Sacred grove
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the mythological landscape. For the site of Joseph Smith's First Vision, see Sacred Grove.
Sacred groves were a feature of the mythological landscape and the cult practice of Old Europe, of the most ancient levels of Scandinavian mythology, Greek mythology, Slavic mythology, Roman mythology, and in Druidic practice.
Contents |
[edit] Northern Europe
The most famous sacred grove of Northern Europe was at the Temple at Uppsala in Old Uppsala, which was described by Adam of Bremen.
[edit] Central Europe
The Celts used sacred groves, called nemeton (of Celtic mythology).
[edit] Mediterranean Europe
The most famous sacred grove in mainland Greece was the oak grove at Dodona. Outside the walls of Athens, the site of the Academy was a sacred grove of olive trees, still recalled in the phrase "the groves of Academe."
In central Italy, the town of Nemi recalls the Latin nemus Aricinum, or "grove of Ariccia", a small town a quarter of the way around the lake. In Antiquity the area had no town, but the grove was the site of one of the most famous of Roman cults and temples: that of Diana Nemorensis, a study of which served as the seed for Sir James Frazer's seminal work on the anthropology of religion, The Golden Bough.
A sacred grove behind the House of the Vestal Virgins on the edge of the Roman Forum lingered until its last vestiges were burnt in the Great Fire of Rome in 64 CE.
In the town of Spoleto, Umbria, two stones from the late third century BCE, inscribed in archaic Latin, established punishments for the profanation of the woods dedicated to Jupiter (Lex Luci Spoletina) have survived; they are preserved in the National Archeological Museum of Spoleto (ref.).
[edit] India
In India sacred groves are locally called Devarakadus (literally, forest of the Gods). They were maintained by local communities with hunting and logging strictly prohibited within these patches.
[edit] See also
- The Sacro Bosco at Bomarzo, Italy
[edit] External links
- M. D. Subash Chandran Madhav Gadgil, "Sacred Groves and Sacred Trees of Uttara Kannada"
- Sacred Groves in garden history
- (Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici dell'Umbria) National Archeological Museum of Spoleto
