Friday 29 April 2016

Places Of Worship In Ys

At the Forum: the Temples of Taranis and Mars.

At Elven Gardens: the Temple of Belisama.

In Old Town, near the harbor: Menhir Place and the Shrines of Lir, Melqart and Ishtar.

Taranis, Belisama and Lir are the Three of Ys.

Melqart and Ishtar were the earlier names of Taranis and Belisama, respectively.

The former Temple of Mars is now a church.

The Menhir is a megalith that was raised to an unknown God before the city was built.

Thus, seven places but only six deities and only four of them currently active: the Three and Christ.

Adminius, a Christian:

"'...know[s] when somewhere is 'aunted...'" (Roma Mater, p. 180)

The Three are real and have not yet withdrawn but:

"'...we live in such an age of breakup -'" (p. 200)

"'...in this age when the very Gods are troubled and faltering...'" (p. 201)

"...the Gods of Ys...would not demean Themselves to plead for worshippers against a new God Who was to come..." (p. 215)

The Empire declines, trade shrinks, raiders harry, barbarians invade, evangelists proselytize and:

"Among the Gallicenae arose a feeling that they had come to the end of still another age. What would the new one bring? None could foreknow. Like a creature of the sea, Ys drew into its shell and waited." (p. 216)

There is an old saying that England's disadvantage is Ireland's advantage. When Niall's spy tells him that the Romans are again at civil war, he plans to re-attack their territory. The Dublin Easter Rising took place in 1916.

5 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I'm not sure it's correct to say only the Three of Ys and Christ were actively worshiped in Ys during Gratillonius' reign. The King himself led small congregation of Mithraists in that city. That means three, not two religions were active in Ys.

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
You are right but I was counting places of worship on the map. Gratillonius had not opened his Mithraeum yet.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I sit corrected! Gratillonius had to persuade the Ysan suffetes to accept him building a Mithraeum.

Btw, do we ever see Jews mentioned as being in Ys?

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
No mention as far as I can remember.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

No surprise. The Andersons did not invent a Jewish character to show us how a Jew reacted to Ys and its "gods." Pity.

Sean