10 Ancient Celtic Women Who Resisted, Ruled, and Worked Wonders
The ancient Celts were a tribal people living in an area extending across Europe, into Turkey at the eastern edge of their reach, and encompassing the British Isles in the west. Celtic women were more prominent in society than their Greek or Roman counterparts. Romans found it remarkable that the Celtic women were warriors who accompanied their men into battle, or commanded armies of their own.
In his account of the Gallic War, Julius Caesar wrote, “it was for the matrons to decide when troops should attack and when withdraw.” In his work, Germania, Tacitus tells of the Celts’ attitude toward their women, “They even believe that the sex has a certain sanctity and prescience, and they do not despise their counsels, or make light of their answers.”
Throughout Celtic history there are examples of powerful women who waged war, advised kings, ruled as queens, were priestesses in the sacred groves, and resisted Roman rule. Here are ten examples:
1. Chiomara
In the Greek historian Polybius’s The Histories, and in Plutarch’s On the Virtues of Women, the story goes that after the defeat of the Galatians sometime in the third to second century BC at a decisive battle on the slopes of Mount Olympus, the queen of the Tectosagi tribe, Chiomara, was brought before Roman Consul Manlius. She had been captured still fighting after the retreat. The centurion in charge of the prisoners tried to gain the Queen’s affections by flirting with her. When she did not respond to his advances, he raped her. Afterwards, he offered her freedom in return for gold.
Chiomara sent a slave to contact her parents and instruct them to bring the gold to the river. Chiomara’s parents came to the riverbank that night with the ransom. As the centurion bent over the scales while weighing the gold, Chiomara signaled to her parents to kill him, and they beheaded the centurion.
Chiomara took the severed head in the folds of her gown, and went up into the mountains where her husband had retreated from the Roman army. She threw the head at his feet. He said to her, “Oh, wife, thy fidelity is noble.” She answered, “It is a nobler thing that there is but one man alive who hath ever lain with me.”
2. Veleda
In his History, Roman historian Tacitus mentions Veleda as being a prophetess during the Batavian revolt against Rome of 69–70 AD. She prophesied the Celtic tribes’ victory over Rome. Tacitus highlights importance of her role, and that of women in general in the resistance against Rome. Explains Tacitus, “This maiden of the tribe of the Bructeri wielded very wide authority among the Germanic peoples because of their ancient reverence for priestesses . . . At that time, the power of the prophetess Veleda had reached its height. It was she herself who had foretold the recent victories of the Celts and their massacre of the Roman legions.”
3. Scáthach
Scáthach was a teacher of warriors. According to legend she trained only those warriors able to penetrate the defenses of her fortress on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. Among the heroes who came to her to learn martial arts was Cu Chulainn, the “Hound of Ulster”, to whom she gave the barbed spear, the Gáe Bolg. This weapon was thrown with the foot; when it pierced the enemy it filled every part of the body with its barbs.
4. Onomaris
In the fourth or fifth century BC, Onomaris’s tribe lived on the southern banks of the Danube River. According to the Tractatus De Mulieribus, an anonymous Greek history, Onomaris led her people across the Danube in search of better lands and resources. Onomaris’s tribe was starving, and no men would step up to lead them. Onomaris had the people pool their resources. After they crossed the river, she defeated the tribes they encountered there, and ruled the area as queen.
5. Macha
Macha Mong Ruadh became queen of Ireland in 377 BC. She ordered the building of the Celtic Fortress, Emain Macha, the ancient royal seat of Ulster. To become queen, Macha had to battle her uncles, Dithorba, who was slain, and Cimboath, whom she defeated and forced to marry her, thus solidifying her rulership. She commanded her vanquished foes to construct Emain Macha, which remains on the outskirts of Armagh in Northern Ireland. Macha lent her name to Armagh, a derivation of the Celtic, Ard Macha, or “hill” or “height of Macha”.
6. Druidesses of the Ile de Sein
In the first century AD, Pomponius Mela described nine priestesses living on an island off the coast of Brittany, the Ile de Sein. These holy women tended to an oracle of a Celtic divinity. He called them Gallizenas (Gaulish maidens). Pomponius stated that the oracle told the future to mariners, and only to those who deliberately set out to consult them. The nine priestesses of the Ile de Sein had the power to control the winds, prophesize, ability to assume the form of animals, and cure any illness.
The functions of the Gallizenas were much like those of Druids, hence Mela’s information is taken by some to bolster the argument that, like male Druids, there were female Druids who were advisors to kings, commanded the elements, and invoked the powers of the divine realm.
7. Druidesses of the Island of Angelsey
While Boudicca was laying waste to the Roman towns of Camulodunum, Londinium, and Verulanium, the Romans under Seutonius Paulinius attacked and destroyed the Druid center located on the Isle of Angelsey, or Mona, as it was known then. In his annals, Tacitus relates how the Druids stood in a circle lifting their hands to the sky and uttering curses against the oncoming Romans. The women moved among the Druids and armed men. In Tacitus’ words, “In the style of the Furies, in robes of deathly black and with disheveled hair, they brandished their torches.”
The Roman troops were frozen in awe at the spectacle, and endangered themselves by not moving even to defend themselves. Their general finally roused the troops, and the Romans then killed everyone on Angelsey, and destroyed the Druids’ sacred groves.
Tacitus’ description highlights the role of women in the Druidic world. Mona was one of the Druids’ sacred isles. The prominence of the women at such a pivotal time supports the conclusion that the women Tacitus wrote about were Druidesses, taking a similar role in Celtic society as their male counterparts.
8. St. Brigid of Kildare
Saint Brigid was the abbess of Kildare from 450 AD to 525 AD. Her legend is intertwined with that of the Celtic goddess Bridhe. Among other things, Bridhe is associated with fire. In the centuries since St. Brigid’s time, the nuns at Kildare have tended to a sacred fire. The fire was extinguished in the seventeenth century. In the early 1990s a group of nuns relit the fire, and it has continued to burn since.
St. Brigid was of Druid heritage; her status as a pagan holy woman was enfolded into her Christian persona. The evolution of St. Brigid from Druidess to Christian saint is of a pattern with the Christianization of many ancient pagan holy places, festivals, and gods and goddesses.
9. Teuta
Polybius gives an account of the Illyrian queen, Teuta. Her seafaring tribe committed acts of piracy against Roman vessels sailing from Italy. The Roman senate sent ambassadors to Teuta’s court, whose complaints she answered with contempt. Teuta had the ambassadors assassinated after they had boarded their ships to return to Rome. Polybius describes Teuta as being enraged by the ambassadors’ forthright allegations, and her reaction was due to “womanish passion and unreasoning anger.”
Teuta’s actions came back to haunt her as Rome sent ships to attack her kingdom, and ultimately defeated them in 228 BC.
10. Guinevere
As King Arthur’s wife, Guinevere played a central role in his tragic downfall when she had an adulterous affair with Lancelot. An alternative view is that Guinevere was actually a Pictish princess who brought Pictish lands into Arthur’s realm. According to some, her burial stone is in Scotland among a group of Pictish carvings dating from the period 650–850 AD.
Guinevere’s reputation was sullied by Chretién De Troyes, writing in 1177 for his patroness, a French noblewoman, Marie de Champagne. The tale of Guinevere’s affair with Lancelot could be a misunderstanding of the Pictish customs which allowed their women to switch out their husbands and have affairs. Guinevere’s reputation as one of history’s most famous faithless wives is the result.