PREHISTORIC DACIA

PART 2 – Ch.XII

The principal prehistoric divinities of Dacia

PART 2

XII. 1. Kerus, Cerus manus, Duonus Cerus, Ceriul, Caraiman, Ceriul domnul.

The megalithic monuments of Dacia, which present in such primitive forms the images of ante-Homeric divinities, are part of the positive history of this country.

The character of these images is sacral, from the origins of this ante-Hellenic cult, to its disappearance.

The most archaic religion, whose moral traces are found among all European peoples, is the primitive worship of the Sky (Plato, Cratylus, I. 293; Pliny, H.N.II.1) and the Earth (Plato, Tiameus, p.211, Cicero, De nat. deor. III. 20), seen as generative elements.

The Sky (TN - Ceriul), personified by the Greeks, in a quite late prehistoric epoch, under the name of Uranos, and the Earth (TN - Pamantul) or Gaea (Ga, Gaia), form the most archaic beginnings of the European religion.

The Sky and the Earth had been seen as the “Princes of the ante-Olympic divinities” (Varro, De lingua Latina, lib. V. 57). They were the “Great Gods” of the vanished world (Ibid, V.58), the “Parents” of the first people on earth (Pliny, H. H. lib. XVIII.21), and they were first invoked by the most ancient heroes of the Pelasgian nation (Eschyl, Prometheus, v. 88-90). On “Sky” and “Earth” were sworn the most severe and religious oaths in prehistoric antiquity (Virgil, Aen. XII. 174 seqq).

Homer presents Latona (Leto) making the following oath to the island of Delos: “Let it be known to the Earth, and the broad Sky, and the water of the river Styx which flows under the earth, that I make this oath, the greatest and heaviest in front of the blessed gods, that here (Delos) will be for ever the revered altar and the holly grove of Apollo” (Hymn. in Apoll. v. 84 seqq).

When the Romans renewed their alliance pact with all the Latins, around 258bc, this pledge of theirs had the following words: “Let be peace between the Romans and all the Latin peoples, as long as the Sky and the Earth will stay in the same place” (Dionysius of Halikarn. lib. 6, c. 95).

Christian religion considered this solemn invoking of the “Sky” and the “Earth” as a manifestation of pagan beliefs, and tried by theological subtleties to eliminate the use, so deeply rooted within the people, to swear on “Sky” and on “Earth”. “You must not” says Mathew the Evangelist, “swear on sky, because it is God’s throne, or on earth, because it is the seat of his feet” (c.5-7 v.34-37).

”Sky” and “Earth” were the first consecrated Gods of the ancient world. To them were dedicated for the first time the high peaks of the mountains, hills and promontories, especially the heights where the clouds gathered and the storms formed (Hesiod, Theog. 129).

Their temples and altars were on the mountains, sacrifices were made to them there according to a mysterious archaic ritual, and there were celebrated the religious festivals, the assemblies for common agreements of the different tribes and their fairs.

The origin of this old cosmogonic religion of the Sky and Earth was considered during the epoch of classical Greece as barbarous (Pelasgian).

“As we see” Socrates tells Plato, “the first people in Greece (the Pelasgians) considered as gods in those times only those who were worshiped by most of the barbarians, meaning the sun, the moon, the earth, the stars and the sky” (Plato, Cratylus, I. p.293).

And the ancient Greeks meant firstly under the name “Barbarians”, the populations from north of Greece, and only secondly the Asians and Africans.

“The Greeks do not know to this day, when I write this, where has each god originated from”, says Herodotus (lib. II. 53), “or if they have always existed, and what shape they have”.

And in another chapter, (Ibid. lib. II. c. 50, 53) Herodotus expresses the same opinion as his contemporary Socrates, that the name of the divinities, who the Egyptians claimed they didn’t know, the Greeks had received from the Pelasgians.

As for the Romans, in their oldest inscriptions as well as in their greatest religious literature, the Sky (TN - Ceriul) appears as Kerus, Cerus manus and duonus Cerus, deus magnus (in a fragment of Carmina Saliare – Varro, L.L.VII.26) [1].

[1. In the graves of Etruria and Latium were often found cups with inscriptions dedicated to the gods. Such a cup was discovered on the territory of the Volsci, with the inscription KERI POCOLOM, and two other cups in other localities with the dedication Saeturni pocolom and Volcani pocolom (C.I.L.I. nr. 46.48.50).

In the ancient Carmina Saliare, the Sky was also venerated under the name of Cerus manus (Festus s. v. Matrem matutam). In old folk Latin language, the form Caer-us was also used for Cerus, as can be ascertained from the adjective caeruleus (an azure color), word which the poets use as an epithet for the sky. We also find coeli caerula templa with Ennius (Cicero, Div. I.20) or only caerula coeli with Ovid (Met. XIV, 814).

A great number of words from the ancient Carmina Saliare had become obscure for the Roman authors, and Varro complains that their primitive meaning was not known any more (Ibid. VII.2).

The ancient words of duonus Cerus from Carmina Saliare have been preserved to this day in Romanian folk songs under the form of “Ceriului si Domnului” (TN – to/of the Sky and the Lord).

Pasarica Ceriului, Ceriului si Domnului (Teodorescu, Folk poetry, p.90)

(TN – Little bird of the Sky, the Sky and the Lord)

Today we cannot know what role played in the ancient Pelasgo - Latin religion the “Little bird of the Sky”, which denotes how archaic is its reminiscence in the Romanian folk songs].

In the oldest Carmina Saliare, Cerus manus is an expression identical with megas Ouranos of Hesiod (Theog. 176. 208). From a historical and etymological point of view, the epithet manus is the same word as magnus [2].

[2. The interpretation of creator bonus given by Festus to the obscure words Cerus manus, does not correspond to the epithets given to the gods, or to their real meaning. Roman authors, lacking a good knowledge of the rustic language, and despising any investigations in this field, have been the worst etymologists. In a Roman inscription in Africa is mentioned Deus Manus (C.I.L.VIII. nr. 9326), the title of Saturn as deus magnus.

In Romanian language, the archaic suffix “man” with the meaning of big (TN – mare), it is still preserved in some words, for example “hotoman, lotroman, cotosman, goloman”. And see the Latin word immanis, enormously big].

Numerous and important traces of the ante-Christian religion of the Sky (Ceriu) still exist with the Romanian people of the countries of old Dacia.

“Ceriul” as divinity is still revered and invoked in carols, old songs and solemn orations of the Romanians, under the name of Ceriu, Ceriul sfant (N.T.- the Holy sky) , Ceriul cu stelele (N.T.- the Sky with the Stars), Ceriul Domnul (N.T. – the Sky Lord), Naltul Ceriu (N.T.- the High Sky) and Parinte bun (N.T.- Good Parent), exactly as it was venerated by the ancient Latins as Kerus, Caelus, Cerus manus, Duonus Cerus and Parens [3].

[3. He crossed himself, to the sky he prayed … (Teodorescu, Folk poetry, p.36)

“If you wished to live, give praises to the sky … (Ibid. p.37)

He started to read, to the sky to bow … (Ibid. p.29)

He’s the son of the sky, and lord of the earth… (Marienescu, Carols, p.13)

They gave him a name,

Son of the Sky and of the earth…. (Carol from Constanta district)

With raised voice from the earth, shouting to the holy sky … (Marian, Spells, p.111)

With raised voice up to the sky, with tears down to the earth … (Ibid. p.2)

Ask girl to be forgiven, by mother, by uncle,

by the starry sky … (Marian, Weddings at Romanians, p.393) Ouranos asteroeis in Hesiod’s Theogony (v.106 seqq).

And they lifted him, up to the high sky,

To good parent … (Teodorescu, Folk poetry, p.18)

“There is this custom that people say in their prayers “Lord, give me the help of the Sky and the Earth” (Grumazesci village, Nemt district)].

The archaic name of Cerus manus has also been preserved in Romanian popular traditions. Various mountains and hills on the territory of old Dacia, which once had been consecrated to this supreme divinity of Cerus manus, bear even today the names Caraiman and Caliman.

And in the monuments of Romanian folk literature, Caraiman appears as Lord of the thunderbolt and lightning, as the great and powerful judge of the world, precious historical evidence that once a powerful Uranic religion held sway on Dacia’s territory [4].

[4. Near Omul (TN - the Man) Peak in Bucegi Mountains, rises another peak, 2496m high, called Caraiman, facing the mountain of Babele (TN - Old Women), where remains of some prehistoric altars exist even today. We also find the name Caraiman in other parts of the country: Caraiman, mound (Buzeu d.); Caraiman, mound and forest (Iasi d.); the group of Mosneni called Musceleni from the village Colti, Buzeu district, claim Caraiman as first ancestor (Iorgulescu, Dict. Geogr. jud. Buzeu p.189). But the old folk name is Caraman, not Caraiman.

One Caelius mons is mentioned during the Roman epoch in Rhaetia (Itin. Antonini Aug. Ed. Parthey p.116).

North-west from Cehleu, on the territory of Transilvania, there is another high mountain called Caliman. Under this mountain, a lower peak is called by Romanian folk the “Lord’s Chair”. Even the name Cehleu seems, from an etymologic point of view, to be an archaic, but corrupt form of Caelius (mons.). Having the same name there are: Caliman, hill, Prahova d.; the Peak of Calimana, Muscel d.; Calimanesa, hill in Tecuci d.; Calimanel, mountain, Suceva d.; Calimanesci, two hills, Valcea d. (Marele Dict. Geogr. II. 261-262); Calimanel, mountain in Biharia (Schmnidl, Das Bihargebirge, p.277).

Carmen Sylva, in her remarkable “Tales of Peles” (Pelesch-Marchen, p.83 seqq.), publishes a legend about Caraiman Mountain in Prahova district. In the ancient times, writes she, when the sky was closer to the earth and there was more water than dry land, lived in the Carpathians a giant called Caraiman. He had the power to create people, to make vegetation grow on plains and mountains, to produce earthquakes and storms. He forced the sea to withdraw from the plains of this country, and his voice echoed like thunder. The first people created by Caraiman had been good and happy in the beginning, but later they became wicked and rose against their creator. But Caraiman shook the earth, which swallowed them with all their animals and houses. The legend seems to be local, says she at the beginning of this narration].

Even during the Neolithic epoch, belief in an abstract supreme divinity had started to receive real human shapes. Various monarchs of that far-away world, admired for their good deeds and feared for their extraordinary power, started to be considered as gods, public cults were instituted to them, and became revered after death.

The first apotheosis in Europe was that of Uranos. The Greeks identified the divinity of the Sky with a political personality even from the beginning of their religion, a personality who had distinguished himself by his wisdom, activity and prodigious good deeds. They called him Uranos (Diodorus Siculus, lib. III. 56), meaning Munteanul (TN - the Man from the Mountain), the etymology of this word coming from oros, ouros, mountain (cf. Hesiod, Theog. 129; Grimm, D.M.I.319).

All the legends and ancient traditions present this Uranos as one of the great monarchs of the prehistoric world. He was the founder of the great Pelasgian empire in Europe and Africa, the first to govern the world, and the one to whom the priests instituted by him, attributed divine qualities and honors for the great benefits he brought to the human race. Uranos was the son of Gaea, according to Hesiod, but according to other traditions he was the son of Okeanos (Pauly-Wissova; Real-Encycl.: Caelus, p.1276), meaning the Istru, “the greatest and holiest of rivers” (Herodotus, IV.50; Dionysius Per.v. 298).

The ancient Latins though, firstly personified the great divinity of the universe under the name of Caelus (Cicero, De Natura Deorum, lib. III. 17). This Caelus, probably one and the same with Uranos of the Greeks, appears as the father of Dokius, one of the first to civilize the ancient world, and who taught people to build dwellings from clay (Pliny, H. N. lib. VII. 57. 4).

As for his iconic representation, Caelus was shown as a bearded man, figured only to his waist; while on other monuments of Roman art he is represented with a cloth arched above his head (Preller-Jordan, Rom. Myth. 3^rd Aufl. II. 372), symbolizing the infinite and unknown space of the upper world, attribute which later was passed on to Saturn, as father and lord of the universe, and finally to Jove.

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