by Searles O'Dubhain

What did the ancient world think of the Druids? Beyond Caesar's utilitarian accounts and Pliny's wonder at the mistletoe, there is a quieter testimony: the Greek philosopher Sotion of Alexandria, writing around 200 BCE, listed the Druids among the world's great philosophical traditions — alongside the Persian Magi, the Babylonian Chaldeans, and the Indian Gymnosophists. He called them semnotheoi, a Greek compound meaning "revered gods" or "holy ones." In this brief March 2004 post, Searles O'Dubhain brings this classical source to alt.religion.druid, pairing it with Clement of Alexandria's gloss and Sotion's own summary of Druidic teaching. The post is a practitioner's act of historical recovery: claiming the ancient testimony as a mirror for living Druidry.

These are the remarks of Sotion (circa 200 B.C.E.) regarding the role of Druids in Celtic religion:

"There are some who say that the study of philosophy had its beginning among the barbarians. They urge that the Persians had their Magi, the Babylonians or Assyrians had their Chaldeans, and the Indians their Gymnosophists; and among the Celts and Gauls there are people called Druids or Holy Ones."

(The "Holy Ones" being referenced here are known from this source:

Lives of Eminent Philosophers, I, 1; "Holy Ones," or semnotheoi, is literally "revered gods": cf. "The barbarians signally honoured their lawgivers and teachers, designating them gods" — Clement of Alexandria, op. cit., I, 15.)

Sotion also said this about the Druids:

"They uttered their philosophy in riddles, bidding men to reverence the gods, to abstain from wrongdoing, and to practise courage."

It is clear from these remarks that even in ancient times the Druids were known for their philosophies and their religious views regarding the gods.

Colophon

Written by Searles O'Dubhain and posted to alt.religion.druid on March 1, 2004. The primary sources cited are Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers I.1 (on Sotion's account), and Clement of Alexandria, Stromata I.15. Sotion of Alexandria was a Peripatetic philosopher and doxographer active around 200 BCE; his Succession of Philosophers is lost but quoted extensively by Diogenes Laërtius.

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Original Message-ID: [email protected]

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