medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
At 04:49 06.04.01, you wrote:
>But
>further, if this is for the consumption of the 'rustic' (even via the
>intermediary of a lateinfaehig priest), then why use the names of Roman
>gods and not
>the local names, which would presumably have been Germanic?
Dear Angus,
If wanted to put down everything I know about 6th century Galicia, I could
probably write it on the back of a postmark. Nevertheless I would like to
venture two or even three suggestions:
1) I would be surprised if we were dealing with a purely and exclusively
Germanic (Suebic) rather than with a mixed Germanic and Celtic
(Galloromanic) population.
2) Both groups, and especially the Celts, had been in contact with and had
been culturally informed by Roman and Latin culture for a considerable time.
3) Assuming that the Celtic element was probably stronger among the rustici
than in the ruling class, I would expect these rustici to be definitely
more familiar with Jupiter and Venus, with dies iovis and dies veneris,
than with their Germanic equivalents.
The Greek pantheon was obviously of little concern, given that Martinus
sticks to Roman names and does not even include their Greek equivalents
when discussing them as being derived from "homines pessimi et scelerati in
gente Graecorum".
Many thanks, by the way, for making all these texts available online!
Otfried
**********************************************************************
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
|