The god who Robert Graves describes in the White Goddess who holds others by his tongue?
2007-11-25 13:35:24 · 6 answers · asked by jplatt39 7 in Society & Culture ➔ Mythology & Folklore
Robert Graves was a poet, novelist and Classics Scholar best remembered today for the novel I, Claudius on which the hit television series starring Peter O'Toole's ex-wife was based.
His book of essays, The White Goddess details his somewhat controversial theories about the Matriarchal origins of European paganism. It describes a stone tablet with an image identified as Hercules. That the Romans sometimes identified Gaulish and other gods with their gods and heroes can be independently verified. Who did they identify with Hercules?
2007-11-26 02:53:39 · update #1
I think your looking for "Ogmios".
2007-11-26 19:14:03 · answer #1 · answered by alaska girl 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No idea if the Romans associated anyone with Hercules, but please take Graves with a grain of salt. No academic accepts the White Goddess as academically sound, and even Graves has described it as "a crazy book and I didn't mean to write it." At best, it is a piece of _literature_, not historical mythology.
BTW, googling "hercules celtic" will point you in the direction of several supposed associations with hercules, although I can't swear to the veracity of any of them.
2007-11-27 02:04:52 · answer #2 · answered by Nightwind 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Why does there have to be a Celtic "Hercules?" Why can't a culture have its own gods without having them compared to Greek and Roman gods?
And for the record, Graves described a white "goddess." Hercules was a demi"god." Kinda hard to compare one female goddess to another male god.
Also, here's a bit about the book.......
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Goddess
2007-11-25 22:17:03 · answer #3 · answered by tanagila0530 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I don't really understand what you're trying to say about "the white goddess", but the closest thing to Hercules would probably be Cuchulainn. He was a culture hero of similar proportions.
2007-11-25 23:02:51 · answer #4 · answered by Packstrap 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
It's not Cuchulainn. It was prophesied that his great deeds would give him everlasting fame, but that his life would be short - one reason he is compared to the Greek hero Achilles.
He also wasn't a God, but half-God, that he also has in common Achilles, and Hercules, but that's the only thing that they had in common.
2007-11-26 01:11:53 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Och it was Mr.McBigMuscles.Och Aye!
2007-11-25 21:45:18 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋