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HE names of many of the Celtic gods are known to us only because they survive in Latin (and occasionally Greek) inscriptions. That the gods are, indeed, indigenous Celtic gods is indisputable, but the Celtic tradition was an oral one, so it is only after the Romanization of the Celts, and the subsequent identification of Celtic gods with Roman ones, that the inscriptions begin to appear from which we first learn of the Celtic deities’ existence. The historian, Tacitus, coined the phrase interpretatio Romana (‘Roman translation*) to describe the process by which native or local gods became identified or paired with Roman equivalents, reflecting the general Roman policy of tolerating, absorbing and assimilating the religious practices of conquered peoples during the pre-Christian era.
Apollo, originally a Greek god who was never fully Romanized, was identified most closely in the Celtic pantheon with Bel or Belenus, who gave his name to Beltane, the important spring festival celebrated on the first day of May. The name Beltane means ‘Bel’s fire’. The name may be related to the biblical Ba’al, which means ‘master’, a Phoenician name later widely used in Syria and Arabia. Bel, whose variant names appear as Beli, Belinus and Beli Mawr (‘great Bel’), was a sun god. He was associated with horses, and several clay votive figurines of horses have been found at shrine sites. It was a widely spread cult, mentioned by the classical authors Ausonius, Herodian and Tertullian. Cunomaglus, whose name means ‘hound lord’, was honoured by inscriptions found at Nettleton Shrub, Wiltshire, England. He also was identified with Apollo, but the name suggests a connection with hunting, Grannus was a sun-god {cf. the Irish word grainne for a sun room), but also a god of healing. His name is frequently found in dual inscriptions with the goddess Sirona (Sarana, Tsirona), a goddess of healing springs. Cassius Dio mentions Grannus as a god of healing. The variant title Apollo Grannos was found in an inscription at Musselburgh in Scotland, and the compound name Apollo Grannus Mogounus appears at a shrine in Horburg, Germany. Another Apollo-type healing god, also with a divine consort, was Apollo Moritasgus, to whom a large temple complex at Alesia, France was dedicated. Dedications include references to a bathing pool, and surgeons’ instruments were found at the site. His consort, Damona, was widely worshipped in the Burgundy region. She is paired with the healing god Abilus at Arnay-le-Duc, and an inscription at Bourbonne-Lancy refers to healing through incubation, where the goddess is invited to enter the supplicant’s dreams while sleeping. Apollo Vindonnus, also a god of healing, appears, from the number of dedications on bronze plaques with eyes drawn on them, to have specialized in diseases of the eye. He had a temple at Essarois, near Chatillon-sur-Seine. Apollo Virotutis, worshipped in Gaul, was probably also a healing god. His name means ‘benefactor to humanity’.
The cult of Jupiter spread very widely in the Roman Empire, particularly after Augustus Caesar’s many temple dedications to him as father of all the gods. The Romanized Celts applied the name to many local gods of the same type. Jupiter Beissirissa, also known as Jupiter Optimus Maximus (‘the greatest’) Beissirissa, was worshipped at Cadeac in the Pyrenees. Jupiter Brixianus gave his name to Brixia, modern Brescia, in northern Italy. Jupiter Cemenus (a variant of the stag-god Cemunnos) is known from a Gallic dedicatory inscription. The names Tanarus and Taranus, with many variant spellings, identify Jupiter as the thunder-god {taran is the modern Welsh and Cornish word for thunder). This figure was an exact counterpart of the Jupiter Tonans (‘Jupiter the Thunderer’) commemorated in the temple which Augustus had built on the Capitoline Hill after he was almost struck by lightning in 26 BC. Jupiter Parthinus, whose dedicatory inscriptions are found in northeast Dalmatia, appears to have been the eponymous god of the Partheni tribe. Jupiter Poeninus was worshipped in the Alps in the region of the Great St. Bernard Pass, where a sanctuary established in the Iron Age continued to be used well into the Roman period. The name Poeninus appears as Poininus - almost certainly the same god - in a dedication in Turnoyo in Bulgaria. Jupiter Uxellinus was a god of the high mountains, worshipped in Austria.
There were other Celtic gods of the father-thunderer type, although not all had the name Jupiter appended. Mogons (‘the great one’) appears in inscriptions in northern England, along Hadrian’s Wall, but also in Germany and eastern France. There are many variant spellings of the name, including Mogtus, Mogunus and Mountus. Mogons Vitiris is attested in a single inscription found at Netherby, Cumbria, in northern England. The name Vitiris alone (with many variant spellings, such as Hvitiris, Veteris, Veteres) is found in fifty-four dedicatory inscriptions, all of them in northern England, which suggests that he was a Jupiter - or Mars-type god popular with the soldiers stationed on and around Hadrian’s Wall. There is, however, one dedication to Vitiris at Great Chesters on Hadrian’s Wall which clearly comes from a female supplicant. Dedications to the god as thunder are very widespread: Tanarus is found at Chester in England, and at Orgon in France; Taran is found at Tours, France; Taranis is found at altars in Britain, Germany, France and Dalmatia, and is mentioned by name in the Roman poet Lucan’s Pharsalia, specifically in connection with human sacrifice.
Mars, as the god of war, naturally found many counterparts in the warrior societies of the early Celts. Mars Alator is recorded in two dedications, one on an altar in South Shields in northern England, the other on a silver-gilt votive plaque found at Barkway, Hertfordshire, in southern England. Mars Albiorix (‘king of the Albi, or fair people’) was worshipped as a mountain god by the Albici, a tribe of southern France. Mars Barrex or Barrecis is recorded at Carlisle in England, and Mars Belatucadrus (‘fair shining’) appears in twenty-eight inscriptions found in the region of Hadrian’s Wall. The simplicity of the altars dedicated to him, and the frequent variety in the spelling of his name, have led to suggestions that Belatucadrus was the favourite god of humble, uneducated people. The name Mars Braciaca is found in only one inscription, at Bakewell in northern England. Camulos, frequently recorded as Mars Camulos, was worshipped much more widely throughout Britain and Gaul - he gave his name to Camulodunum (‘fort of Camulos’), the Roman name for modern Colchester, in England. It has been suggested that King Arthur’s court, Camelot, derives its name from this god. Mars Caturix was worshipped in Gaul, presumably as the eponymous god of the Caturiges tribe. Condatis, although a god of sacred waters and healing in the Tyne-Tees region of northern England, is recorded as Mars Condatis in inscriptions found at Piercebridge, Bowes and Chester-le-Street, all near Hadrian’s Wall. Similarly, Cocidius, a Celtic god of the woodland and hunting, is recorded as Mars Cocidius in the militarized areas of north and west Cumbria. Mars Corotiacus has only one dedicatory inscription, at Martlesham, Suffolk, England, in Iceni territory. Two important Celtic gods, Lenus and Loucetius, were strongly identified with Mars during the Roman occupation of Gaul and Britain. Lenus was a god of healing, associated with the large and influential Treveri tribe who gave their name to modern Trier in Germany, although dedications to the god are also found in Britain - one, at Caerwent in Wales, associates Mars Lenus with Ocelos Vellaunus, another variation of the Mars type. Loucetius, an epithet meaning ‘bright shining’, is recorded as Loucetius Mars (the significance of the name order probably being that Loucetius is the older-established deity) at Bath, England, as the divine consort of the goddess Nemetona. Mars Loucetius or Loucetius Mars appears in several other dedications across Europe, including one at Mainz, Germany.
Other Celtic gods of war, some of them specifically associated with Mars by name, appear in dedicatory altars and shrines all across Europe and even into Asia Minor. The hammer-god, frequently known as Sucellus in Gaul, appears in many dedicatory inscriptions with his consort Nantosuelta, the
Sucellus, the hammer-god, and his consort Nantosuelta ('Winding Valley*), from a stone relief found at Sarrebourg, near Metz, France.
Goddess whose name means ‘winding valley’ or ‘meandering river’. He is usually pictured as mature, bearded, and carrying a long-handled hammer. She usually carries a model of a house on a long pole. Their images are often accompanied by barrels, pots and domestic animals, which suggests that they were widely worshipped as archetypes of domestic order and prosperity. The warrior hero, Hercules, originally Greek Herakles, is Celticized as Hercules Ilunnus in southern France, as Hercules Magusanus in eleven dedications found in northeastern Gaul, and as Hercules Saegon ( a variant of Segomo, ‘the victorious one’) at Silchester in England. Mullo, which means ‘mule*, is the name of the god whose cult centre was in northern and western Gaul,
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Near modern Rennes in Brittany. At Allones, in the Sarthe area of France, Mars Mullo was worshipped as a healer of eye afflictions. Mars Nabelcus was worshipped in the mountain regions of southern France, particularly the Vaucluse mountains of Provence. Mars Olloudius, known from an image and inscription found at Custom Scrubs, Gloucestershire, England, carries a double cornucopia, symbolizing abundance and fertility, and a patera or libation bowl, accoutrements not usually associated with a god of war. The Celtic name element rix or rig, which means ‘king’, is found in Mars Rigas, known from a single dedication found at Malton, North Yorkshire, England, in Mars Rigonemetis (‘king of the nemeton or sacred grove’), found in an inscription at Nettleham, Lincolnshire, England, and in Mars Rigisamus (‘very kingly’), to whom dedications are found at Bourges, France and West Coker, Somerset, England. Mars Rudianus, worshipped in southern Gaul, simply means ‘Mars the Red’. Teutates, also called Totatis and Toutiorix, and immortalized in the Asterix comics as the Toutatis of the oath, ‘By Toutatis!’, is commemorated both in Gallic inscriptions and by an inscription found at Barkway, Hertfordshire, England, and probably by the letters TOT on a silver ring found at York. There are dedications to Mars Nodens, a Celtic god of healing found only in Britain, at Lydney in Gloucestershire and near Lancaster in Lancashire, but Nodens, frequently associated with representations of a dog, is a complex and important deity whose Martial attributes are only marginally important. Mars Vorocius, depicted as a Celtic warrior, was worshipped at the medicinal springs at Vichy, Alliet; France.
In the Celtic pantheon there were goddesses as well as gods of war, since women could also be warriors. Apart from the great female war deities such as the Morrigan, whose significance will be discussed in greater detail in later chapters, there were many goddesses whose main attribute was their warlike strength and ferocity. Andarte, also known as Andarta, Andate and Andraste, was a goddess of victory, similar to the Greek winged victory, Nike, and having some of the character of the great goddess Athene. She was worshipped by the Vocontii in Gaul, and inscriptions dedicated to her have been found in the valley of the Drome in southern France, and in the Roman town known as Dea Augusta, modern Die. The rite of taurobolium or bull sacrifice appears to have been conducted in her name there. The Roman historian Dio Cassius associates Andraste with the British Iceni in his description of Boudica’s revolt of AD 61, and specifically claims that human sacrifices were made to the goddess in sacred groves. Brigantia, the eponymous goddess of the important Brigantes tribe in northern Britain, was also a war goddess. In a sculptured relief found at Birrens, a fort north of Hadrian’s Wall, she is depicted wearing a crown and wings, and she carries a spear, shield and aegis, the breastplate traditionally associated with classical Athene or Minerva. At Slack, West Yorkshire, England, there is a single dedication to a god, Bregans, who is presumably a male counterpart or consort with Brigantia. Tutela Boudiga (‘protectress of victory’), whose name is clearly related to the Icenian queen, Boudica, is a war goddess known from an inscription found in
Bordeaux, France, although there is a British connection. The altar, which was dedicated in AD 237, was erected by Marcus Aurelius Lunaris, an envoy who was expressing thanks to the goddess (presuming Boudica or Boudiga was a British, rather than Gallic name) for his safe return from Britain after a difficult and dangerous voyage.
Mercury, the divine messenger who came into the Roman pantheon originally as the Greek Hermes, also has direct counterparts in the Celtic pantheon. Artaios, whose name means ‘the bear’, was worshipped as Mercurius Artaios at Beaucroissant, France. The name Artaios may be related to the name Arturus, or Arthur. Mercurius Arvernus was worshipped in the Rhineland, although the name strongly suggests that he was the particular god of the Arverni tribe, who lived in the territory now known as the Auvergne, in central France. Mercurius Cissonius was also known in Germany, specifically near modern Cologne, and across France. Mercurius Gebrinius is commemorated at Bonn in Germany; Mercurius or Lenus lovatucarus at Trier; and Mercurius Moccus (‘the pig’), at Langres, in France. The name Moccus (the modern Celtic equivalent is mogh), meaning ‘pig’ or ‘boar’, was an epithet of great distinction, indicating exceptional valour.
Even though most of these names of deities have survived because they appear in inscriptions made in the Roman era, almost entirely written in Latin, many of the gods and goddesses honoured are purely Celtic and have no obvious classical counterparts.
This is particularly true of the mother cult goddesses, and especially of the Triple Goddess, whose names and titles are many. Alauina was worshipped at Manderscheid, Germany, and Aveta at Trier; both goddesses are represented by figurines carrying baskets of fruit, or holding children in their arms or lap. The mother-goddess, Caiva, had an altar dedicated to her at Pelm, Germany, on 5 October AD 124, by Marcus Victorius Pollentius, who bequeathed 100 000 sesterces (a very large sum) for the maintenance of her temple after his death. The inscribed sculpture to the goddess, Cuda found at Cirencester, England also contains three small, hooded standing figures. These figures, called genii cucullati or ‘hooded spirits’ by the Romans, appear very frequently in company with the mother goddess, usually in groups of three in Britain, but singly, as a giant or dwarf, in mainland Europe. They often carry objects, including eggs, coins and paper scrolls, and they are sometimes shaped into lamp fittings, with the enlarged phallus forming the lampholder, all of which suggest roles complementary to the central fertility role of the mother goddess.
The Triple Goddess, whose presence is almost absolute evidence of a region’s Celtic identity, is commemorated very widely, although many of the names by which she is known are later Roman coinages. She was portrayed as three deities in one, the young virgin, the middle-aged mother and the elderly crone. Her complex religious significance is explored in intense detail in Robert Graves’s famous study. The White Goddess. The figures representing her often carry cornucopiae, flowers, bread, birds, snakes or other
Three genii cucullati (*hooded spirits*), from a relief statue at Homesteads on Hadrian’s Wall.
Animals. Her name in inscriptions was very frequently prefixed by Matres (‘mothers’) or Matrones (‘matrons’). The Matrones Aufaniae were Celto-Germanic goddesses worshipped in the Rhineland. The Matres Comedovae, worshipped at the very important healing centre of Aix-les-Bains, France, were tutelary goddesses of the hot springs, as were the Matres Griselicae at the medicinal springs of Greoux, in southern France. It is clear that the Triple Goddess cult made wide inroads into the Roman imperial culture, as evidenced by the more than one hundred and sixty altars dedicated to the Matronae Vacallinehae at Pech, near Zulpich, Germany, set up by the soldiers of Legion XXX Ulpia. She came into Romano-Gallic and Romano-British domestic life, too. She appears in British dedications at Chichester, York, Stanwix and Burgh-by-Sands, under the name Matres Domesticae (‘mothers of the home’). In Gaul, she was the Matres Nemausicae, and her associated consort, Nemausus, gave his name to the healing spring, and subsequently the town, now known as Nimes, France. The Suleviae, also called Matres Suleviae, were worshipped in Britain, Gaul, Germany, Hungary and in Rome itself. They were often identified with Matres lunones (the name comes from the great mother goddess Juno), and sometimes called Suleviae lunones. An altar dedicated to them was included in the religious complex of Sulis Minerva at Bath, England.
There were many fertility couples in the Celtic pantheon, attested by double inscriptions and altar dedications. Ancamna, who was a significant
Goddess of the powerful Treveri in Germany, was the consort of Mars Lenus or Mars Smertrius. Bergusia and Ucuetis are recorded in two inscriptions at Alesia, France, and a portrait, possibly of the divine couple, suggests that they may have been tutelary deities of craftspeople and metalworkers. Inciona and Veraudinus are recorded at only one location - that is, Widdenberg, Luxembourg - which may mean that they were very local deities. The great goddess Rosmerta, whose name means ‘provider of plenty’, and who was very widely venerated across Celtic Europe, was often portrayed with the Roman god Mercury as her consort, sometimes carrying purses of money. A carving of Rosmerta from Mannheim, Germany, shows a sacred serpent laying its head on her purse. In Britain, she is portrayed with a bucket, and in one carving with a sceptre and a ladle held over the bucket, as if about to dispense her favours.
There were many Celtic gods and goddesses of hunting and the forest. Abnoba, a Celtic goddess worshipped in the Black Forest in Germany, was sometimes associated with the Roman goddess of the chase, Diana. Nemetona takes her name from the Greek word nemeton, which signified the sacred grove in which religious ceremonies were conducted, and to which all classical commentators on Celtic druidism attached particular significance. She represents the numen, or divinely charged ambiance of the wild grove. She was often paired with a Celtic variant of Mars. A dedication to her, made by a citizen of Trier, Germany, was found at the temple of Sulis Minerva in Bath, England.
The male gods of the forest find their counterpart to some extent in the Roman, Silvanus, although he is a fairly weak and feeble character by comparison. Callirius, known from an inscription at Colchester, England, had his name carved on a bronze plaque thrown in a pit, in which was also found a small bronze figurine of a stag. The name Callirius has two elements: the first (which would be kelli in modern Cornish or Welsh) means ‘hazel wood’, and the second is a variant of rix or rig, the ancient Celtic word for a king. So Callirius is ‘king of the hazel wood’. The name Silvanus Cocidius is found in two inscription at Housesteads fort on Hadrian’s Wall, while at Risingham, a fort a short way to the north of the wall, the god is portrayed in sculptural relief as a hunter dressed in a short tunic, accompanied by a stag and a dog, and carrying a bow and arrow. The bow and arrow reveal that this is a late dedication during the Roman occupation, since bows and arrows were unknown to the pre-Roman tribal Celts, and only came into use in the Roman army towards the end of the imperial era, following centuries of integration of Scythian archers into the legions. Another woodland god is Fagus, god of the beech tree. He was worshipped in the Pyrenees, but his name, not immediately recognizable, also survives in the place name Fowey in Cornwall, Britain. Fowey is derived from the Cornish word for beech trees, fawith. Contrebis, whose name means ‘with the people’, was another god of the woodland and is commemorated in two inscriptions in Lancashire, England: one at Overborough, the other at
Lancaster. The Celtic veneration of the oak is well known, but other trees were also highly regarded: hazelnuts imparted wisdom; the willow yielded an effective painkiller, and was associated with a variety of goddesses; alder timber, which is especially resistant to water, was widely used for bridges and house supports, and was associated with the god Bran in the Brythonic tradition.
Arduinna, a goddess worshipped in the Ardennes forest, was one of several deities associated with specific animals - in her case, it was the boar, the hunting of which was very significant in Celtic tribal culture. Baco, a god known from an inscription found at Chalon-sur-Saone, France, was also a boar god. The Greek myth of the Calydonian boar hunt, which appears in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, was widely known in the classical world, and would have had particular resonance for the Celts. Tacitus tells us (Germania, 35) that the tribe of the Aestii wore boar amulets for protection in battle. The most famous boar in Celtic mythology is Twrch Trwyth, a former evil king who was transmogrified into the shape of a giant, enchanted boar, but this story has no happy Beauty and the Beast ending - this boar is killed by Culhwch, the hero in the Welsh legend of Culhwch and Olwen. There is a similar beast in Norse mythology, called Saehrimir, on whose flesh the gods and heroes of Valhalla continuously feast, but who nevertheless remains alive and willing to be pursued in the hunt.
Artio, worshipped at Muri near Berne, Switzerland and at Bollendorf, Trier; Germany, was a bear goddess - her name probably means ‘bear’, like the name Artorius or Arturius, better known as Arthur. The god Matunus, worshipped at Risingham, England, was a bear god. Jet talismans of bears have been found at Malton, Bootle and York in northern England.
Atepomarus, identified with Apollo in an inscription found at Mauvieres, France, is associated with horses. Far better known, and much more widely venerated, was Epona, the mare goddess. The cult of Epona was strong in eastern Gaul, but she was also worshipped in Britain, Dalmatia and Africa, and she even had a festival dedicated to her (on 18 December) in Rome, which was highly unusual for a Celtic deity. She is always portrayed on or with horses, but she also frequently carries corn or fruit, symbolizing fertility. A shrine at Hagondange, Germany depicts her in triplicate, like a mother goddess. There was a major shrine to her at Alesia in Burgundy, which is of particular interest to us because this was the last bastion of the Celtic king Vercingetorix, whose story we shall examine more fully in Chapter Six. There is evidence from cart or chariot burials found at King’s Barrow, East Yorkshire, Mildenhall in Suffolk and Fordington near Dorchester, in Dorset, that horses were slain and buried along with the dead noble and his or her belongings. A ritual shaft at Bekesbourne in Kent contained a flat stone on which a circle of horse teeth had been carefully arranged. The stylized white horse carved into the chalk at Uffington, in Oxfordshire, some 110 metres (360 ft) in length, is very similar in design to the horses found on many Celtic coins.
There are two inscriptions, one found at Paris, France, the other at Trier, Germany, to a deity whose name is a compound of different creatures: Tarvostrigaranus is the bull (tarvos) with three (tri) cranes (garanus). The sculptures which accompany the inscriptions depict a willow tree, a bull and three cranes, as well as other gods - Esus, a woodcutter god associated with willow trees, on the Paris monument, and Rosmerta and Mercury, the divine couple, on the Trier monument.
There are many images of Cemunnos, whose name means ‘the horned one’, both in Gaul and in Britain, but only one, that dedicated by sailors from the Parisi tribe during the reign of Tiberius, identifies the name with the god’s distinctive image. In the Parisi sculpture, the god is portrayed as a balding old man with the ears and horns of a stag. From each of his antlers hangs a tore, or neck-ring. In many images of Cemunnos, notably the famous image on the Gundestrup cauldron found in Denmark, the god holds a serpent in his hand, often a ram-horned serpent. Stag images are widely found on Celtic coins and other artefacts, and stag antlers have been found in burial pits.
Other animal images and totems abound in Celtic archaeological finds, and there are references in the classical texts to specific animal taboos or rituals. Caesar tells us that the cockerel, the goose and the hare were sacred to the Britons, and were never eaten by them. Dio Cassius tells us that Boudica released a hare as an act of augury before engaging, successfully, in battle with Suetonius Paulinus, in AD 61. The bull, also widely venerated in many other cultures, appears very frequently in Celtic iconography. Pliny gives us a detailed account of a Celtic bull sacrifice (see page 56). The salmon, although it appears very little in iconographic representations, was associated with wisdom, and appears frequently in the vernacular tales. The Salmon of Llyn Llyw, who appears in the legend of Culhwch and Olwen mentioned earlier, is described as one of the oldest (and, therefore, wisest) animals living. Like
The stag-horned god Cemunnos ('the Horned One*), from the Gundestrup cauldron.
The boar legends, there are legends of salmon which remain alive and eager for the hunt, no matter how much of their flesh has been eaten. In the Irish legends, the salmon of all the world, the source of all wisdom, lives in the River Boyne and receives his wisdom from eating the nuts of the nine sacred hazel trees which grow along the river’s banks. Dolphins, more frequently associated with classical legends, appear in some Celtic tales. The British goddess Coventina was invoked on an altar decorated with dolphins, and one of the depictions of the Matronae, or Triple Goddess, at Cirencester in Gloucestershire has the swirls of the goddess’s robes transmuting into dolphins. There was a dog cult associated with the god Nodens, and even the humble goat, whose attributes certainly include virility and aggression, is commemorated in many icons.
Apart from the goose, already mentioned as being described by Caesar as a totemic animal, there were several other birds which held special religious significance for the Celts. First and foremost among these was the swan, which, particularly in the Irish tales, appears again and again as a representative, symbol or harbinger of the otherworld. Swans appear frequently in funerary imagery - sometimes they are depicted pulling the funeral waggons. In the Irish tale. The Dream of Oenghus, the young heroine, Caer Ibormeith (Yew Berry), takes on the form of a swan. From Wagner’s Lohengrin to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, the story’s imagery seems to have had a wide appeal across Europe through many ages. The owl was venerated by the Celts, as were the duck, the crane and the eagle. One of the most persistent bird totems is the crow or raven. The Celtic word for crow is bran, which is also the name of the god Bran, whose story was mentioned at the end of the previous chapter. The Irish war-goddess, Macha, was also represented by the crow or raven. The Morrigan (Great Queen) is often given the epithet ‘battle-crow’ in the vernacular literature. There are many tales, both in the classical and in the vernacular texts, of birds being used for divination. The Romans loved such tales; for example, the famous story of the eagle dropping a bloody lamb into the arms of the young, stuttering Claudius, who was thereby destined to become emperor and rescue Rome from the clutches of her would-be destroyers. According to Justinian, it was a flight of birds that guided the Celts on their advance south into the Po Valley. A Celtic king of Galatia is supposed to have retreated from imminent disaster because an eagle’s erratic flight warned him of the potential debacle.
Water sites - springs, lakes, rivers, holy wells, even marshes - were venerated by the Celts, and so there are many goddesses of water (and a few gods, mostly Apollo variants), almost all of them associated with healing. The goddesses include Apadeva (Cologne, Germany); Arnemetia (‘she who rules the nemeton or sacred grove’, Buxton, England); Coventina (Carrawburgh near Hadrian’s Wall, England and Narbonne, France); lanuaria (Beire-le-Chatel, France); Icovellauna (Metz in northeastern France, and Trier; Germany); Laha (Pyrenees region, France); Latis, goddess of bogs and marshy places (Cumbria, England); Meduna and Vercana (the healing springs of Bad
Relief of the water-goddess Coventina, set up at Carrawburgh on Hadrian*s Wall.
Bertrich, Germany); Nehalennia, a goddess of sailors and seafaring (Domburg and Colijnsplaat, the Netherlands); Ritona or Pritona, a goddess of fords and water crossings (Trier and Pachten, Germany); Telo, the goddess of the sacred spring who gave her name to Toulon, France; and Verbeia, personification of the Wharfe River (Ilkley, North Yorkshire, England). The best known of the water goddesses are Boann, who gave her name to the River Boyne in Ireland; Sequana, who gave her name to the River Seine in France and whose Celtic sanctuary at the source of the river (a little north of Dijon) was extended by the Romans with the addition of two temples; and Sulis, later Sulis Minerva, whose sacred thermal springs at Bath, England were developed into a large religious complex during the first century.
Many of the deities have no known attributes or associations, or appear to be local gods. Of note among these are Antenociticus (Anociticus, Antocidicus), whose life-size cult statue was found at Benwell, on Hadrian’s Wall, England; Arausio, who gave his name to the classical town of Arausio (now Orange) in France; Deiotarus (‘divine bull’), worshipped in ancient Galatia, now in northern Turkey; Ogmios (Ogham), described by the Greek author Lucian, who travelled in Gaul in the second century, as a bald old man with a golden chain from his tongue linked to the ears of his followers, and presumably a symbol of eloquent speech in general, and of the Ogham alphabet and Ogham script (see page 62) in particular; and the Deae Quadruviae, or ‘goddesses of the crossroads’, to whom there are many dedications in Germany.
THE PRIESTLY CLASS
Caesar gives us the first detailed account of the status and function of the now famous Celtic priestly class, which was led by the druids (and ultimately, according to Caesar, by a single archdruid, whose political status and influence must have been considerable). The following quotations, interspersed with my comments, are taken from Caesar’s Commentaries, better known as The Gallic War:
Throughout Gaul there are only two classes of men who are of any account or importance... the druids and the knights. The druids are in charge of religion. They have control over public and private sacrifices, and give rulings on all religious questions. Large numbers of young men go to them for instruction, and they are greatly honoured by the people.
Caesar’s mention of both public and private sacrifices is suspect. The distinction is never defined, and it is difficult to imagine how a sacrifice at which a druid and his or her retinue presided could be a private affair. There is also evidence that young women as well as young men were trained in the priesthood. The vernacular texts use the word druidess as well as druid, but the generic term priestess is also widely used, which leads to confusion about function. There are two rather obscure references in the classical literature, both from Vopiscus, a historian from Syracuse, who flourished c. AD 300. In one, Vopiscus tells the story of a druidess prophesying to Diocletian that he will one day be emperor; in the second, the druidess foretells the illustrious fate of the descendants of Claudius. In both references, the function is actually that of a vate or seer (see page 54), but Vopiscus unmistakably uses the title druidess. Many women held positions of high status in Celtic society, and Caesar’s suggestion that only young men received priestly training may reflect Roman practice, rather than Celtic. Caesar continues:
In most disputes, between communities or between individuals, the druids act as judges. If a crime is committed, if there is a murder, or if there is a dispute about an inheritance or a boundary, they are the ones who give a verdict and decide on the punishment or compensation appropriate in each case. Any individual or community not abiding by their verdict is banned from the sacrifices, and this is regarded among the Gauls as the most severe punishment. Those who are banned in this way are reckoned as sacrilegious criminals. Everyone shuns them; no one will go near or speak to them for fear of being contaminated in some way by contaa with them. If they make any petitions there is no justice for them, and they are excluded from any position of importance.
(Everything Caesar describes about the power of the druids is in accord with what we learn from the vernacular texts, but they go even further: they describe how druids can inflict physical injury, even cause death, by uttering ritual curses and shame-inducing satires.)
There is one druid who is above all the rest, with supreme authority over them. When he dies, he is succeeded by whichever of the others is most distinguished. If there are several of equal distinction, the druids decide by vote, though sometimes they even fight to decide who will be their leader.
The modern Welsh Gorsedd (the word gorsedd means literally ‘great sitting’, and is used in the vernacular texts to refer to events, assemblies and, by inference, to the sites of famous events or assemblies) is indeed led by the Archderurydd, but there is not a single instance in any of the texts, nor any mention by any other classical writer, of druids actually fighting each other for precedence. There is some evidence that Caesar may have picked up this idea from Poseidonius of Apamea, who wrote a century earlier. Caesar’s account continues:
On a fixed date each year, they assemble in a consecrated place in the territory of the Carnutes; that area is supposed to be the centre of the whole country of Gaul. People who have disputes to settle assemble there from all over the country and accept the rulings and judgments of the druids.
(The Carnutes lived a little to the south and west of where Paris now stands. As we shall see shortly, it is almost certain that the druids presided over at least eight major festivals per year, not just one.)
It is thought that the doctrine of the druids was invented in Britain and was brought from there into Gaul; even today, those who want to study the doctrine in greater detail usually go to Britain to learn there.
Discussions of the origins of druidism have produced some magnificent flights of speculation. The druids have been linked to the Persians (and more specifically the Magi); the Egyptians; the Brahmins of India; the tribes of Israel; the Phoenicians; the Greeks; the lost civilization of Atlantis. There is even one author who tells us that the druids came from the Moon (the far side, naturally). There are more genuinely persuasive arguments for suggesting a link between early Greek Pythagorean ism and the tenets of druidism, but all of these suggestions are speculative. However, the vernacular texts, and to some extent the observed patterns in archaeological finds of religious objects, tend to confirm Caesar’s description of the importance of Britain as a seat of druidic learning. He continues:
The druids are exempt from military service and do not pay taxes like the rest. Such significant privileges attract many students, some of whom come of their own accord to be taught, while others are sent by parents and relatives.
(This would make fine sense if there was good evidence that the Celts had military service in the Roman sense, or paid taxes to a central source, but there is no such evidence.)
It is said that during their training they learn by heart a great many verses, so many that some people spend twenty years studying the doctrine. They do not think it right to commit their teachings to writing, although for almost all other purposes, for example for public and private accounts, they use the Greek alphabet.
(There is plenty of supporting evidence for the description of the learning of magnum numerum versuum, but the Greek inscriptions are scarce, although some do exist.)
The druids attach particular importance to the belief that the soul does not perish but passes after death from one body to another; they think that this belief is the most effective way to encourage bravery because it removes the fear of death.
Caesar seems to be suggesting that the druids deliberately fostered a religious viewpoint to further a political end; this is a very cynical, Roman interpretation, for which there is no other evidence at all. The direct transmigration of the soul, which was a central tenet of Pythagoreanism dating from at least 500 BC, was ridiculed in Rome for many years before Caesar’s time.
There were at least two other groups who made up the priestly class, namely the bards and the vates (sometimes called ovates). The Irish had a term fili (plural filid), often translated as ‘seer’, which seems to describe a similar function to that of the vates, although the Irish term ollam, often translated as ‘poet’, was reserved for senior or very important poets, and does not seem to be exactly equivalent (at least in terms of rank) to the Brythonic term bardh or bard, which appears to have been a more humdrum position. Diodorus Siculus gives us an account of these lesser priestly functions:
Among them are also to be found lyric poets whom they call bards.
These men sing to the accompaniment of instruments which are like lyres, and their songs may be either of praise or of obloquy.
Philosophers, as we may call them, and men learned in religious affairs are unusually honoured among them and are called by them druids.
The Gauls likewise make use of diviners, accounting them worthy of high approbation, and these men foretell the future by means of the flight or cries of birds and of the slaughter of sacred animals, and they have all the multitude subservient to them. They also observe a custom which is especially astonishing and incredible, in case they are taking thought to matters of great concern; for in such cases they devote to death a human being and plunge a dagger into him in the region above the diaphragm, and when the stricken victim has fallen they read the future from the manner of his fall and from the twitching of his limbs, as well as from the gushing of the blood. . .
As was mentioned in Chapter One, there has been much heated debate about whether the Celts did or did not indulge in human sacrifice. Such barbarity was too painful for the Victorian Celtic revivalists to contemplate, so there was much woeful denial, which turned out to be rather ineffective, since almost the first thing the modern proverbial man in the street would tell you if you asked him about druids is that they sacrificed humans on the altar at Stonehenge, which (he will also tell you with equal confidence) they built for that very purpose. Well, the druids did not build Stonehenge, nor is there any evidence that they sacrificed any person (or even any animal, for that matter) at that place. There may well have been Celtic human sacrifice, the victims almost certainly having been condemned criminals, and, in that light, the so-called civilized modern states which continue to allow capital punishment are merely continuing the same time-honoured tradition (although they may be trying to appease different gods). The Romans themselves continued making human sacrifices until 96 BC, when the practice was outlawed by the Senate. Even so, when Caesar himself had two rebellious soldiers executed in the Regia in 56 BC, he dedicated their deaths to the god Mars, which comes as close to human sacrifice as makes no difference.
The Irish traditions make Tara the seat of kingship, but Uisneach (in Meath) the centre of druidism. This is a very important distinction. A druid could be wiser than a king, richer than a king, have more retainers than a king, even have a greater army than a king, but a druid could not be a king. Druidism is said to have come to Uisneach in the form of Mide, the first druid (his name means ‘Evil’, and is the source of the name Meath), who lit the first fire in Ireland. The fire blazed untended for seven years, and could be seen over the four quarters of the land. Early Celtic law enshrines many traditions concerning the sanctity of fire. The Welsh laws refer to datanhud, which literally means ‘the right to uncover the fire’, but which actually signified the right to enter and occupy land which one’s father had occupied until his death. The fire of Mide or Meath is almost certainly associated with the fires of the spring festival of Beltane (see page 57). While there were many symbols of kingship, fire was the symbol of religious, rather than territorial, authority. The Pythagoreans also depicted fire at the centre of the universe. According to the early Irish poems known as dinnseanchas (a difficult word to translate but ‘poems of place’ conveys a partial meaning), whenever the King of Ireland (i. e. the king at Tara) celebrated a feast, the king of Meath must also celebrate likewise on the hill of Slemain Mide, or terrible calamity would befall the whole of Ireland. Symbolically, the relationship being described is that which obtained between the ruler wedded to the land, the king or queen (Tara), and the judge who spoke the truth of the universe, the druid or druidess (Uisneach). Religion, then, was not merely an opiate to send warriors happy to their deaths, as Caesar cynically suggests, but an essential, deeply permeating force in the everyday life of the tribal Celts, perceived as integrally linked to kingship and stewardship of the land. Kingship or queen-ship was a marriage to the land and nation, with abundant potency and fertility as the essential royal qualifications, and the druid was the priest who officiated at the ceremonies, both of symbolic marriage and of symbolic dissolution. That symbolic power explains why the priestly class held such high status in Celtic society.
World History
