ACCESSORIES OF CULT.
TEMPLES.
In primitive religion the place of worship is seldom a temple made with
hands, but rather an enclosed space in which the symbol or image of the
god stands. The sacredness of the god makes the place of his cult
sacred. Often an open space in the forest is the scene of the regular
cult. There the priests perform the sacred rites; none may enter it but
themselves; and the trembling worshipper approaches it with awe lest the
god should slay him if he came too near.
The earliest temples of the Gauls were sacred groves, one of which, near
Massilia, is described by Lucan. No bird built in it, no animal lurked
near, the leaves constantly shivered when no breeze stirred them. Altars
stood in its midst, and the images of the gods were misshapen trunks of
trees. Every tree was stained with sacrificial blood. The poet then
describes marvels heard or seen in the grove--the earth groaning, dead
yews reviving, trees surrounded with flame yet not consumed, and huge
serpents twining round the oaks. The people feared to approach the
grove, and even the priest would not walk there at midday or midnight
lest he should then meet its divine guardian.[953] Dio speaks of human
sacrifices offered to Andrasta in a British grove, and in 61 A.D. the
woods of Mona, devoted to strange rites, were cut down by Roman
soldiers.[954] The sacred _Dru-nemeton_ of the Galatian Celts may have
been a grove.[955] Place-names also point to the widespread existence of
such groves, since the word _nemeton_, "grove," occurs in many of them,
showing that the places so called had been sites of a cult. In Ireland,
_fid-nemed_ stood for "sacred grove."[956] The ancient groves were still
the objects of veneration in Christian times, though fines were levied
against those who still clung to the old ways.[957]
Sacred groves were still used in Gallo-Roman times, and the Druids may
have had a preference for them, a preference which may underlie the
words of the scholiast on Lucan, that "the Druids worship the gods
without temples in woods." But probably more elaborate temples, great
tribal sanctuaries, existed side by side with these local groves,
especially in Cisalpine Gaul, where the Boii had a temple in which were
stored the spoils of war, while the Insubri had a similar temple.[958]
These were certainly buildings. The "consecrated place" in Transalpine
Gaul, which Cæsar mentions, and where at fixed periods judgments were
given, might be either a grove or a temple. Cæsar uses the same phrase
for sacred places where the spoils of war were heaped; these may have
been groves, but Diodorus speaks of treasure collected in "temples and
sacred places" ([Greek: en tois hierois chai temenesin]), and Plutarch
speaks of the "temple" where the Arverni hung Cæsar's sword.[959] The
"temple" of the Namnite women, unroofed and re-roofed in a day, must
have been a building. There is no evidence that the insular Celts had
temples. In Gallo-Roman times, elaborate temples, perhaps occupying
sites of earlier groves or temples, sprang up over the Romano-Celtic
area. They were built on Roman models, many of them were of great size,
and they were dedicated to Roman or Gallo-Roman divinities.[960] Smaller
shrines were built by grateful worshippers at sacred springs to their
presiding divinity, as many inscriptions show. In the temples stood
images of the gods, and here were stored sacred vessels, sometimes made
of the skulls of enemies, spoils of war dedicated to the gods, money
collected for sacred purposes, and war standards, especially those which
bore divine symbols.
The old idea that stone circles were Druidic temples, that human
sacrifices were offered on the "altar-stone," and libations of blood
poured into the cup-markings, must be given up, along with much of the
astronomical lore associated with the circles. Stonehenge dates from the
close of the Neolithic Age, and most of the smaller circles belong to
the early Bronze Age, and are probably pre-Celtic. In any case they were
primarily places of sepulture. As such they would be the scene of
ancestor worship, but yet not temples in the strict sense of the word.
The larger circles, burial-places of great chiefs or kings, would become
central places for the recurring rites of ghost-worship, possibly also
rallying places of the tribe on stated occasions. But whether this
ghost-worship was ever transmuted into the cult of a god at the circles
is uncertain and, indeed, unlikely. The Celts would naturally regard
these places as sacred, since the ghosts of the dead, even those of a
vanquished people, are always dangerous, and they also took over the
myths and legends[961] associated with them, such, e.g., as regarded the
stones themselves, or trees growing within the circles, as embodiments
of the dead, while they may also have used them as occasional places of
secondary interment. Whether they were ever led to copy such circles
themselves is uncertain, since their own methods of interment seem to
have been different. We have seen that the gods may in some cases have
been worshipped at tumuli, and that Lugnasad was, at some centres,
connected with commemorative cults at burial-places (mounds, not
circles). But the reasons for this are obscure, nor is there any hint
that other Celtic festivals were held near burial mounds. Probably such
commemorative rites at places of sepulture during Lugnasad were only
part of a wider series occurring elsewhere, and we cannot assume from
such vague notices that stone circles were Druidic temples where worship
of an Oriental nature was carried on.
Professor Rh[^y]s is disposed to accept the old idea that Stonehenge was
the temple of Apollo in the island of the Hyperboreans, mentioned by
Diodorus, where the sun-god was worshipped.[962] But though that temple
was circular, it had walls adorned with votive offerings. Nor does the
temple unroofed yearly by the Namnite women imply a stone circle, for
there is not the slightest particle of evidence that the circles were
ever roofed in any way.[963] Stone circles with mystic trees growing in
them, one of them with a well by which entrance was gained to Tír fa
Tonn, are mentioned in Irish tales. They were connected with magic
rites, but are not spoken of as temples.[964]
ALTARS.
Lucan describes realistically the awful sacrifices of the Gauls on cruel
altars not a whit milder than those of Diana, and he speaks of "altars
piled with offerings" in the sacred grove at Marseilles.[965] Cicero
says that human victims were sacrificed on altars, and Tacitus describes
the altars of Mona smeared with human blood.[966] "Druids' altars" are
mentioned in the Irish "Expedition of Dathi," and Cormac speaks of
_indelba_, or altars adorned with emblems.[967] Probably many of these
altars were mere heaps of stone like the Norse _horg_, or a great block
of stone. Some sacrifices, however, were too extensive to be offered on
an altar, but in such cases the blood would be sprinkled upon it. Under
Roman influence, Celtic altars took the form of those of the conquerors,
with inscriptions containing names of native or Roman gods and
bas-reliefs depicting some of these. The old idea that dolmens were
Celtic altars is now abandoned. They were places of sepulture of the
Neolithic or early Bronze Age, and were originally covered with a mound
of earth. During the era of Celtic paganism they were therefore hidden
from sight, and it is only in later times that the earth has been
removed and the massive stones, arranged so as to form a species of
chamber, have been laid bare.
IMAGES.
The Gauls, according to Cæsar, possessed _plurima simulacra_ of the
native Mercury, but he does not refer to images of other gods. We need
not infer from this that the Celts had a prejudice against images, for
among the Irish Celts images are often mentioned, and in Gaul under
Roman rule many images existed.
The existence of images among the Celts as among other peoples, may owe
something to the cult of trees and of stones set up over the dead. The
stone, associated with the dead man's spirit, became an image of
himself, perhaps rudely fashioned in his likeness. A rough-hewn tree
trunk became an image of the spirit or god of trees. On the other hand,
some anthropomorphic images, like the palæolithic or Mycenæan figurines,
may have been fashioned without the intermediary of tree-trunk or stone
pillar. Maximus of Tyre says that the Celtic image of Zeus was a lofty
oak, perhaps a rough-hewn trunk rather than a growing tree, and such
roughly carved tree-trunks, images of gods, are referred to by Lucan in
his description of the Massilian grove.[968] Pillar stones set up over
the graves of the dead are often mentioned in Irish texts. These would
certainly be associated with the dead; indeed, existing legends show
that they were believed to be tenanted by the ghosts and to have the
power of motion. This suggests that they had been regarded as images of
the dead. Other stones honoured in Ireland were the _cloch labrais_, an
oracular stone; the _lia fail_, or coronation stone, which shouted when
a king of the Milesian race seated himself upon it; and the _lia
adrada_, or stone of adoration, apparently a boundary stone.[969] The
_plurima simulacra_ of the Gaulish Mercury may have been boundary stones
like those dedicated to Mercury or Hermes among the Romans and Greeks.
Did Cæsar conclude, or was it actually the case, that the Gauls
dedicated such stones to a god of boundaries who might be equated with
Mercury? Many such standing stones still exist in France, and their
number must have been greater in Cæsar's time. Seeing them the objects
of superstitious observances, he may have concluded that they were
_simulacra_ of a god. Other Romans besides himself had been struck by
the resemblance of these stones to their Hermai, and perhaps the Gauls,
if they did not already regard them as symbols of a god, acquiesced in
the resemblance. Thus, on the menhir of Kervadel are sculptured four
figures, one being that of Mercury, dating from Gallo-Roman times.
Beneath another, near Peronne, a bronze statuette of Mercury was
discovered.[970] This would seem to show that the Gauls had a cult of
pillar stones associated with a god of boundaries. Cæsar probably uses
the word _simulacrum_ in the sense of "symbol" rather than "image,"
though he may have meant native images not fully carved in human shape,
like the Irish _cérmand_, _cerstach_, ornamented with gold and silver,
the "chief idol" of north Ireland, or like the similarly ornamented
"images" of Cromm Cruaich and his satellites.[971] The adoration of
sacred stones continued into Christian times and was much opposed by the
Church.[972] S. Samson of Dol (sixth century) found men dancing round a
_simulacrum abominabile_, which seems to have been a kind of standing
stone, and having besought them to desist, he carved a cross upon
it.[973] Several _menhirion_ in France are now similarly
ornamented.[974]
The number of existing Gallo-Roman images shows that the Celts had not
adopted a custom which was foreign to them, and they must have already
possessed rude native images. The disappearance of these would be
explained if they were made of perishable material. Wooden images of the
_Matres_ have been occasionally found, and these may be pre-Roman. Some
of the images of the three-headed and crouching gods show no sign of
Roman influences in their modelling, and they may have been copied from
earlier images of wood. We also find divine figures on pre-Roman
coins.[975] Certain passages in classical writings point to the
existence of native images. A statue of a goddess existed in a temple at
Marseilles, according to Justin, and the Galatian Celts had images of
the native Juppiter and Artemis, while the conquering Celts who entered
Rome bowed to the seated senators as to statues of the gods.[976] The
Gauls placed rich ornaments on the images of the gods, and presumably
these were native "idols."
"Idols" are frequently mentioned in Irish texts, and there is no doubt
that these mean images.[977] Cormac mac Art refused to worship "idols,"
and was punished by the Druids.[978] The idols of Cromm Cruaich and his
satellites, referred to in the _Dindsenchas_, were carved to represent
the human form; the chief one was of gold, the others of stone. These
were miraculously overthrown by S. Patrick; but in the account of the
miracle the chief idol was of stone adorned with gold and silver, the
others, numbering twelve, were ornamented with bronze.[979] They stood
in Mag Slecht, and similar sacred places with groups of images evidently
existed elsewhere, e.g. at Rath Archaill, "where the Druid's altars and
images are."[980] The lady Cessair, before coming to Ireland, is said to
have taken advice of her _laimh-dhia_, or "hand gods," perhaps small
images used for divination.[981]
For the British Celts the evidence is slender, but idolatry in the sense
of "image-worship" is frequently mentioned in the lives of early
saints.[982] Gildas also speaks of images "mouldering away within and
without the deserted temples, with stiff and deformed features."[983]
This pathetic picture of the forsaken shrines of forgotten gods may
refer to Romano-Celtic images, but the "stiff and deformed features"
suggest rather native art, the art of a people unskilful at reproducing
the human form, however artistic they may have been in other directions.
If the native Celts of Ireland had images, there is no reason to
suppose, especially considering the evidence just adduced, that the
Gauls, or at least the Druids, were antagonistic to images. This last is
M. Reinach's theory, part of a wider hypothesis that the Druids were
pre-Celtic, but became the priests of the Celts, who till then had no
priests. The Druids prohibited image-worship, and this prohibition
existed in Gaul, _ex hypothesi_, from the end of palæolithic times.
Pythagoras and his school were opposed to image-worship, and the
classical writers claimed a connection between the Pythagoreans and the
Druids. M. Reinach thinks there must have been some analogy between
them, and that was hostility to anthropomorphism. But the analogy is
distinctly stated to have lain in the doctrine of immortality or
metempsychosis. Had the Druids been opposed to image-worship, classical
observers could not have failed to notice the fact. M. Reinach then
argues that the Druids caused the erection of the megalithic monuments
in Gaul, symbols not images. They are thus Druidic, though not Celtic.
The monuments argue a powerful priesthood; the Druids were a powerful
priesthood; therefore the Druids caused the monuments to be built. This
is not a powerful argument![984]
As has been seen, some purely Celtic images existed in Gaul. The Gauls,
who used nothing but wood for their houses, probably knew little of the
art of carving stone. They would therefore make most of their images of
wood--a perishable material. The insular Celts had images, and if, as
Cæsar maintained, the Druids came from Britain to Gaul, this points at
least to a similarity of cult in the two regions. Youthful Gauls who
aspired to Druidic knowledge went to Britain to obtain it. Would the
Druids of Gaul have permitted this, had they been iconoclasts? No single
text shows that the Druids had any antipathy to images, while the Gauls
certainly had images of worshipful animals. Further, even if the Druids
were priests of a pre-Celtic folk, they must have permitted the making
of images, since many "menhir-statues" exist on French soil, at Aveyron,
Tarn, and elsewhere.[985] The Celts were in constant contact with
image-worshipping peoples, and could hardly have failed to be influenced
by them, even if such a priestly prohibition existed, just as Israel
succumbed to images in spite of divine commands. That they would have
been thus influenced is seen from the number of images of all kinds
dating from the period after the Roman conquest.
Incidental proofs of the fondness of the Celts for images are found in
ecclesiastical writings and in late survivals. The procession of the
image of Berecynthia has already been described, and such processions
were common in Gaul, and imply a regular folk-custom. S. Martin of Tours
stopped a funeral procession believing it to be such a pagan rite.[986]
Councils and edicts prohibited these processions in Gaul, but a more
effectual way was to Christianise them. The Rogation tide processions
with crucifix and Madonna, and the carrying of S. John's image at the
Midsummer festivals, were a direct continuation of the older practices.
Images were often broken by Christian saints in Gaul, as they had been
over-turned by S. Patrick in Ireland. "Stiff and deformed" many of them
must have been, if one may judge from the _Groah-goard_ or "Venus of
Quinipily," for centuries the object of superstitious rites in
Brittany.[987] With it may be compared the fetich-stone or image of
which an old woman in the island of Inniskea, the guardian of a sacred
well, had charge. It was kept wrapped up to hide it from profane eyes,
but at certain periods it was brought out for adoration.[988]
The images and bas-reliefs of the Gallo-Roman period fall mainly into
two classes. In the first class are those representing native
divinities, like Esus, Tarvos Trigaranos, Smertullos, Cernunnos, the
horned and crouching gods, the god with the hammer, and the god with the
wheel. Busts and statues of some water-goddesses exist, but more
numerous are the representations of Epona. One of these is provided with
a box pedestal in which offerings might be placed. The _Matres_ are
frequently figured, usually as three seated figures with baskets of
fruit or flowers, or with one or more infants, like the Madonna. Images
of triple-headed gods, supposed to be Cernunnos, have been found, but
are difficult to place in any category.[989]
To the images of the second class is usually attached the Roman name of
a god, but generally the native Celtic name is added, but the images
themselves are of the traditional Roman type. Among statues and
statuettes of bronze, that of Mercury occurs most often. This may point
to the fact that Cæsar's _simulacra_ of the native Mercury were images,
and that the old preference for representing this god continued in Roman
times. Small figures of divinities in white clay have been found in
large numbers, and may have been _ex votos_ or images of household
_lararia_.[990]
SYMBOLS.
Images of the gods in Gaul can be classified by means of their
symbols--the mallet and cup (a symbol of plenty) borne by the god with
the hammer, the wheel of the sun-god, the cornucopia and torque carried
by Cernunnos. Other symbols occur on images, altars, monuments, and
coins. These are the swastika and triskele, probably symbols of the
sun;[991] single or concentric circles, sometimes with rays;[992]
crosses; and a curious S figure. The triskele and the circles are
sometimes found on faces figured on coins. They may therefore have been
tattoo markings of a symbolic character. The circle and cross are often
incised on bronze images of Dispater. Much speculation has been aroused
by the S figure, which occurs on coins, while nine models of this symbol
hang from a ring carried by the god with the wheel, but the most
probable is that which sees in it a thunderbolt.[993] But lacking any
old text interpreting these various symbols, all explanations of them
must be conjectural. Some of them are not purely Celtic, but are of
world-wide occurrence.
CULT OF WEAPONS.
Here some reference may be made to the Celtic cult of weapons. As has
been seen, a hammer is the symbol of one god, and it is not unlikely
that a cult of the hammer had preceded that of the god to whom the
hammer was given as a symbol. Esus is also represented with an axe. We
need not repeat what has already been said regarding the primitive and
universal cult of hammer or axe,[994] but it is interesting to notice,
in connection with other evidence for a Celtic cult of weapons, that
there is every reason to believe that the phrase _sub ascia dedicare_,
which occurs in inscriptions on tombs from Gallia Lugdunensis, usually
with the figure of an axe incised on the stone, points to the cult of
the axe, or of a god whose symbol the axe was.[995] In Irish texts the
power of speech is attributed to weapons, but, according to the
Christian scribe, this was because demons spoke from them, for the
people worshipped arms in those days.[996] Thus it may have been
believed that spirits tenanted weapons, or that weapons had souls.
Evidence of the cult itself is found in the fact that on Gaulish coins a
sword is figured, stuck in the ground, or driving a chariot, or with a
warrior dancing before it, or held in the hand of a dancing
warrior.[997] The latter are ritual acts, and resemble that described by
Spenser as performed by Irish warriors in his day, who said prayers or
incantations before a sword stuck in the earth.[998] Swords were also
addressed in songs composed by Irish bards, and traditional remains of
such songs are found in Brittany.[999] They represent the chants of the
ancient cult. Oaths were taken by weapons, and the weapons were believed
to turn against those who lied.[1000] The magical power of weapons,
especially of those over which incantations had been said, is frequently
referred to in traditional tales and Irish texts.[1001] A reminiscence
of the cult or of the magical power of weapons may be found in the
wonderful "glaives of light" of Celtic folk-tales, and the similar
mystical weapon of the Arthurian romances.
FOOTNOTES:
[953] Lucan, _Pharsalia_, iii. 399 f.
[954] Dio Cass. lxii. 7; Tac. _Ann._ xiv. 30.
[955] Strabo, xii. 51. _Drunemeton_ may mean "great temple" (D'Arbois,
_Les Celtes_, 203).
[956] _Antient Laws of Ireland_, i. 164.
[957] Holder, ii. 712. Cf. "Indiculus" in Grimm, _Teut. Myth._ 1739, "de
sacris silvarum, quas nimidas (= nemeta) vocant."
[958] Livy, xxiii. 24; Polyb. ii. 32.
[959] Cæsar, vi. 13, 17; Diod. Sic. v. 27; Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 26.
[960] See examples in Dom Martin, i. 134 f.; cf. Greg. Tours, _Hist.
Franc._ i. 30.
[961] See Reinach, "Les monuments de pierre brute dans le langage et les
croyances populaires," _Rev. Arch._ 1893, i. 339; Evans, "The Roll-Right
Stones," _Folk-Lore_, vi. 20 f.
[962] Rh[^y]s, _HL_ 194; Diod. Sic. ii. 47.
[963] Rh[^y]s, 197.
[964] Joyce, _OCR_ 246; Kennedy, 271.
[965] Lucan, i. 443, iii. 399f.
[966] Cicero, _pro Fonteio_, x. 21; Tac. _Ann._ xiv. 30. Cf. Pomp. Mela,
iii. 2. 18.
[967] O'Curry, _MS. Mat._ 284; Cormac, 94. Cf. _IT_ iii. 211, for the
practice of circumambulating altars.
[968] Max. Tyr. _Dissert._ viii. 8; Lucan, iii. 412f.
[969] _Antient Laws of Ireland_, iv. 142.
[970] _Rev. Arch._ i. pl. iii-v.; Reinach, _RC_ xi. 224, xiii. 190.
[971] Stokes, _Martyr. of Oengus_, 186-187.
[972] See the Twenty-third Canon of Council of Arles, the Twenty-third
of the Council of Tours, 567, and ch. 65 of the _Capitularia_, 789.
[973] Mabillon, _Acta_, i. 177.
[974] Reinach, _Rev. Arch._ 1893, xxi. 335.
[975] Blanchet, i. 152-153, 386.
[976] Justin, xliii. 5; Strabo, xii. 5. 2; Plutarch, _de Virt. Mul._
xx.; Livy, v. 41.
[977] Cormac, 94.
[978] Keating, 356. See also Stokes, _Martyr. of Oengus_, 186; _RC_ xii.
427, § 15; Joyce, _SH_ 274 f.
[979] _LL_ 213_b_; _Trip. Life_, i. 90, 93.
[980] O'Curry, _MS. Mat._ 284.
[981] Keating, 49.
[982] Jocelyn, _Vita S. Kentig._ 27, 32, 34; Ailred, _Vita S. Ninian._
6.
[983] Gildas, § 4.
[984] For the whole argument see Reinach, _RC_ xiii. 189 f. Bertrand,
_Rev. Arch._ xv. 345, supports a similar theory, and, according to both
writers, Gallo-Roman art was the result of the weakening of Druidic
power by the Romans.
[985] L'Abbé Hermet, Assoc. pour l'avancement des Sciences, _Compte
Rendu_, 1900, ii. 747; _L'Anthropologie_, v. 147.
[986] _Corp. Scrip. Eccl. Lat._ i. 122.
[987] Monnier, 362. The image bears part of an inscription ... LIT...
and it has been thought that this read ILITHYIA originally. The name is
in keeping with the rites still in use before the image. This would make
it date from Roman times. If so, it is a poor specimen of the art of the
period. But it may be an old native image to which later the name of the
Roman goddess was given.
[988] Roden, _Progress of the Reformation in Ireland_, 51. The image was
still existing in 1851.
[989] For figures of most of these, see _Rev. Arch._ vols. xvi., xviii.,
xix., xxxvi.; _RC_ xvii. 45, xviii. 254, xx. 309, xxii. 159, xxiv. 221;
Bertrand, _passim_; Courcelle-Seneuil, _Les Dieux Gaulois d'apres les
Monuments Figures_, Paris, 1910.
[990] See Courcelle-Seneuil, _op. cit._; Reinach, _BF passim_,
_Catalogue Sommaire du Musée des Ant. nat._{4} 115-116.
[991] Reinach, _Catal._ 29, 87; _Rev. Arch._ xvi. 17; Blanchet, i. 169,
316; Huchet, _L'art gaulois_, ii. 8.
[992] Blanchet, i. 158; Reinach, _BF_ 143, 150, 152.
[993] Blanchet, i. 17; Flouest, _Deux Stèles_ (Append.), Paris, 1885;
Reinach, _BF_ 33.
[994] P. 30, _supra_.
[995] Hirschfeld in _CIL_ xiii. 256.
[996] _RC_ xii. 107; Joyce, _SH_ i. 131.
[997] Blanchet, i. 160 f.; Muret de la Tour, _Catalogue_, 6922, 6941,
etc.
[998] _View of the State of Ireland_, 57.
[999] _RC_ xx. 7; Martin, _Études de la Myth. Celt._ 164.
[1000] _IT_ i. 206; _RC_ ix. 144.
[1001] _CM_ xiii. 168 f.; Miss Hull, 44, 221, 223.