Today I decided to be a good student and get a start on some textbook reading from The Celtic Heroic Age. I found this tidbit about the ancient Celts particularly interesting:
"The Gauls are...not only blond by nature but more so by the artificial means they use to lighten their hair. For they continually wash their hair in a lime solution, combing it back from the forehead to the back of the neck. This process makes them resemble Satyrs and Pans since this treatment makes the hair thick like a horse's mane. Some shave their beards while others allow a short growth, but nobles shave their cheeks and allow the moustache to grow until it covers the mouth. The result is that their moustaches become mixed with food while they eat, but serve as a sort of strainer when they drink."
-Diodorus Siculus (wrote c. 60-c. 30 BC), trans. Philip Freeman, page 12 of The Celtic Heroic Age: Literary Sources for Ancient Celtic Europe and Early Ireland and Wales, 4th ed.
I am fascinated. Never did I expect to read this in a textbook compilation of early writings on the Celts, and I am only on page 12. Motivation to study more: achieved.
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