One of the most striking facts connected with the Celtic religion is the
large number of names of deities which it includes. These names are
known to us almost entirely from inscriptions, for the most part votive
tablets, in acknowledgment of some benefit, usually that of health,
conferred by the god on man. In Britain these votive tablets are chiefly
found in the neighbourhood of the Roman walls and camps, but we cannot be
always certain that the deities mentioned are indigenous. In Gaul,
however, we are on surer ground in associating certain deities with
certain districts, inasmuch as the evidence of place-names is often a
guide. These inscriptions are very unevenly distributed over Gaulish
territory, the Western and the North-Western districts being very
sparsely represented.
In the present brief sketch it is impossible to enter into a full
discussion of the relations of the names found on inscriptions to
particular localities, and the light thus thrown on Celtic religion; but
it may be here stated that investigation tends to confirm the local
character of most of the deities which the inscriptions name. Out of
these deities, some, it is true, in the process of evolution, gained a
wider field of worshippers, while others, like Lugus, may even have been
at one time more widely worshipped than they came to be in later times.
Occasionally a name like Lugus (Irish _Lug_), Segomo (Irish, in the
genitive, _Segamonas_), Camulos, whence Camulodunum (Colchester), Belenos
(Welsh _Belyn_), Maponos (Welsh _Mabon_), Litavis (Welsh _Llydaw_), by
its existence in Britain as well as in Gaul, suggests that it was either
one of the ancient deities of the Aryan Celts, or one whose worship came
to extend over a larger area than its fellows. Apart from a few
exceptional considerations of this kind, however, the local character of
the deities is most marked.
A very considerable number are the deities of springs and rivers. In
Noricum, for example, we have Adsalluta, a goddess associated with Savus
(the river Save). In Britain 'the goddess' Deva (the Dee), and Belisama
(either the Ribble or the Mersey), a name meaning 'the most warlike
goddess,' are of this type. We have again Axona the goddess of the river
Aisne, Sequana, the goddess of the Seine, Ritona of the river Rieu,
numerous nymphs and many other deities of fountains. Doubtless many
other names of local deities are of this kind. Aerial phenomena appear
to have left very few clear traces on the names of Celtic deities.
Vintios, a god identified with Mars, was probably a god of the wind,
Taranucus, a god of thunder, Leucetios, a god of lightning, Sulis (of
Bath) a sun-goddess, but beyond these there are few, if any, reflections
of the phenomena of the heavens. Of the gods named on inscriptions
nearly all are identified with Mercury, Mars, or Apollo. The gods who
came to be regarded as culture-deities appear from their names to be of
various origins: some are humanised totems, others are in origin deities
of vegetation or local natural phenomena. As already indicated, it is
clear that the growth of commercial and civilised life in certain
districts had brought into prominence deities identified with Mercury and
Minerva as the patrons of civilisation. Military men, especially in
Britain, appear to have favoured deities like Belatucadros (the brilliant
in war), identified with Mars.
About fourteen inscriptions mentioning him have been found in the North
of England and the South of Scotland. The goddess Brigantia (the patron-
deity of the Brigantes), too, is mentioned on four inscriptions:
Cocidius, identified with Mars, is mentioned on thirteen: while another
popular god appears to have been Silvanus. Among the most noticeable
names of the Celtic gods identified with Mercury are Adsmerius or
Atesmerius, Dumiatis (the god of the Puy de Dome), Iovantucarus (the
lover of youth), Teutates (the god of the people), Caletos (the hard),
and Moccus (the boar). Several deities are identified with Mars, and of
these some of the most noticeable names are Albiorix (world-king),
Caturix (battle-king), Dunatis (the god of the fort), Belatucadrus (the
brilliant in war), Leucetius (the god of lightning), Mullo (the mule),
Ollovidius (the all-knowing) Vintius (the wind-god), and Vitucadrus (the
brilliant in energy). The large number of names identified with Mars
reflects the prominent place at one time given to war in the ideas that
affected the growth of the religion of the Celtic tribes. Of the gods
identified with Hercules, the most interesting name is Ogmios (the god of
the furrow) given by Lucian, but not found on any inscription. The
following gods too, among others, are identified with Jupiter: Aramo (the
gentle), Ambisagrus (the persistent), Bussumarus (the large-lipped),
Taranucus (the thunderer), Uxellimus (the highest). It would seem from
this that in historic times at any rate Jupiter did not play a large part
in Celtic religious ideas.
There remains another striking feature of Celtic religion which has not
yet been mentioned, namely the identification of several deities with
Apollo. These deities are essentially the presiding deities of certain
healing-springs and health-resorts, and the growth of their worship into
popularity is a further striking index to the development of religion
side by side with certain aspects of civilisation. One of the names of a
Celtic Apollo is Borvo (whence Bourbon), the deity of certain hot
springs. This name is Indo-European, and was given to the local fountain-
god by the Celtic-speaking invaders of Gaul: it simply means 'the
Boiler.' Other forms of the name are also found, as Bormo and Bormanus.
At Aquae Granni (Aix-la-Chapelle) and elsewhere the name identified with
Apollo is Grannos. We find also Mogons, and Mogounus, the patron deity
of Moguntiacum (Mainz), and, once or twice, Maponos (the great youth).
The essential feature of the Apollo worship was its association in Gallo-
Roman civilisation with the idea of healing, an idea which, through the
revival of the worship of AEsculapius, affected religious views very
strongly in other quarters of the empire. It was in this conception of
the gods as the guides of civilisation and the restorers of health, that
Celtic religion, in some districts at any rate, shows itself emerging
into a measure of light after a long and toilsome progress from the
darkness of prehistoric ideas. What Caesar says of the practice of the
Gauls of beginning the year with the night rather than with the day, and
their ancient belief that they were sprung from Dis, the god of the lower
world, is thus typified in their religious history.
In dealing with the deities of the Celtic world we must not, however,
forget the goddesses, though their history presents several problems of
great difficulty. Of these goddesses some are known to us by
groups--Proximae (the kinswomen), Dervonnae (the oak-spirits), Niskai
(the water-sprites), Mairae, Matronae, Matres or Matrae (the mothers),
Quadriviae (the goddesses of cross roads). The Matres, Matrae, and
Matronae are often qualified by some local name. Deities of this type
appear to have been popular in Britain, in the neighbourhood of Cologne
and in Provence. In some cases it is uncertain whether some of these
grouped goddesses are Celtic or Teutonic. It is an interesting parallel
to the existence of these grouped goddesses, when we find that in some
parts of Wales 'Y Mamau' (the mothers) is the name for the fairies. These
grouped goddesses take us back to one of the most interesting stages in
the early Celtic religion, when the earth-spirits or the corn-spirits had
not yet been completely individualised. Of the individualised goddesses
many are strictly local, being the names of springs or rivers. Others,
again, appear to have emerged into greater individual prominence, and of
these we find several associated on inscriptions, sometimes with a god of
Celtic name, but sometimes with his Latin counterpart. It is by no means
certain that the names so linked together were thus associated in early
times, and the fashion may have been a later one, which, like other
fashions, spread after it had once begun. The relationship in some cases
may have been regarded as that of mother and son, in others that of
brother and sister, in others that of husband and wife, the data are not
adequate for the final decision of the question. Of these associated
pairs the following may be noted, Mercurius and Rosmerta, Mercurius and
Dirona, Grannus (Apollo) and Sirona, Sucellus and Nantosvelta, Borvo and
Damona, Cicolluis (Mars) and Litavis, Bormanus and Bormana, Savus and
Adsalluta, Mars and Nemetona. One of these names, Sirona, probably meant
the long-lived one, and was applied to the earth-mother. In Welsh one or
two names have survived which, by their structure, appear to have been
ancient names of goddesses; these are Rhiannon (Rigantona, the great
queen), and Modron (Matrona, the great mother). The other British
deities will be more fully treated by another writer in this series in a
work on the ancient mythology of the British Isles. It is enough to say
that research tends more and more to confirm the view that the key to the
history of the Celtic deities is the realisation of the local character
of the vast majority of them.