water cult
Water cult as a worship of wells, springs, ponds and lakes, as is the case in Europe especially in Gotland, Great Britain, Ireland, Portugal, Sardinia and Cyprus, but also in the ancient Orient and South America (Nazca level) an ancient pre-Christian phenomenon (see libation). Today's pilgrimages in the days of the saint, to whom many waters have been devoted, can generally be traced back to the pre-Christian water cult. Libation is another form of the cult, which takes place with water, but also with other fluids. Not in this area falls the "bathing cult" as he, for example, Which was common among the Romans.
The veneration affects both regions with water surplus as well as Ireland, as well as water scarlet like Sardinia. In both regions, it is one of the fertility cultivars since it is to be combined with the yield of the fields. More familiar, because more penetrating, is the cult of water deficiency. Cyrill of Jerusalem speaks of the water cult as an idolatry, which the baptized has to abjure
In Lepenski Vir (Serbia) one found perhaps the oldest Libation containers of Europe, as wells in partially decorated stones. The Chalcolithic Tisza culture in Hungary created vascular ceramics, such as the Venus Vessels of the Kökénydomb. Such libation vessels are typical of the prehistoric Balkan and still today used as Grolla in the Aosta Valley.
Sardines are well-known for the well-known well-known sanctuaries, and in Portugal there are those connected with the water cult (Pedras Formosas). Places of the water cultivation were presumably also the cumbrian pile dwellings and the terramars in Northern Italy. In Corsica, according to S. von Reden, a child with a head of death crossed the country during the drought in the twentieth century and is thrown into the water at the end of the procession. When the Thracian god Orpheus is torn to pieces, his head is thrown into a river.
In Scotland alone, more than 600 Holy Springs have been mapped in the catchment area of the River Tay. In many, sacrificial and later coins were found. For the Christian missionaries the pagan customs were an annoyance. Whether the cisterns in the Balears and on Pantelleria were also an expression of a cult, must remain open. Edit source text Edit source text
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