Introduction

Hundreds of years separate most modern societies from those times when the world was believed to be populated and shielded by gods and other non-human beings. Irrespective of the enormous cultural upheavals (including transitions in religious beliefs) in Europe and elsewhere, water is always indispensable for human wellbeing and survival. At the same time, water always was, and still is, a potential threat to humans. It can be so abundant that it inundates settlements, so scarce that humans and ecosystems suffer from droughts, or so salty or contaminated that it becomes undrinkable or even lethal. People have therefore tried to cope with the ambivalent nature of water and particularly to tame its unpleasant, sometimes dangerous face, be it spiritually through direct communication with the forces manifest in water, or technically through engineering solutions. Embracing both worldviews, this chapter explores facets of earlier religious approaches to inland waters and the sea in ancient Europe, specifically in Greek, Roman, Germanic and Celtic societies, and follows the route of these beliefs into the Christian era up to contemporary neo-Pagan convictions.

When modern Pagans integrate water in their rituals, they often resort to practices, beliefs and myths from ancient times, for example by referring to legendary water creatures, by invoking the healing, cleansing, creative and foretelling powers of water, or by reinstatement of wells, water bodies or riverine sites that are thought to have been early Pagan cult sites.