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Scientists of modern times were also very interested in and still occupies the idea of the nature and essence of the teachings of the Druids. They conduct research in different directions. First of all, the validity of comparing the Druidic belief in immortality with Pythagoreanism was verified. [18 - Kendrick TD The Druids. London, 1927. P. 106-108.] Consideration of the totality of available sources shows that such a comparison is not justified.
Unlike the Pythagoreans, the concept of Celtic immortality did not include the idea of reincarnation. They did not believe in the transmigration of the soul into the bodies of animals, but rather believed in the survival of the soul of the deceased in the "other" world in a form that can be recognized.
This concept of the “Other World” of the Druids is most clearly expressed and summarized in Lucan: “And not the quiet valleys of Erebus, and not the depths of the dull kingdom of Pluto, are looking for the shadows of the dead. The same breath animates their limbs in the other world. Death is the middle of a long life. " [19 - Luc. Phars., I, 450-458.] The Celts envisioned the "otherworldly" life as a happier continuation of the earthly, taking place somewhere on the distant ends of the earth or on distant islands across the sea.
The Druidic doctrine lacked the idea of justice. They did not seem to distinguish between good and evil, and they do not seem to have any idea of the redemptive circle of the soul's rebirth, when the soul would be imprisoned in a chain of earthly bodies, which is an essential feature of the Pythagorean teaching. However, although there was no real commonality between the doctrines under consideration, it is permissible to think that there could be some deep layer of the original concept, common to both Druidism and Pythagoreanism.
Another direction of modern studies of Druidism is that the ancient tradition of the Druids and Celts is analyzed in two main versions (both the Posidonian and the Alexandrian groups of ancient sources) in order to find out how much real historical material each of them contains. [20 - Tierney JJ The Celtic ethnography of Posidonius // Proc. Roy. Hish. Acad. 1960 Vol. 60. Section 4-5. P. 189-275.] The main feature of the Posidonian tradition is established, which consisted in the fact that it contains largely empirical material representing information obtained first-hand: either from the Celts, or as a result of the authors' own observations. At least two major representatives of this group - the founder of the tradition, Posidonius and Caesar - had long-term contacts with the Celts.
It is known about the ancient Greek philosopher-Stoic Posidonia (c. 135 51/50 BC) that he traveled to Gaul, personally observed the customs and customs of the Gauls, and used Massaliot sources. Caesar stayed in this country for a total of about ten years. The texts of the Alexandrian tradition represent antiquarian philological works using information obtained from second hand. According to researchers, the peculiarity of the Alexandrian tradition is that it too idealizes the Druids.
Such a research position deprives the Druids of their role in the formation of the first philosophical systems along with the magicians, Chaldeans, and the prophets of the Egyptians, which the Alexandrians attributed to them. However, it introduces the Druids and their teachings into the circle of problems that played an important role in philosophical and political theorizing, which became very widespread during the crisis of the Greek polis. Then the concept of cultural and economic evolution of the human race was created, with which the idea of idealizing the barbarians was closely connected. The creators of this utopia, mainly the Stoic philosophers, tried to oppose the decay and decay of that time with the image of another society with a happy, serene, wonderful life.
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This opposition was based on the idea of a happy "Golden Age", which developed in two directions: on the one hand, the "Golden Age" was sought in the past - it was associated with the blissful primordial times, with the kingdom of general prosperity that existed under Kronos, and on the other hand believed that at the present time it can be found among those barbarian peoples who have not yet reached the level of civilization characteristic of the Greeks. This second direction led to the emergence of a concept idealizing barbarians - "noble savages", which included mythical peoples, for example, the Hyperboreans, and really existing ones - the Scythians and Celts.
The tendency idealizing the barbarians, which is so frankly manifested in the Alexandrian tradition, on the contrary, is completely absent in the Posidonian tradition.
Diodorus, Strabo and Caesar talk about the cruelty and inhumanity of the Celts, illustrating this position with stories of human sacrifice, and also point to such shortcomings of the Celtic character as frivolity, vanity, greed. However, one should not forget that since Posidonius was one of the greatest Stoic philosophers and Diodorus and Strabo belonged to the same philosophical direction, it is natural that the ideas of the Stoics were supposed to color their works.
The idealization of the barbarians manifests itself, albeit in a somewhat peculiar way, in the Posidonian tradition. The images of the Germans, who, according to Strabo (VII, 1, 2) were simply the wildest of the Celts, are clearly idealized: the pristine purity and chastity of the morals of the Germans Caesar and Tacitus, who in his "Germany" also used Greek sources, give an idea of that the Germans are still largely in the blissful state of the "Golden Age".
According to the views of the Stoics, the Germans represent the "golden" past of the Celts. And the Celts of Diodorus and Strabo, the Gauls of Caesar live in a more civilized society, divided into classes, with a powerful priesthood. According to the Stoic theory of the origin and cultural development of the human race in such a civilized society, the features of religious and political degeneration should have appeared in comparison with the previous beautiful, primitive state. Thus, that intensely colored picture of the cruelty and inhumanity of the Celts, as well as the shortcomings inherent in their temperament, which is given by Diodorus, Strabo and Caesar, is to some extent an illustration of this position of the Stoic theory. This does not mean that all the facts are invented, just the accents are placed in accordance with the philosophical views of the authors.
Although, on the one hand, the ideas of the Stoics strengthened the hostile mood to the Celts that pervades the Celtic ethnography of the Posidonian tradition, however, on the other hand, these same ideas determined the features of idealization that exist in one of the sections of this ethnography.
According to the theory of the Stoics, the "Golden Age" has not yet completely left the Celts, although they have already to some extent joined civilization. The greatest sages, the fairest judges - the druids were marked by the glimpse of the "Golden Age". It is interesting that in the description of the Druids both the reserved, at times even hostile to the Celts, Posidonian tradition and the panegyric Alexandrian tradition converge.
The directions of modern research of the ancient Celts considered above, trying to present the teachings of the Druids as a simple belief characteristic of primitive societies, are predominantly critical. However, there are other approaches among modern researchers.
Celtic Druids. Book by Françoise Leroux
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