A Brief History of the Celts (23 page)

Our problem is that the Greek and Roman observers have added to our confusion by attempting to equate the Celtic deities with their own and also by comments which seem at odds with the evidence.
We find a school of thought which claims that the Celts did not make images of their deities in human form until late in the Iron Age because, according to Diodorus Siculus, when the Celts stormed
the Greek sanctuary of Delphi, their leader Brennus is reported to have laughed at the idea of gods and goddesses being represented in human form. ‘When he came only upon images of stone and
wood he laughed at them, to think that men, believing that gods had human form, should set up their images in wood and stone.’

Yet Caesar on the other hand says that the Celts believed that the deities were their ancestors and not their creators, so, surely, they had human form? And, indeed, we have an image of
Cernunnos, clearly in human form albeit with horns coming out of his head, from the fourth-century
BC
rock
scratching at Paspardo in the Val
Camonica, a long time before Brennus reached Delphi. Confusion lurks everywhere for the unwary. Cernunnos was certainly a major god. The name seems to indicate ‘the horned one’ and he
is often depicted with the symbol of stag’s antlers – which remained a royal symbol among the Irish kings, particularly the Eóghanacht dynasty of Cashel. It has been argued that
the Cernunnos of the Continental and British Celts is The Dagda (The Good God) of Irish mythology.

At Nautae Parisiaci both his name and his description are given on a monument dating from around
AD
14–37. It was found in March 1711, beneath the Cathedral of
Notre Dame in Paris. He is bearded, with stag’s antlers from which hang hero’s torcs. While the lower part of this figure has been lost, indications are that Cernunnos is sitting in the
lotus position. There are over 300 figures of gods found in the Celtic world adopting this classic meditation position so closely associated in the modern mind with the Buddhist or Hindu religions.
Again, in this we see an Indo-European common practice. Cernunnos, of course, appears on the famous Gundestrup Cauldron where he also sits in the lotus position. He is sometimes accompanied by a
ram-horned snake. On one relief found in Haute-Marne he is depicted as feeding this snake. In other carvings he has a female consort – in examples found at Clermont-Ferrand and at
Besançon she is antlered as well.

In Britain the god appears at Cirencester in a small stone relief whose legs are turned into the ram-horned snakes themselves which rear up, tongues protruding. On either side of the god are
open purses of money. Cernunnos also appears on a Celtic silver coin dated
c.
AD
20, of the Belgae Remi, found at Petersfield, Hampshire. Here, between the antlers,
the god bears a solar wheel. It is now in the British Museum.

Clearly Cernunnos is a major god in the Celtic pantheon. Scholars have argued that his zoomorphic accompaniment indicates that he was ‘Lord of Animals’. Shiva, in the Hindu
pantheon, was also called Pasupati, meaning ‘Lord of Animals’. When Sir John Marshall was excavating at Mohenjodaro, in north-west India, he found a seal on
which Pasupati was represented. ‘The general resemblance between the Cernunnos panel and the Mohenjodaro seal [now in the Delhi Museum] is such that one can hardly doubt their common
origin,’ commented Professor Myles Dillon.

The Dagda carries a club which can destroy at one end and restore to life with the other. If The Dagda is also Cernunnos and a cognate with Shiva, then we can see vague similarities to the Hindu
triple forms of Brahma (Creator), Vishnu (Preserver) and Shiva (Destroyer). The famous hill-figure carving of the Cerne Abbas Giant in southern England, some 55 metres high, carrying a club and
with penis erect, is argued to be Cernunnos and therefore the British Celtic equivalent of The Dagda. The figure is almost a replica of a carving found at Costopitum (Corbridge, Northumberland) now
in the Newcastle upon Tyne Museum of Antiquities. It certainly has all the attributes of Cernunnos. Shiva is also regarded as the male generative force of the Vedic religion whose symbol was the
linga
or phallus. In Greek and Roman perceptions this would equate with Heracles, whom they often saw as progenitor of the Celts.

We saw in Chapter 1 that the Celts believed their origins lay with the mother goddess, Danu, ‘divine waters from heaven’. She fell from heaven and her waters created the Danuvius
(Danube), having watered the sacred oak tree Bíle. From there sprang the pantheon of the gods who are known as the Tuatha de Danaan (Children of Danu) in Irish and the Children of Dôn
in Welsh myths.

It has been argued, not with any degree of conviction, that Anu, occurring in both Continental and Irish Celtic forms, is unrelated to Danu.
Sanas Chormaic
in the tenth century clearly
describes Anu as ‘Mother of the Irish Gods’. In an etymological list, the
Cóir Anmann
(
The Fitness of Names
),
the earliest form we have
is from the fourteenth century. Anu was a fertility goddess and patroness of the Eóghanacht kingdom of Munster in Ireland; the term
Iath nAnann
(Land of Anu) was a name given to
Ireland, reinforcing the Eóghanacht claim to the kingship of all Ireland. In Co. Kerry there are two hills called Dá Chích nAnann (Paps of Anu).

Anu appears in an inscription at Vaucluse where Professor John Rhys argues that the name occurs in dative form Anoniredi, translated as ‘chariot of Anu’.

Most of the major Celtic deities were venerated in the form of triune gods and goddesses – that is, they had three aspects called by three names, and many representations of them are given
three faces or three heads. The triads through which the Druids taught, and the sacredness of the number three, are highly important and a very common feature of the Indo-European tradition.
Examples of such triple representations of deities include the janiform head from Leichlingen, Germany, dating from the fourth century
BC
, the stone triple head from
Wroxeter, Shropshire, and the head from Reims in France. There is even a triple image of Cernunnos, with his antlers, on a bronze statuette from Étang-sur-Aroux. The pre-Roman Celtic coins
of the Remi (of Reims) depict a triple-headed deity.

This triune or triple form of deity was not confined to the Celts but, as we have said, permeates the Indo-European cultures. In Hindu belief the Trimurti consisted of Brahma the Creator, Vishnu
the Preserver and Shiva the Destroyer. Ancient Greeks used three as a symbol of deity and also had their triune aspect in Zeus (heaven), Poseidon (sea) and Pluto/Hades (underworld). There are, of
course, three Fates, three Furies, three Graces, three Harpies; the Sibylline books are numbered as three times three, as are the Muses.

Ireland was represented by a female triune goddess – Éire, Banba and Fótla – and there were three craft gods, Goibhniu, Luchta and Credhne. The
Mórrígú, triple goddess of death
and battles, appeared as Macha, Badb and Nemain, embodying all that is perverse and horrible among the supernatural
powers. The Dagda himself was worshipped in triune form.

This philosophy can go even deeper for the Celts saw
Homo sapiens
as body, soul and spirit, the world was divided into earth, sea and air, the divisions of nature were animal, vegetable
and mineral, and the cardinal colours were red, yellow and blue. It might also be remembered that it was a Gaulish Celt, Hilary, bishop of Poitiers (
c.
AD
315–367), regarded as one of the first native Celts to become an outstanding philosophical force in the Christian movement, whose great work
De Trinitate
defined the concept of the
Holy Trinity for the first time; a triplicity that is now so integral to Christian belief.

We have mentioned some of the major Celtic deities whose surviving inscriptions appear throughout the Celtic world. Another important god was Lugus, found throughout the Continent in both
inscriptional form and in the place-names of towns such as Lyons, Léon, Loudan and Laon (in France), Leiden (in Holland), and Leignitz (in Silesia). He also appears in insular Celtic
place-names, for example in the original form of Carlisle (Luguvalium). His festival (1 August) marked the beginning of the harvest season and the name of this festival, Lugnasad, survives as a
name for the month of August in modern Irish as Lúnasa, inManx as Luanistyn and in Scottish Gaelic as Lùnasad.

Lugh and his Welsh equivalent Lleu appear in the insular Celtic myths. He is portrayed as a warrior god of shining light. He is a master of all crafts and skills. Caesar says that the Gauls
worshipped ‘Mercury’ as ‘inventor of all the arts’. Caesar’s Mercury couldwell have been Lugus. Nuada, ruler of the gods in Ireland, surrenders his rule to Lugh. Lugh
is also called Lugh Lámhfhada (of the Long Hand/Arm) in Ireland and Lleu Llaw Gyffes in Welsh (of the Skilful Hand). In the Hindu pantheon the god Savitar is called Prthupani (of the
Large Hand) in the Rig Veda. Both Lugus and Savitar are claimed as solar deities. ‘The god with the great hand stretches up his arms so that all obey.’ The god
of the large hand is an Indo-European concept and known from Ireland and Sweden to the Punjab.

Another of the Celtic pantheon is the god of eloquence, literacy and learning. Ogmios on the Continent is also found in Britain as Ogmia and in Ireland as Ogma. Ogmia in Britain is represented
on a pottery piece from Richborough as a figure with long curly hair and sun rays emanating from his head with his name inscribed below. Ogma in Ireland is a son of The Dagda and he is credited
with the invention of the Ogam script, which is named after him. The Greek writer Lucian (
c
.
AD
115–after 180) identified him with Heracles, and this is
confirmed in our insular mythological sources, where his parentage and adventures are in many ways comparable with those of Heracles, the son of Zeus, father of the Greek gods. Zeus, of course, is
cognate with Dyaus in Sanskrit and The Dagda in Irish.

Camulos was a male god known throughout the Celtic world and an inscription at Bar Hill, on the Antonine Wall in Scotland, identifies him in Latin as ‘the god Mars Camulos’. It would
seem, therefore, that Camulos was a war god. The same link is made in dedications in Reims, Rindern and Dalmatia. There are votive inscriptions to the god stretching from Rome toMainz. Camulos gave
his name to the chief city of the Trinovantes in Britain, hence Camulodunum (Fort of Camulos, now Colchester) which became, for a brief time, the capital of the Roman province of southern Britain.
The name is found as the original name of Almonbury in Yorkshire, and in southern Scotland in the place-name Camulosessa, argued to be ‘seat of Camulos’. In Ireland, the name of the god
may be seen in the name Cumal, father of the famous Fionn Mac Cumhail. The word
cumal
in old Irish also meant ‘warrior’ or ‘champion’, which could fit in with the
image of a war god.
(This form of the word does not appear to be related to
cumal
used as a unit of currency nor
cumal
used as the name for a female
servant.)

One of the most famous Celtic gods had a fertility festival which is still acknowledged today as the feast day of a saint that bears her name, St Brigit. The name means ‘Exalted One’
and it is suggested that she was another personification of Danu. Her name, as Brigandu or Brigando, is found in Valnay. She is identified as the Celtic equivalent of the Roman goddess Minerva. As
Brigantia she is identified with Minerva on a relief from Birrens in southern Scotland, now in the National Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh, which portrays her with Minerva’s
accoutrements. Brigantia was worshipped in Britain, primarily in the north of the country. The tribal confederation of the Brigantes seem to have adopted her and seven votive inscriptions are found
in their area. However, her name also occurs in the names of the rivers Brent (in Middlesex) and Braint (in Anglesey).

One of the most famous Celtic gods had a fertility festival which is still acknowledged today as the feast day of a saint that bears her name, St Brigit. The name means ‘Exalted One’
and it is suggested that she was another personification of Danu. Her name, as Brigandu or Brigando, is found in Valnay. She is identified as the Celtic equivalent of the Roman goddess Minerva. As
Brigantia she is identified with Minerva on a relief from Birrens in southern Scotland, now in the National Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh, which portrays her with Minerva’s
accoutrements. Brigantia was worshipped in Britain, primarily in the north of the country. The tribal confederation of the Brigantes seem to have adopted her and seven votive inscriptions are found
in their area. However, her name also occurs in the names of the rivers Brent (in Middlesex) and Braint (in Anglesey).

In Ireland, as Brigit, she appears in the myths as the daughter of The Dagda with two sisters, also called Brigit. She was associated with the art of healing and the craft of the smithy and was
a patroness of poetry. Overall, she was a goddess of fertility. The Christian saint who bears her name, Brigit (
c.
AD
455–
c.
525), not only took over
the feast day of the goddess, the traditional commencement of spring, or Imbolc in old Irish (1 February), but also encompassed the veneration of fertility and light. St Brigit’s cross, when
examined, is a solar wheel, a symbol of good fortune which appears throughout Indo-European culture and in Hindu culture as the swastika, a symbol perverted by the Nazis. In Vedic Sanskrit
svastika
derived from
sú
, good and
asti
, being.

The difficulty about the Celtic pantheon – if indeed we can accept that there was a single pantheon, merely varying among the Celts of differing areas – is that there is no way of
identifying a rigid structure of the gods.

The Romans feigned shock and horror at the Celtic practice of taking and preserving the heads of people they admired, whether they were friend or foe. Most of the
classical sources refer to the Celts taking the heads of their enemies after they had fallen in battle and it is noted as early as 295
BC
, after the Senones smashed a Roman
legion at Clusium, that: