The Religion of the Ancient Celts. J. A. MacCulloch
who watched over the home, perhaps the Dames of mediæval 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 Proxumæ were worshipped in Southern Gaul, and the Quadriviæ, goddesses of cross-roads, at Cherbourg.149
Some Roman gods are found on inscriptions without being equated with native deities. They may have been accepted by the Gauls as new gods, or they had perhaps completely ousted similar native gods. Others, not mentioned by Cæsar, 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 gods are not equated with Roman deities on inscriptions. Apart from the divinities of Pyrenæan inscriptions, who may not be Celtic, the names of over 400 native deities, whether equated with Roman gods or not, are known. Some of these names are mere epithets, and most of the gods are of a local character, known here by one name, there by another. Only in a very few cases can it be asserted that a god was worshipped over the whole Celtic area by one name, though some gods 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 goddesses to gods, 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—gods of individuals, the family, the tribe. Sometimes war-gods assumed great prominence, in time of war, or among the aristocracy, but with the development of commerce, gods associated 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.
Footnote 53: (return)
Cæsar, de Bell. Gall. vi. 17, 18.
Footnote 54: (return)
Bloch (Lavisse), Hist, de France, i. 2, 419; Reinaoh, BF 13, 23.
Footnote 55: (return)
Trans. Gaelic Soc. of Inverness, xxvi. p. 411 f.
Footnote 56: (return)
Vallentin, Les Dieux de la cité des Allobroges, 15; Pliny, HN xxxiv. 7.
Footnote 57: (return)
These names are Alaunius, Arcecius, Artaius, Arvernorix, Arvernus, Adsmerius, Canetonensis, Clavariatis, Cissonius, Cimbrianus, Dumiatis, Magniacus, Moecus, Toeirenus, Vassocaletus, Vellaunus, Visuoius, Biausius, Cimiacinus, Naissatis. See Holder, s.v.
Footnote 58: (return)
Rh[^y]s, HL 6.
Footnote 59: (return)
Hübner, vii. 271; CIL iii. 5773.
Footnote 60: (return)
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 Ogmíos, but other interpretations have been put upon them. See Robert, RC vii. 388; Jullian, 84.
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The epithets and names are Anextiomarus, Belenos, Bormo, Borvo, or Bormanus, Cobledulitavus, Cosmis (?), Grannos, Livicus, Maponos, Mogo or Mogounos, Sianus, Toutiorix, Viudonnus, Virotutis. See Holder, s.v.
Footnote 62: (return)
Pommerol, Ball. de Soc. d'ant. de Paris, ii. fasc. 4.
Footnote 63: (return)
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 god.
Footnote 64: (return)
See p. 102, infra.
Footnote 65: (return)
Jul. Cap. Maxim. 22; Herodian, viii. 3; Tert. Apol. xxiv. 70; Auson. Prof. xi. 24.
Footnote 66: (return)
Stokes derives belinuntia from beljo−, a tree or leaf, Irish bile, US 174.
Footnote 67: (return)
Holder, s.v.; Stokes, US 197; Rh[^y]s, HL 23; see p. 180, infra.
Footnote 68: (return)
Diod. Sic. ii. 47.
Footnote 69: (return)
Apoll. Rhod. iv. 609.
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