TEXTO I

WOMEN OF THE CELTS IN MYTH AND REALITY

The Celts were an ancient, elusive people, who occupied the central stage of Europe and the British Isles for about 800 years, between 700 BC and their almost complete assimilation into the Roman Empire around 100 AD. The Celts built no cities, founded no empires and never developed a written language, but, although their world is now dead, their culture influenced a good part of the continent and spread all the way from Ireland to the shores of the Black Sea. (…)

The gods and goddesses of the ancient Celts were living forces in their imagination and worship, and although Victorian scholars thought that their savage war-goddesses, their sea-gods and the mysteries of the Otherworld were bizarre, barbaric and often incomprehensible, these myths reveal the beautiful and often profound beliefs of a passionate, resourceful and creative people. For the pagan Celts, the essence of the universe, and all its creativity, was female and they left permanent traces of a culture in which women were the spiritual and moral pivot. The mother goddess, and all her personifications of fertility, love and healing, was an essential basis of their very role in the world. Women featured prominently in Celtic myth and their goddesses occupied positions that represented women of practical, everyday Celtic life. They were free to bear arms, become Druids and engage in politics, unlike their Greek sisters, who were highly idealized in myth but not representative of the reality governing the lives of Greek women.

The very phrase ‘Celtic women’ evokes all kinds of images — fearsome warriors, romantic heroines and tragic, wronged queens (…). The women of the Celtic myths are a reflection of the historical women of early Celtic society with all their problems, loves, heartaches and triumphs. They display a range of characters and positions in society, being powerful, weak, serious, capricious, vengeful and ambitious — there are no emptyheaded beauties. As Moyra Caldicott says in Women in Celtic Myth “one of the things I find so refreshing in the Celtic myths is that the women are honoured as much for their minds as for their bodies. The dumb blond would not stand much of a chance in ancient Celtic society” (2).

Celtic women achieved high positions in society and a standing which their sisters in the majority of other contemporary European societies did not have (3). They were able to govern; they played an active part in political, social and religious life. They could be warriors, doctors, physicians, judges and poets. They could own property and remain the owner even when married. They had sexual freedom, were free to choose their partners and divorce, and could claim damages if molested. Celtic women could, and often did, lead their men into battle. The Roman Deodorizes Sickles observed that “The women of the Celts are nearly as tall as the men and they rival them also in courage”. Yet another report by Amicus Marcelling stated that “A whole troop of foreigners would not be able to withstand a single Celt if he called his wife to his assistance!” (1) So women went to war in the ancient Celtic world and took command of men. The training of a warrior was a long task, frequently undertaken by warrior women, who were responsible for teaching boys the arts of combat and of love. (...)

(PAMELA BUDGE )

"A whole troop of foreigners would not be able to withstand a single Celt if he called his wife to his assistance!" (1)

A presença de citações é frequente em textos argumentativos.

Indique com que objetivo a autora inclui a citação acima e identifique o recurso argumentativo que ela emprega ao citar Amicus Marcelling.