As we learn about ancient lands and peoples, we will often hear them described as “primitive.” Remember that the only way we know that is because their machines were much simpler than the machines we use today.
In all other parts of their civilization, like art, government, social customs, and religion, we will often find that what they had was not all that much different from what we have today.
Somehow, that first history lesson touched me. I could almost feel like those ancient Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, and Celts were still alive, and that they were calling out to me.
Religion, myth, and magic were mixed right in with the lives of the people. We can’t separate the history of the people from their gods, goddesses, and heroes . . .
From then on, whenever I wasn’t concentrating on something else, I found myself pondering the ancients. In my mind, I could just change clothes and stroll into the agora in Athens, buy a roll and piece of fruit to munch on, and sit on a stone wall to watch some actors practice a play. A line of soldiers would run by in the street below, off to some battle in Peloponnese.
“Nióti!” a merchant called to me. “Make some use of yourself! Take this sack of loaves and dried fish to the Lykion, and I’ll give you a copper.”
“Ne, kírie!” I said with a grin, pocketed the copper (which would buy me dinner), shouldered the sack, and trotted down the narrow street.
“And don’t eat any of it or I’ll have you whipped!” he yelled after me.
I smiled to myself, turned a corner and sat down to figure out the merchant’s knot that tied the sack closed. As soon as I had it memorized, I pocketed a loaf and a couple of fish, retied it with the same knot, and headed off.
Past the temple of Apollos Lykios I skipped, where several people were gathered. My favorite gods were Artemis and Athena, the Huntress and Wisdom, so I didn’t even stop. Soon I came to the Lykion where Aristotle taught.
I went through the stone portico and looked around. A boy just a little older than me took the sack and smiled at me.
Then I recognized him. It was Michael, the boy at the rings three weeks ago. I shook myself back to the present, put away the book I had been daydreaming on, and started poking around in the library shelves again.
Athens was nice, but a little too hot for me.
I finally checked out The Ancient Celts and headed home.
For centuries it was believed the Celts built the mysterious structures at Stonehenge. It was finally determined that, even though the Druids may have used it, Stonehenge was built long before the Celts entered Britain in about 500 B.C.
I gazed at the pictures of the stone columns. In my mind I could see hooded figures filing in with a pre-dawn glow in the foggy sky. They carried torches and chanted in an ancient tongue. As the sun rose, all of them bowed down, except the Arch-Druid, who raised his arms and cried aloud in an eerie wail that made my heart pound. I focused on the page again.
The Druids, consisting of priests, prophets, and bards, were also the judges of the Celtic people. They gathered most often in oak groves, and held several trees in great reverence, as well as the mistletoe. Knowledge of plants and herbs, and their uses in magic and medicine, seems to have been
great.
I could see a full moon gleaming in the sky above a forest of large trees.
Below the trees, figures in deep blue robes danced and sang in a circle, and in the middle, a single figure knelt at an altar preparing something. The chanting and dancing continued, and owls hooted in the trees. Finally, the figure at the altar stood and let its cloak fall to the ground. It looked like a girl, about my age, and she was completely naked, even barefoot. She held a garland, a circlet made of herbs and flowers. She raised it up and called out,
“Ariel!”
I slammed the book and looked around my bedroom. It was late, so I curled up in bed and tried not to think about Druids anymore.