The Religion of the Ancient Celts Part 3

In other myths human heads speak after being cut off.[102] It might thus easily have been believed that the representation of a G.o.d's head had a still more powerful protective influence, especially when it was triplicated, thus looking in all directions, like Ja.n.u.s.

The significance of the triad on these monuments is uncertain but since the supporting divinities are now male, now female, now male and female, it probably represents myths of which the horned or three-headed G.o.d was the central figure. Perhaps we shall not be far wrong in regarding such G.o.ds, on the whole, as Cernunnos, a G.o.d of abundance to judge by his emblems, and by the cornucopia held by his companions, probably divinities of fertility. In certain cases figures of squatting and horned G.o.ddesses with cornucopia occur.[103] These may be consorts of Cernunnos, and perhaps preceded him in origin. We may also go further and see in this G.o.d of abundance and fertility at once an Earth and an Under-earth G.o.d, since earth and under-earth are much the same to primitive thought, and fertility springs from below the earth's surface.

Thus Cernunnos would be another form of the Celtic Dispater. Generally speaking, the images of Cernunnos are not found where those of the G.o.d with the hammer (Dispater) are most numerous. These two types may thus be different local forms of Dispater. The squatting att.i.tude of Cernunnos is natural in the image of the ancestor of a people who squatted. As to the symbols of plenty, we know that Pluto was confounded with Plutus, the G.o.d of riches, because corn and minerals came out of the earth, and were thus the gifts of an Earth or Under-earth G.o.d.

Celtic myth may have had the same confusion.

On a Paris altar and on certain steles a G.o.d attacks a serpent with a club. The serpent is a chthonian animal, and the G.o.d, called Smertullos, may be a Dispater.[104] G.o.ds who are anthropomorphic forms of earlier animal divinities, sometimes have the animals as symbols or attendants, or are regarded as hostile to them. In some cases Dispater may have outgrown the serpent symbolism, the serpent being regarded locally as his foe; this a.s.sumes that the G.o.d with the club is the same as the G.o.d with the hammer. But in the case of Cernunnos the animal remained as his symbol.

Dispater was a G.o.d of growth and fertility, and besides being lord of the underworld of the dead, not necessarily a dark region or the abode of "dark" G.o.ds as is so often a.s.sumed by writers on Celtic religion, he was ancestor of the living. This may merely have meant that, as in other mythologies, men came to the surface of the earth from an underground region, like all things whose roots struck deep down into the earth. The lord of the underworld would then easily be regarded as their ancestor.[105]

3. The hammer and the cup are also the symbols of a G.o.d called Silva.n.u.s, identified by M. Mowat with Esus,[106] a G.o.d represented cutting down a tree with an axe. Axe and hammer, however, are not necessarily identical, and the symbols are those of Dispater, as has been seen. A purely superficial connection between the Roman Silva.n.u.s and the Celtic Dispater may have been found by Gallo-Roman artists in the fact that both wear a wolf-skin, while there may once have been a Celtic wolf totem-G.o.d of the dead.[107] The Roman G.o.d was also a.s.sociated with the wolf. This might be regarded as one out of many examples of a mere superficial a.s.similation of Roman and Celtic divinities, but in this case they still kept certain symbols of the native Dispater--the cup and hammer. Of course, since the latter was also a G.o.d of fertility, there was here another link with Silva.n.u.s, a G.o.d of woods and vegetation. The cult of the G.o.d was widespread--in Spain, S. Gaul, the Rhine provinces, Cisalpine Gaul, Central Europe and Britain. But one inscription gives the name Selvanos, and it is not impossible that there was a native G.o.d Selva.n.u.s. If so, his name may have been derived from _selva_, "possession," Irish _sealbh_, "possession," "cattle," and he may have been a chthonian G.o.d of riches, which in primitive communities consisted of cattle.[108] Domestic animals, in Celtic mythology, were believed to have come from the G.o.d's land. Selva.n.u.s would thus be easily identified with Silva.n.u.s, a G.o.d of flocks.

Thus the Celtic Dispater had various names and forms in different regions, and could be a.s.similated to different foreign G.o.ds. Since Earth and Under-earth are so nearly connected, this divinity may once have been an Earth-G.o.d, and as such perhaps took the place of an earlier Earth-mother, who now became his consort or his mother. On a monument from Salzbach, Dispater is accompanied by a G.o.ddess called Aeracura, holding a basket of fruit, and on another monument from Ober-Seebach, the companion of Dispater holds a cornucopia. In the latter instance Dispater holds a hammer and cup, and the G.o.ddess may be Aeracura.

Aeracura is also a.s.sociated with Dispater in several inscriptions.[109]

It is not yet certain that she is a Celtic G.o.ddess, but her presence with this evidently Celtic G.o.d is almost sufficient proof of the fact.

She may thus represent the old Earth-G.o.ddess, whose place the native Dispater gradually usurped.

Lucan mentions a G.o.d Esus, who is represented on a Paris altar as a woodman cutting down a tree, the branches of which are carried round to the next side of the altar, on which is represented a bull with three cranes--Tarvos Trigaranos. The same figure, unnamed, occurs on another altar at Treves, but in this case the bull's head appears in the branches, and on them sit the birds. M. Reinach applies one formula to the subjects of these altars--"The divine Woodman hews the Tree of the Bull with Three Cranes."[110] The whole represents some myth unknown to us, but M. D'Arbois finds in it some allusion to events in the Cuchulainn saga. To this we shall return.[111] Bull and tree are perhaps both divine, and if the animal, like the images of the divine bull, is three-horned, then the three cranes (_gara.n.u.s_, "crane") may be a rebus for three-horned (_trikeras_), or more probably three-headed (_trikarenos_).[112] In this case woodman, tree, and bull might all be representatives of a G.o.d of vegetation. In early ritual, human, animal, or arboreal representatives of the G.o.d were periodically destroyed to ensure fertility, but when the G.o.d became separated from these representatives, the destruction or slaying was regarded as a sacrifice to the G.o.d, and myths arose telling how he had once slain the animal. In this case, tree and bull, really identical, would be mythically regarded as destroyed by the G.o.d whom they had once represented. If Esus was a G.o.d of vegetation, once represented by a tree, this would explain why, as the scholiast on Lucan relates, human sacrifices to Esus were suspended from a tree. Esus was worshipped at Paris and at Treves; a coin with the name aesus was found in England; and personal names like Esugenos, "son of Esus," and Esunertus, "he who has the strength of Esus," occur in England, France, and Switzerland.[113] Thus the cult of this G.o.d may have been comparatively widespread. But there is no evidence that he was a Celtic Jehovah or a member, with Teutates and Taranis, of a pan-Celtic triad, or that this triad, introduced by Gauls, was not accepted by the Druids.[114] Had such a great triad existed, some instance of the occurrence of the three names on one inscription would certainly have been found. Lucan does not refer to the G.o.ds as a triad, nor as G.o.ds of all the Celts, or even of one tribe. He lays stress merely on the fact that they were worshipped with human sacrifice, and they were apparently more or less well-known local G.o.ds.[115]

The insular Celts believed that some of their G.o.ds lived on or in hills.

We do not know whether such a belief was entertained by the Gauls, though some of their deities were worshipped on hills, like the Puy de Dome. There is also evidence of mountain worship among them. One inscription runs, "To the Mountains"; a G.o.d of the Pennine Alps, Poeninus, was equated with Juppiter; and the G.o.d of the Vosges mountains was called Vosegus, perhaps still surviving in the giant supposed to haunt them.[116]

Certain grouped G.o.ds, _Dii Ca.s.ses_, were worshipped by Celts on the right bank of the Rhine, but nothing is known regarding their functions, unless they were road G.o.ds. The name means "beautiful" or "pleasant,"

and _Ca.s.si_ appears in personal and tribal names, and also in _Ca.s.siterides_, an early name of Britain, perhaps signifying that the new lands were "more beautiful" than those the Celts had left. When tin was discovered in Britain, the Mediterranean traders called it [Greek: cha.s.siteros], after the name of the place where it was found, as _cupreus_, "copper," was so called from Cyprus.[117]

Many local tutelar divinities were also worshipped. When a new settlement was founded, it was placed under the protection of a tribal G.o.d, or the name of some divinised river on whose banks the village was placed, pa.s.sed to the village itself, and the divinity became its protector. Thus Dea Bibracte, Nemausus, and Vasio were tutelar divinities of Bibracte, Nimes, and Vaison. Other places were called after Belenos, or a group of divinities, usually the _Matres_ with a local epithet, watched over a certain district.[118] The founding of a town was celebrated in an annual festival, with sacrifices and libations to the protecting deity, a practice combated by S. Eloi in the eighth century. But the custom of a.s.sociating a divinity with a town or region was a great help to patriotism. Those who fought for their homes felt that they were fighting for their G.o.ds, who also fought on their side.

Several inscriptions, "To the genius of the place," occur in Britain, and there are a few traces of tutelar G.o.ds in Irish texts, but generally local saints had taken their place.

The Celtic cult of G.o.ddesses took two forms, that of individual and that of grouped G.o.ddesses, the latter much more numerous than the grouped G.o.ds. Individual G.o.ddesses were worshipped as consorts of G.o.ds, or as separate personalities, and in the latter case the cult was sometimes far extended. Still more popular was the cult of grouped G.o.ddesses. Of these the _Matres_, like some individual G.o.ddesses, were probably early Earth-mothers, and since the primitive fertility-cults included all that might then be summed up as "civilisation," such G.o.ddesses had already many functions, and might the more readily become divinities of special crafts or even of war. Many individual G.o.ddesses are known only by their names, and were of a purely local character.[119] Some local G.o.ddesses with different names but similar functions are equated with the same Roman G.o.ddess; others were never so equated.

The Celtic Minerva, or the G.o.ddesses equated with her, "taught the elements of industry and the arts,"[120] and is thus the equivalent of the Irish Brigit. Her functions are in keeping with the position of woman as the first civiliser--discovering agriculture, spinning, the art of pottery, etc. During this period G.o.ddesses were chiefly worshipped, and though the Celts had long outgrown this primitive stage, such culture-G.o.ddesses still retained their importance. A G.o.ddess equated with Minerva in Southern France and Britain is Belisama, perhaps from _qval_, "to burn" or "shine."[121] Hence she may have been a.s.sociated with a cult of fire, like Brigit and like another G.o.ddess Sul, equated with Minerva at Bath and in Hesse, and in whose temple perpetual fires burned.[122] She was also a G.o.ddess of hot springs. Belisama gave her name to the Mersey,[123] and many G.o.ddesses in Celtic myth are a.s.sociated with rivers.

Some war-G.o.ddesses are a.s.sociated with Mars--Nemetona (in Britain and Germany), perhaps the same as the Irish Nemon, and Cathubodua, identical with the Irish war-G.o.ddess Badb-catha, "battle-crow," who tore the bodies of the slain.[124] Another G.o.ddess Andrasta, "invincible,"

perhaps the same as the Andarta of the Voconces, was worshipped by the people of Boudicca with human sacrifices, like the native Bellona of the Scordisci.[125]

A G.o.ddess of the chase was identified with Artemis in Galatia, where she had a priestess Camma, and also in the west. At the feast of the Galatian G.o.ddess dogs were crowned with flowers, her worshippers feasted and a sacrifice was made to her, feast and sacrifice being provided out of money laid aside for every animal taken in the chase.[126] Other G.o.ddesses were equated with Diana, and one of her statues was destroyed in Christian times at Treves.[127] These G.o.ddesses may have been thought of as rushing through the forest with an attendant train, since in later times Diana, with whom they were completely a.s.similated, became, like Holda, the leader of the "furious host" and also of witches'

revels.[128] The Life of Caesarius of Arles speaks of a "demon" called Diana by the rustics. A bronze statuette represents the G.o.ddess riding a wild boar,[129] her symbol and, like herself, a creature of the forest, but at an earlier time itself a divinity of whom the G.o.ddess became the anthropomorphic form.

G.o.ddesses, the earlier spirits of the waters, protected rivers and springs, or were a.s.sociated with G.o.ds of healing wells. Dirona or Sirona is a.s.sociated with Grannos mainly in Eastern Gaul and the Rhine provinces, and is sometimes represented carrying grapes and grain.[130]

Thus this G.o.ddess may once have been connected with fertility, perhaps an Earth-mother, and if her name means "the long-lived,"[131] this would be an appropriate t.i.tle for an Earth-G.o.ddess. Another G.o.ddess, Stanna, mentioned in an inscription at Perigueux, is perhaps "the standing or abiding one," and thus may also have been Earth-G.o.ddess.[132] Grannos was also a.s.sociated with the local G.o.ddesses Vesunna and Aventia, who gave their names to Vesona and Avanche. His statue also stood in the temple of the G.o.ddess of the Seine, Sequana.[133] With Bormo were a.s.sociated Bormana in Southern Gaul, and Damona in Eastern Gaul--perhaps an animal G.o.ddess, since the root of her name occurs in Irish _dam_, "ox," and Welsh _dafad_, "sheep." Dea Brixia was the consort of Luxovius, G.o.d of the waters of Luxeuil. Names of other G.o.ddesses of the waters are found on _ex votos_ and plaques which were placed in or near them. The Roman Nymphae, sometimes a.s.sociated with Bormo, were the equivalents of the Celtic water-G.o.ddesses, who survived in the water-fairies of later folk-belief. Some river-G.o.ddesses gave their names to many rivers in the Celtic area--the numerous Avons being named from Abn.o.ba, G.o.ddess of the sources of the Danube, and the many Dees and Dives from Divona. Clota was G.o.ddess of the Clyde, Sabrina had her throne "beneath the translucent wave" of the Severn, Icauna was G.o.ddess of the Yonne, Sequana of the Seine, and Sinnan of the Shannon.

In some cases forests were ruled by G.o.ddesses--that of the Ardennes by Dea Arduinna, and the Black Forest, perhaps because of the many waters in it, by Dea Abn.o.ba.[134] While some G.o.ddesses are known only by being a.s.sociated with a G.o.d, e.g. Kosmerta with Mercury in Eastern Gaul, others have remained separate, like Epona, perhaps a river-G.o.ddess merged with an animal divinity, and known from inscriptions as a horse-G.o.ddess.[135] But the most striking instance is found in the grouped G.o.ddesses.

Of these the _Deoe Matres_, whose name has taken a Latin form and whose cult extended to the Teutons, are mentioned in many inscriptions all over the Celtic area, save in East and North-West Gaul.[136] In art they are usually represented as three in number, holding fruit, flowers, a cornucopia, or an infant. They were thus G.o.ddesses of fertility, and probably derived from a cult of a great Mother-G.o.ddess, the Earth personified. She may have survived as a G.o.ddess Berecynthia; worshipped at Autun, where her image was borne through the fields to promote fertility, or as the G.o.ddesses equated with Demeter and Kore, worshipped by women on an island near Britain.[137] Such cults of a Mother-G.o.ddess lie behind many religions, but gradually her place was taken by an Earth-G.o.d, the Celtic Dispater or Dagda, whose consort the G.o.ddess became. She may therefore be the G.o.ddess with the cornucopia on monuments of the horned G.o.d, or Aeracura, consort of Dispater, or a G.o.ddess on a monument at Epinal holding a basket of fruit and a cornucopia, and accompanied by a ram's-headed serpent.[138] These symbols show that this G.o.ddess was akin to the _Matres_. But she sometimes preserved her individuality, as in the case of Berecynthia and the _Matres_, though it is not quite clear why she should have been thus triply multiplied. A similar phenomenon is found in the close connection of Demeter and Persephone, while the Celts regarded three as a sacred number. The primitive division of the year into three seasons--spring, summer, and winter--may have had its effect in triplicating a G.o.ddess of fertility with which the course of the seasons was connected.[139] In other mythologies groups of three G.o.ddesses are found, the Hathors in Egypt, the Moirai, Gorgons, and Graiae of Greece, the Roman Fates, and the Norse Nornae, and it is noticeable that the _Matres_ were sometimes equated with the Parcae and Fates.[140]

In the _Matres_, primarily G.o.ddesses of fertility and plenty, we have one of the most popular and also primitive aspects of Celtic religion.

They originated in an age when women cultivated the ground, and the Earth was a G.o.ddess whose cult was performed by priestesses. But in course of time new functions were bestowed on the _Matres_. Possibly river-G.o.ddesses and others are merely mothers whose functions have become specialised. The _Matres_ are found as guardians of individuals, families, houses, of towns, a province, or a whole nation, as their epithets in inscriptions show. The _Matres Domesticae_ are household G.o.ddesses; the _Matres Treverae_, or _Gallaicae_, or _Vediantae_, are the mothers of Treves, of the Gallaecae, of the Vediantii; the _Matres Nemetiales_ are guardians of groves. Besides presiding over the fields as _Matres Campestrae_ they brought prosperity to towns and people.[141]

They guarded women, especially in childbirth, as _ex votos_ prove, and in this aspect they are akin to the _Junones_ worshipped also in Gaul and Britain. The name thus became generic for most G.o.ddesses, but all alike were the lineal descendants of the primitive Earth-mother.[142]

Popular superst.i.tion has preserved the memory of these G.o.ddesses in the three _bonnes dames_, _dames blanches_, and White Women, met by wayfarers in forests, or in the three fairies or wise women of folk-tales, who appear at the birth of children. But sometimes they have become hateful hags. The _Matres_ and other G.o.ddesses probably survived in the beneficent fairies of rocks and streams, in the fairy Abonde who brought riches to houses, or Esterelle of Provence who made women fruitful, or Aril who watched over meadows, or in beings like Melusine, Viviane, and others.[143] In Gallo-Roman Britain the cult of the _Matres_ is found, but how far it was indigenous there is uncertain. A Welsh name for fairies, _Y Mamau_, "the Mothers," and the phrase, "the blessing of the Mothers" used of a fairy benediction, may be a reminiscence of such G.o.ddesses.[144] The presence of similar G.o.ddesses in Ireland will be considered later.[145] Images of the _Matres_ bearing a child have sometimes been taken for those of the Virgin, when found accidentally, and as they are of wood blackened with age, they are known as _Vierges Noires_, and occupy an honoured place in Christian sanctuaries. Many churches of Notre Dame have been built on sites where an image of the Virgin is said to have been miraculously found--the image probably being that of a pagan Mother. Similarly, an altar to the _Matres_ at Vaison is now dedicated to the Virgin as the "good Mother."[146]

In inscriptions from Eastern and Cisalpine Gaul, and from the Rhine and Danube region, the _Matronae_ are mentioned, and this name is probably indicative of G.o.ddesses like the _Matres_.[147] It is akin to that of many rivers, e.g. the Marne or Meyrone, and shows that the Mothers were a.s.sociated with rivers. The Mother river fertilised a large district, and exhibited the characteristic of the whole group of G.o.ddesses.

Akin also to the _Matres_ are the _Suleviae_, guardian G.o.ddesses called _Matres_ in a few inscriptions; the _Comedovae_, whose name perhaps denotes guardianship or power; the _Dominae_, who watched over the home, perhaps the _Dames_ of mediaeval folk-lore; and the _Virgines_, perhaps an appellative of the _Matres_, and significant when we find that virgin priestesses existed in Gaul and Ireland.[148] The _Proxumae_ were worshipped in Southern Gaul, and the _Quadriviae_, G.o.ddesses of cross-roads, at Cherbourg.[149]

Some Roman G.o.ds are found on inscriptions without being equated with native deities. They may have been accepted by the Gauls as new G.o.ds, or they had perhaps completely ousted similar native G.o.ds. Others, not mentioned by Caesar, are equated with native deities, Juno with Clivana, Saturn with Arvalus, and to a native Vulcan the Celts vowed spoils of war.[150] Again, many native G.o.ds are not equated with Roman deities on inscriptions. Apart from the divinities of Pyrenaean inscriptions, who may not be Celtic, the names of over 400 native deities, whether equated with Roman G.o.ds or not, are known. Some of these names are mere epithets, and most of the G.o.ds are of a local character, known here by one name, there by another. Only in a very few cases can it be a.s.serted that a G.o.d was worshipped over the whole Celtic area by one name, though some G.o.ds in Gaul, Britain, and Ireland with different names have certainly similar functions.[151]

The pantheon of the continental Celts was a varied one. Traces of the primitive agricultural rites, and of the priority of G.o.ddesses to G.o.ds, are found, and the vaguer aspects of primitive nature worship are seen behind the cult of divinities of sky, sun, thunder, forests, rivers, or in deities of animal origin. We come next to evidence of a higher stage, in divinities of culture, healing, the chase, war, and the underworld.

We see divinities of Celtic groups--G.o.ds of individuals, the family, the tribe. Sometimes war-G.o.ds a.s.sumed great prominence, in time of war, or among the aristocracy, but with the development of commerce, G.o.ds a.s.sociated with trade and the arts of peace came to the front.[152] At the same time the popular cults of agricultural districts must have remained as of old. With the adoption of Roman civilisation, enlightened Celts separated themselves from the lower aspects of their religion, but this would have occurred with growing civilisation had no Roman ever entered Gaul. In rural districts the more savage aspects of the cult would still have remained, but that these were entirely due to an aboriginal population is erroneous. The Celts must have brought such cults with them or adopted cults similar to their own wherever they came. The persistence of these cults is seen in the fact that though Christianity modified them, it could not root them out, and in out-of-the-way corners, survivals of the old ritual may still be found, for everywhere the old religion of the soil dies hard.

FOOTNOTES:

[53] Caesar, _de Bell. Gall._ vi. 17, 18.

[54] Bloch (Lavisse), _Hist, de France_, i. 2, 419; Reinaoh, _BF_ 13, 23.

[55] _Trans. Gaelic Soc. of Inverness_, xxvi. p. 411 f.

[56] Vallentin, _Les Dieux de la cite des Allobroges_, 15; Pliny, _HN_ x.x.xiv. 7.

[57] These names are Alaunius, Arcecius, Artaius, Arvernorix, Arvernus, Adsmerius, Canetonensis, Clavariatis, Cissonius, Cimbria.n.u.s, Dumiatis, Magniacus, Moecus, Toeirenus, Va.s.socaletus, Vellaunus, Visuoius, Biausius, Cimiacinus, Naissatis. See Holder, _s.v._

[58] Rh[^y]s, _HL_ 6.

[59] Hubner, vii. 271; _CIL_ iii. 5773.

[60] Lucian, _Heracles_, 1 f. Some Gaulish coins figure a head to which are bound smaller heads. In one case the cords issue from the mouth (Blanchet, i. 308, 316-317). These may represent Lucian's Ogmios, but other interpretations have been put upon them. See Robert, _RC_ vii.

388; Jullian, 84.

[61] The epithets and names are Anextiomarus, Belenos, Bormo, Borvo, or Borma.n.u.s, Cobledulitavus, Cosmis (?), Grannos, Livicus, Maponos, Mogo or Mogounos, Sia.n.u.s, Toutiorix, Viudonnus, Virotutis. See Holder, _s.v._

[62] Pommerol, _Ball. de Soc. d'ant. de Paris_, ii. fasc. 4.

[63] See Holder, _s.v._ Many place-names are derived from _Borvo, e.g._ Bourbon l'Archambaut, which gave its name to the Bourbon dynasty, thus connected with an old Celtic G.o.d.

[64] See p. 102, _infra_.

[65] Jul. Cap. _Maxim._ 22; Herodian, viii. 3; Tert. _Apol._ xxiv. 70; Auson. _Prof._ xi. 24.

[66] Stokes derives _belinuntia_ from _beljo_-, a tree or leaf, Irish _bile_, _US_ 174.

[67] Holder, _s.v._; Stokes, _US_ 197; Rh[^y]s, _HL_ 23; see p. 180, _infra_.

[68] Diod. Sic. ii. 47.

[69] Apoll. Rhod. iv. 609.

[70] Albiorix, Alator, Arixo, Beladonnis, Barrex, Belatucadros, Bolvinnus, Braciaca, Britovis, Buxenus, Cabetius, Camulus, Cariocecius, Caturix, Cemenelus, Cicollius, Carrus, Cocosus, Cociduis, Condatis, Cnabetius, Corotiacus, Dinomogetimarus, Divanno, Dunatis, Glarinus, Halamardus, Harmogius, Ieusdriuus, Lacavus, Latabius, Leucetius, Leucimalacus, Lenus, Mullo, Medocius, Mogetius, Nabelcus, Neton, Ocelos, Ollondios, Rudia.n.u.s, Rigisamus, Randosatis, Riga, Segomo, Sinatis, Smertatius, Toutates, Tritullus, Vesucius, Vincius, Vitucadros, Vorocius. See Holder, _s.v._

[71] D'Arbois, ii. 215; Rh[^y]s, _HL_ 37.