Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

64 Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race[81]The classical writers felt rightly that the Celtic idea ofimmortality was something altogether different from this. Itwas both loftier and more realistic; it implied a true persistenceof the living man, as he was at present, in all his human relations.They noted with surprise that the Celt would lend money on apromissory note for repayment in the next world. 60 That is anabsolutely Egyptian conception. And this very analogy occurredto Diodorus in writing of the Celtic idea of immortality—it waslike nothing that he knew of out of Egypt. 61The Doctrine of TransmigrationMany ancient writers assert that the Celtic idea of immortalityembodied the Oriental conception of the transmigration of souls,and to account for this the hypothesis was invented that theyhad learned the doctrine from Pythagoras, who represented it inclassical antiquity. Thus Cæsar: “The principal point of their[the Druids'] teaching is that the soul does not perish, and thatafter death it passes from one body into another.” And Diodorus:“Among them the doctrine of Pythagoras prevails, according towhich the souls of men are immortal, and after a fixed termrecommence to live, taking upon themselves a new body.” Nowtraces of this doctrine certainly do appear in Irish legend. Thusthe Irish chieftain, Mongan, who is an historical personage,and whose death is recorded about A.D. 625, is said to havemade a wager as to the place of death of a king named Fothad,slain in a battle with the mythical hero Finn mac Cumhal inthe third century. He proves his case by summoning to his aida revenant from the Other-world, Keelta, who was the actualslayer of Fothad, and who describes correctly where the tomb isto be found and what were its contents. He begins his tale bysaying to Mongan, “We were with thee,” and then, turning tothe assembly, he continues: “We were with Finn, coming from60 Valerius Maximus (about A.D 30) and other classical writers mention thispractice.61 Book V.