medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Dear Angus, In this context, "rustic" should probably be understood to mean ignorant, unsophisticated, and non-Christian, not rustic in our sense. Therefore it takes in the Suevan aristocracy as well as the Iberoceltic peasant. As to Martin's use of Latin names, I can think of two possible reasons, besides what Otfried mentioned:literary convention and ignorance. On the one hand, the authors may have been reluctant to dignify scruffy local divinities by mentioning their names in edifying texts. On the other, they probaby didn't know them. Many of the writers were working in unfamiliar surroundings, more or less insulated from local customs. Take Martin's own case. He was a Pannonian by birth (so he may have been a Celt himself); he arrived in Galicia at about the age of 30; he became abbot and bishop of Dumio fairly rapidly after his arrival, then archbp. of Braga. He was deeply immersed in theological debates, converting the Arians, organizing councils, writing a mirror of princes, etc. How much time did he have to familiarize himself with native divinities and the private customs of the countryside? I am skeptical even about the bit of local colour he injects in his sermon concerning the "days of mice and moths" (indubitably a peasant custom). According to Salin, the mice motif appears to have been generalized, but back when I was looking, I couldn't find any trace of preoccupation in Iberia with insects. By contrast, still acc. to Salin, the insect motif was fairly common in Pannonian jewellery. Possibly Martin was extrapolating from what he had seen in his youth, on the assumption that the ignorant were the same the world over. On the other hand, the touch about the cairns erected to Mercury seems just about right, although they could have been intended to him in his capacity of pscychopomp rather than god of wealth (and wasn't the custom fairly widespread throughout the Roman world?). Have you looked at David Johnson, "Euhemerisation versus demonisation. The pagan gods and Aelfric's De falsiis diis." In T. Hofstra et al., Pagans and Christians: The Interplay between Christian Latin and Traditional Germanic Cultures in Early Medieval Europe (Groningen, 1995) 35-62. There's also a brief discussion at the beginning of Jean Seznec's La survivances des dieux antiques, reissued in 1993. I think there's an English translation. Yours, Bernadette Filotas ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html