Posted by MickCollins. at wkstn4-85.lxr.georgetown.edu on April 27, 2000 at 12:31:01:
In Reply to: Naked women warriors... posted by Isis on April 27, 2000 at 11:29:27:
: : Yep...there were called the picts...they also use to send there women into battle naked....coozy up to the enemy and then slit their fucking throats...the scots...are descendents of the Picts....::
Picts were different. They were called Picts because they tattooed each other like Maori's still do. They ended up moving into the Highlands when the Scots came in. The Scots were Celts who moved from Briton(Back when it was Celt-land and not Anglo-Saxonville like today) to Ireland and then back up to Scotland. Micks had allready started sailing on over to Scotland before then as well,the Britons just joined the flow. The Picts ended up being absorbed into the Scots. When the Germanic invaders started coming in, the Celts(Who had been basically pacified by the Romans and had forgotten how they used to kick ass) moved west into what is now Wales and over the sea into Ireland(Which allready had a decent population of Micks). The Celtic Barbarians I mentioned were the lowland Britons who whipped Julius Cesear's ass. He admitted in his memoirs it was the worst beating he had ever taken. Well,next to the one Brutus and his guys ended up giving him. Julius came back with a huge army and over-ran them but Cesear gives them mad propers for being outnumbered and fighting like mad dogs. The Historical King Arthur,Arturius, was a Welsh Celt who led the resistance against the Germanic invaders and drove them back practically to the Cliffs of Dover. Thing is, like all great Celt Leaders, when he died, they infought and the krauts made a comeback. Now we have to deal with the Krauts victory everytime Prince Charles gets caught snogging with that awful horsefaced slimebitch.
: Nah, the Celts didn't come up with that one, and the Celts & Picts are not the same ethnic group (or weren't until they started intermarrying in more recent history).:::
No one really knows what the hell the Picts were. We know the Romans were scared to hell of them. We know they did some wacky shit. Other than that,not alot is known. And The Celts were doing the naked thing back before Jesus was out of diapers.
::That's from the legend of Queen Mab, who ostensibly led a matrilineal tribe of Picts to several victories with her unusual tactics.::
Queen Maeb. And she was Irish, the Goddess of Death. Was followed around by two Ravens that led souls to the afterlife(Thats where O'Barr got it). She was funky as hell. She killed Cunculhain, so she is on my shit list. You can find alot of similarities between Welsh,Scottish and Irish Pagan deities because they were all buddies and hopped around between each other alot. Until the English came along and brainwashed the Scots into hating the Irish.(And the whole "Put the Scots in Northern Ireland" Cromwell things did not help.). Then they brainwashed the Welsh into believing they were all colletively "British" even though most English people have as much Briton in them Genghis Khan did. Back To Maeb, I think you are attributing things of Boedacia(Spelling,I forgot it)to Maeb. She was a Briton who led a revolt against the Roman Slave-Drivers and one a bunch of battles as a general but ended up getting caught and beheaded. The English consider her a national hero,even though she'd probably dislike them as much as she disliked the Romans. Maeb was like a Greek Goddess, she interceded,she was not actively fighting.
:: She was very Cleopatra-esque.::
Historically,Cleopatra was not Cleopatra-esque. She was a tool of Marc Antony. She was a crummy ruler who had more slaves than a teenager has cases of blueballs. And they got spanked by Octavian.Hard. And she was probably murdered,most likely by Marc's guard.
:: Not only did she wield armies of nekkid women, but she used to destroy opposing leaders by fucking them to death.::
Here's where the problem lies. Celts were,religiously, household cultists. They had some big festivals led by the King or Queen, but it was mostly home prayer and sacrafice. So the idea of a goddess leading an army makes no sense to them because they all worshipped different "main" gods. Some were fans of Maeb,others were fans of Lugh(or his equivalent). Your version sounds like the Amazon myth reworked with Celts,which probably happened because they had a prolonged encounter with the Romans and aquired some of the roman myths and gods into their personal Pantheons. Some households made sacrafices to Mars and Hercules,etc. The Celts had no organizes religious system outside of the seasonal festivals,so the idea of them all following one goddess if faulty and rings of Romans. The story just does not meld with the reality. The Deus Ex Machina of Irish myths meshs with their belief and worship system.
Outrageous. She was a redhead too. Definitely a personal role model.::
Maeb was a bitch. She offered herself to Cunculhain, he had a wife and refused, she sent a warrior with a cursed weapon into battle against him and the weapon cut his chest and he bled to death while tied to a post.(Some Tain tales say he was led to a pond and beheaded before he bled to death,others say other things, I think the post thing sounds more vile.) She lost in the end though, because the Hound returned as an avenging angel and still laid the smack down from his firey chariot. The Celts though, were one of the earliest socities that believed in sexual equality. Women were allowed to rule,fight,hunt and do just about anything men could. I read a letter from a Roman Centurion who was stationed near Hadrian's wall and he said he was afraid of Celt Women because they would walk by topless sometimes and it made him uncomfortable. I think she was just throwing him a bone,no pun intended. Other than the Celts, all I can remember of history where women were consideredv the equal of men was Sparta. Women were allowed to go to school,compete in athletic events,vote,run the household,learn to fight and hunt etc.. When asked why Spartan woman were allowed to sit with their men at the Olympics by an Athenian bystander, a Spartan woman replied "We are allowed to sit with our men because we are the only Greek women that give birth to Men.". Other than the Xenophobia and slave thing, Sparta kicked ass. Spartan women used to tell their husbands,before they went to battle "Come back holding your shield or being carried upon it.". Queens of Hardcore.
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