In modern English, the nouns vates () and ovate (, ) are used as technical terms for ancient Celtic bards, prophets and philosophers. The terms correspond to a Proto-Celtic word which can be reconstructed as . They are sometimes also used as English equivalents to later Celtic terms such as Irish "prophet, seer".
History of terminology
The terminology discussed in this article relates to an Old Celtic word which can be reconstructed as . This word is not directly attested, but is inferred from renderings into Greek and Latin and from its descendants in later Celtic languages.
Vates in English is a borrowing of a Latin noun vātēs (), "prophet, poet". This Latin noun was either a cognate of Celtic (in which case the two words were descended from a common Italo-Celtic origin), or else a loanword directly from Celtic. The English word ovate is pronounced the way it is () due to a misunderstanding of how the Greek word was pronounced.
Proto-Celtic developed in medieval Irish as "prophet, seer". Less directly, it is related to "panegyric" in Welsh. and it is also plausible that ovate is derived from .
History of the institution
Ancient Rome
The earliest Latin writers used vates to denote prophets and soothsayers in general; the word fell into disuse in Latin until it was revived by Virgil. Thus Ovid could describe himself as the of Eros (Amores 3.9).
In pagan Rome the vates resided on the Vatican Hill, the Hill of the Vates. The Vatican Hill takes its name from the Latin word Vaticanus, a vaticiniis ferendis, in allusion to the oracles, or vaticinia, which were anciently delivered on the Vatican Hill. (When the papacy was returned to Rome from Avignon (France) in the 14th century, the Vatican became the residence of the Pope, and the word Vatican came to refer to the enclave in the middle of Rome that had become the seat of the Roman Catholic Church.)
Celtic civilisation
According to the ancient Greek writers Strabo, Diodorus Siculus,
Vates or Ovates make up one of the three grades of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, a neo-druidism order based in England.
An ovate is also the initial level one can attain in the modern Welsh Gorsedd of Bards. The Gorsedd is not a neo-druidic entity like the one mentioned above, but is more concerned with Welsh arts and culture; however, the ceremony and practices are largely based on reimaginings of druidism by Iolo Morganwg.