Ancient chroniclers, including Julius Caesar himself, made the Druids and their sacred rituals infamous throughout the Western world. This book shows the Druids' day-to-day lives, which were far less lurid and much more significant than is commonly thought. Exploring the various roles that Druids played in British and Gallic society during the first centuries bc and ad—not just as priests but as judges, healers, scientists, and power brokers—it argues that they were a highly complex, intellectual, and sophisticated group whose influence transcended religion and reached into the realms of secul ... More
Keywords: Druids, sacred rituals, British society, Gallic society, priests, judges, healers, scientists, power brokers
Print publication date: 2010 | Print ISBN-13: 9780300124422 |
Published to Yale Scholarship Online: October 2013 | DOI:10.12987/yale/9780300124422.001.0001 |