Although Greek and Roman writers recorded their perceptions of Celtic culture and religion, especially from the first century BC, they provide little evidence for the identity or function of Celtic deities. Indeed, such commentators as Caesar, Strabo and Diodorus Siculus arc more concerned with ritual practices, such as headhunting, or religious functionaries, like the druids, than with Celtic perceptions of the supernatural world, Caesar {De Bello Gallico vi.14) alludes to druidic lore concerning the transmigration of souls. Both Lucan {Pharsalia i.446ff.) and Diodorus (v.28.6) comment on this Celtic belief in a cycle of death and rebirth.
Where mention of the gods does occur, it is heavily overlaid by Roman conflation and misinterpretation. Thus Caesar (Vl. i 7) speaks as if Celtic deities arc identical with those of the Roman pantheon, giving them such names as Mercury, Mars and Jupiter. Does this mean that he was unaware of their native names, that they were deliberately
Figure 15.4 Altar of Romano-Celtic date dedicated to Taranuenus, a derivative of Taranis, the Celtic thunder-god; Bdckingen, Germany. (Photo: Wurttembcrgischcs Landesmuseum,
Stuttgart.)
Kept secret, or that the resemblance with his own gods was so strong that he was concerned to record this similarity? The first century AD Roman poet Lucan does allude to three gods with Celtic names who were apparently encountered by Caesar’s army in southern Gaul in the first century BC {Pharsalia 1.444-6). These are Esus, Taranis and Teutates, all of whom, states Lucan, demanded appeasement in the form of human sacrifice. Lucan implies that these were important Gaulish divinities, but this is not borne out by archaeological testimony. Taranis and Teutates each occur on a handful of dedications (Ligure 25.4) (Green 1982: 37-44; 1986a: iii; 1992a: 209) which are scattered within the Romano-Geltic world, and the name Esus appears only once, on an early first-century AD monument in Paris (Esperandieu no. 3134; Green 1992a: 93-4). All three names are descriptive: Taranis (‘Thunderer’) is tied to function; Esus means ‘Lord’ or ‘Master’; and Teutates probably refers to the divine leadership of a tribe or tuath. Esus and Teutates are therefore titles rather than names.
Sporadic references to Celtic gods appear in the literature of the Romano-Celtic period. Tertullian [Apologeticus XXIV.7) and Herodian {History of the Empire after Marcus VIII.3.6) allude to the cult of Apollo Belenus in Noricum and north Italy, and Ausonius alludes to sanctuaries dedicated to Belenus in Aquitaine in the fourth century AD (Zwicker 1934-6: 105). Grannus is referred to by Dio Gassius {Historiae LXXVII.15.5) who speaks of the emperor Garacalla’s unsuccessful attempts to find a cure for his physical afflictions at the temples of Grannus, Aesculapius and Serapis. Reference is made to Epona’s cult by a number of sources, including Apuleius {Metamorphoses III.27) and Minucius Felix {Octavianus XXVIII.7).
So the classical literary sources are of very little use in establishing the identities of Celtic gods and the nature of belief. Any detail concerning a Celtic pantheon must be sought from the epigraphy and iconography of the Romano-Celtic world.
World History
