Vates

{{short description|Term for ancient Celtic bards, prophets and philosophers}} {{Celtic mythology}}

In modern English, the nouns '''vates''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|v|eɪ|t|iː|z}}) and '''ovate''' ({{IPAc-en|uk|ˈ|ɒ|v|ə|t|,_|ˈ|əʊ|v|eɪ|t}}, {{IPAc-en|us|ˈ|oʊ|v|eɪ|t}}) are used as technical terms for ancient Celtic bards, prophets and philosophers. The terms correspond to a Proto-Celtic word which can be reconstructed as {{lang|cel-x-proto|wātis}}.<ref name=":0">Bernhard Maier, ''Dictionary of Celtic Religion and Culture'', trans. by Cyril Edwards (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1997), p. 278 [s.v. ''vates''] [first published as ''Lexikon der keltischen Religion und Kultur'' (Stuttgart: Kröner, 1994).</ref> They are sometimes also used as English equivalents to later Celtic terms such as Irish {{lang|ga|fáith}} "prophet, seer".

==History of terminology==

The terminology discussed in this article relates to an Old Celtic word which can be reconstructed as {{lang|cel-x-proto|wātis}}. This word is not directly attested, but is inferred from renderings into Greek and Latin and from its descendants in later Celtic languages.

''Vates'' in English is a borrowing of a Latin noun ''vātēs'' ({{IPA|la|ˈwaːteːs|pron}}), "prophet, poet". This Latin noun was either a cognate of Celtic {{lang|cel-x-proto|wātis}} (in which case the two words were descended from a common Italo-Celtic origin),<ref>Arnaud Fournet, '[https://www.academia.edu/642013 About the Ethnolinguistics of Gaulish People: The Case for a Kartic Substrate] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240721181812/https://www.academia.edu/642013 |date=2024-07-21 }}', ''The Macro-Comparative Journal'', 2.1 (2011), 1-15 (p. 8).</ref><ref name=":2">Michiel de Vaan, ''Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the Other Italic Languages'', Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series, 7 (Leiden: Brill, 2008), p. 656 [s.v. ''vātēs, -is''].</ref> or else a loanword directly from Celtic.<ref name=":0" /> Despite being borrowed from the Latin form, the English word is generally used to refer to ancient Celtic seers rather than Roman ones.

''Ovate'' in English is a borrowing and adaptation of a Greek rendering of the same Celtic term {{lang|cel-x-proto|wātis}}, first attested in the work of the Ancient Greek writer Strabo. Strabo rendered the Celtic term in Greek in the plural as {{tlit|cel|ouáteis}} ({{lang|cel-Grek|οὐάτεις}}, Koine: {{IPA|el|uáːtiːs|}}).<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">"Ovate, n.1." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, December 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/134224. Accessed 7 December 2018.</ref> The English word ''ovate'' is pronounced the way it is ({{IPA|en|əʊ.veɪt}}) due to a misunderstanding of how the Greek word was pronounced.

Proto-Celtic {{lang|cel-x-proto|wātis}} developed in medieval Irish as {{lang|ga|fáith}} "prophet, seer". Less directly, it is related to {{lang|cy|gwawd}} "panegyric" in Welsh.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

Celtic {{lang|cel-x-proto|*wātis}} is widely thought to have cognates in the Germanic languages, such as the Gothic term {{tlit|got|mods}} "possessed"<ref name=":2" /> (though Ludwig Rübekeil 2003 has suggested that the name of the Common Germanic deity {{lang|gem-x-proto|Wōđinaz}} may in fact be an early loanword, an adjective {{lang|gem-x-proto|vatinos}} based on Celtic {{lang|cel|vates}}).

If the Celtic word {{lang|cel-x-proto|wātis}}, the Latin ''vates'', and similar Germanic words are cognates rather than borrowings, they could be derived from an Indo-European word reconstructed as {{lang|ine-x-proto|*(h)ueh₂t-i-}}, "seer".<ref name=":2" />

Virgil uses the Latin {{lang|la|vannus}} "winnowing basket" (conceivably from {{lang|ine-x-proto|*wat-nos}}, compare Old High German {{lang|goh|wadal}}, modern German {{lang|de|Wedel}}, with the same meaning, from {{lang|ine-x-proto|*wat-lo-}}) for something carried about in the Bacchic festival, suggesting that the root may have had an ecstatic sense in Italic also. The likelihood of this etymology and its relevance to the word ''vates'' is, however, doubtful.<ref name=":2" />

"Ovate" is used as a direct translation of the Welsh word {{lang|cy|ofydd}} (derived from the Roman poet Ovid),<ref>University of Wales Dictionary</ref> and it is also plausible that ''ovate'' is derived from {{lang|cy|ofydd}}.

== History of the institution ==

=== Ancient Rome === The earliest Latin writers used ''vates'' to denote prophets and soothsayers in general; the word fell into disuse in Latin until it was revived by Virgil.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://web.mala.bc.ca/atkinsona/112-11%20vates.htm |title=Vates |access-date=2005-04-29 |archive-date=2005-11-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051125041202/http://web.mala.bc.ca/atkinsona/112-11%20vates.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Thus Ovid could describe himself as the {{lang|la|vates}} of Eros (''Amores'' 3.9).

In pagan Rome the vates resided on the Vatican Hill, the Hill of the Vates. The Vatican Hill takes its name from the Latin word Vaticanus, ''a vaticiniis ferendis''{{clarify|date=December 2023}}, in allusion to the oracles, or ''vaticinia'', which were anciently delivered on the Vatican Hill.<ref>Sources: Compendious Description of the Museums of Ancient Sculpture, Greek and Roman, in the Vatican Palace, by Cav. H. J. Massi, First Curator of the Vatican Museums and Galleries, Paleographer and Professor of the Italian and French Languages, Rome, Third Edition, 1889, Title page, page 7.</ref> (When the papacy was returned to Rome from Avignon (France) in the 14th century, the Vatican became the residence of the Pope, and the word Vatican came to refer to the enclave in the middle of Rome that had become the seat of the Roman Catholic Church.<ref>{{cite book|title=Incredible Book of Vatican Facts and Papal Curiosities|last=Lo Bello|first=Nino|publisher=Liguori Publications|year=1998|isbn=0-7648-0171-6|page=135}}</ref>)

=== Celtic civilisation === According to the ancient Greek writers Strabo,<ref name="autogenerated1">[http://www.kernunnos.com/culture/druids/lit.html Ovates or Vates: The Shamans]</ref> Diodorus Siculus,<ref name="autogenerated1" /> and Poseidonius, the ''{{lang|cel-Latn|vates}}'' ({{lang|cel-Grek|οὐάτεις}}) were one of three classes of Celtic priesthood, the other two being the druids and the bards. The Vates had the role of seers and performed sacrifices (in particular administering human sacrifice) under the authority of a druid according to Roman and Christian interpretation.

==Modern usage==

Thomas Carlyle discussed the similarities and differences between the "''Vates'' Prophet" and the "''Vates'' Poet" in ''On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History'' (1841).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Carlyle |first=Thomas |title=On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History |year=1841 |chapter=Lecture III. The Hero as Poet. Dante: Shakspeare. |chapter-url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1091/1091-h/1091-h.htm#link2H_4_0004}}</ref>

''Vates'' or ''Ovates'' make up one of the three grades of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, a neo-druidism order based in England.

An ovate is also the initial level one can attain in the modern Welsh Gorsedd of Bards. The Gorsedd is not a neo-druidic entity like the one mentioned above, but is more concerned with Welsh arts and culture; however, the ceremony and practices are largely based on reimaginings of druidism by Iolo Morganwg.

== Citations == <references/>

== General and cited sources == * Ellis, Peter Berresford, ''The Druids'', William B. Eerdmans Publishing (1995) {{ISBN|0-8028-3798-0}} * Perkins, Caroline A., "[https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-80849880/ovid-s-erotic-vates Ovid's Erotic Vates] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160509113409/https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-80849880/ovid-s-erotic-vates |date=2016-05-09 }}" in ''Helios'', March 2000 * Rübekeil, Ludwig, ''[http://www.uni-bamberg.de/split/ls-bergmann/bnf.html Wodan und andere forschungsgeschichtliche Leichen: exhumiert] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050219234615/http://www.uni-bamberg.de/split/ls-bergmann/bnf.html |date=2005-02-19 }}'', Beiträge zur Namenforschung (2003), 25–42.

==External links== {{wiktionary}} * [http://www.kernunnos.com/culture/druids/lit.html Classical descriptions of the ''vates''] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070812155406/http://druidry.org/obod/druid-path/ovates.html Ovates]

Category:Ancient Roman religion Category:Prophets Category:Druidry Category:Italo-Celtic