6.16 - Wickermen

All the nations of the Gauls are fully devoted to religious ceremonies, and on the account of this cause, those who are afflicted more seriously by illnesses and those who are engaged in battle and danger, either sacrifice men for victims, or they vow that they will sacrifice them and use Druids as ministers to these sacrifices, because they think that for the life of a man, unless the life of a man is given in return, they are not able to please the will of the immortal gods, and they have established sacrifices of the same kinds for the state.

Others have statues of immense magnitude, the limbs of which, woven with wicker, are completely filled with living men; which having been set on fire below, the surrounded men are killed by flames.

They believe the sacrifices of those who are seized in theft or in robbery or in any other crime are more pleasing to the immortal gods; but, when the supply of that type is insufficient, they even descend to the sacrifice of the innocent.

Natio est omnis Gallorum admodum dedita religionibus, atque [ob eam causam], qui sunt [adfecti gravioribus morbis] qui que [in proeliis periculisque] versantur aut [pro victimis] homines immolant aut se immolaturos vovent administris que [ad ea sacrificia] Druidibus utuntur, quod, [pro vita] hominis nisi hominis vita reddatur, non posse deorum immortalium numen placari arbitrantur, publice que eiusdem generis habent instituta sacrificia.

Alii immani magnitudine simulacra habent quorum contexta [viminibus] membra [vivis hominibus] complent; quibus succensis circumventi [flamma] exinimantur homines. Supplicia eorum qui [in furto] aut [in latrocinio] aut [aliqua noxia] sint comprehensi gratiora dis immortalibus esse arbitrantur; sed, cum eius generis copia defecit, etiam [ad innocentium supplicia] descendunt.

Holden, Michael. 2014

Holden, Michael. 2014

Wist, Allie. 2011

Panoramania. 2014. YouTube.

Holden, Michael. 2013

Holden, Michael. 2013

While there is no clear archaeological evidence for wicker men, if they were constructed, they more likely looked like this--out of wicker as Caesar noted in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico Book 6 chapter 16 (Wells 59).

Druids and Wicker Men

- According to Caesar, wickermen were built by some Gauls as a sacrifice to the gods. He noted that some Gauls thought that once the gods had willed one's death, it could only be avoided by offering another's life--hence the wicker men.

- Caesar also stated that the Gauls often used captured convicts as sacrifices, but if it was necessary, the innocent were also used.

- For this reason, soldiers and the seriously ill hired the druids as priests for their sacrifices.

Burning Man and Wicker Men

- According to BurningMan.org, website of the Burning Man Project, the tradition was started in 1986 out of two men's boredom. It has no affiliation with the wicker man or the druids other than both being similar occasions (although one includes human sacrifices).

- What is the burning man? It's a festival that attracts thousands to Nevada’s Black Rock Desert where strangers can interact and express themselves through art and community.

Romans vs Gauls - Human Sacrifice!

- In Pliny's speech for Fonteius (section 31), he clearly berates the Gauls for their human sacrifices and implies that such barbaric practices "will not be tolerated by the Roman Government" (Reid 35). "Quis enim ignorat eos usque ad hanc diem retinere illam immanem ac barbaram consuetudinem hominum immolandorum?" (in Pliny the Elder refering to the Gauls) (Pliny The Elder to Fonteius).

- In other words, human sacrifice is a "big no-no" in Rome (unless it happens to be the killing of murderers in the name of the gods "Then two men were slain with something like sacrificial forms ... in the Campus Martius ... The victims' heads were fixed on the wall of the Regia" (Reid 41).

- In other, other words, the Romans are hypocrites (nothing new).