

(2)

Oligarchy in Gaul-`no sacrifice without a philosopher'

234

(4)

Oligarchy at Rome

238

(2)

Temple priests, grove priests

240

(1)

Greece

240

(1)

Germans

241

(3)

Gauls

244

(1)

Divination

245

(3)

Priests and ritual: a common Indo-European inheritance?

248

(3)

The role of women

251

(4)

Conclusions

255

(2)

Cradle to grave

257

(17)

Cradle

258

(1)

Transitions

259

(1)

Illness and crisis

260

(2)

Grave

262

(1)

Normal people

262

(7)

Grand burial

269

(3)

Mounds to marvel at

272

(2)

Unity is the Thing

274

(17)

Gaul: centrality of the shrine

274

(2)

The Germanic Thing

276

(1)

Groves and assemblies

277

(3)

Periodicity and leagues

280

(6)

Human sacrifice and beginnings

286

(3)

The beginning of the world

289

(2)

Afterword

291

(2)

Notes

293

(39)

Bibliography

332

(16)

Abbreviations

332

(2)

Primary literature: general information and where to find a text and translation

334

(4)

Secondary literature

338

(10)

Indexes

348

Index locorum-passages cited or reported

348

Index nominum I-gods, mythic entities and festivals

351

Index nominum II-(real) persons, peoples and places

354

Index rerum-topics and themes

360

Index auctorum-modern authors

366

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Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials