Celtic gods
IDRIS FOSTER
Almost eighty years ago John Rhys's Hibbert Lectures on The origin and growth of religion as illustrated by Celtic heathendom were pub- lished in a volume of 700 pages whose pattern followed the solar myth theory so ingeniously developed by Max Muller. A sceptical French critic observed that Wagner could have.found more than one grand opera theme in Rhys's book, During the past eighty years the study of the mythology and religious beliefs of the Celts has proceeded somewhat unevenly and the Ab- ject remains difficult and ill-defined. Although we have no clear accounts of the religion of the Celts in operation, there are three main sources which help us to recognise some of their religious ideas. The ethnographical ob- servations of Greek and Roman writers giVe selective, doubtless oversimplified and at tinges distorted accounts of Celtic religion in Gaul. Early Irish and Welsh literature, despite the time gap, show a rich vein of archaic survivals, many of which can be noticed in later folk- lore. Archaeology has produced a wealth of iconographical material and when this is sys- tematically arranged, as in Esperandieu's great recueil of Gallo-Roman monuments, it yields immensely valuable information to the careful student.
Scholars differ in their methods of sorting and interpreting the evident~ if these vaned' and dispersed sources. It can be studied within
the context of what is assumed .to be the basic pattern of social organisation among the
earliest Indo-European language communities.
Thus, Professor. Georges Durnezil of the Colltge de France has offered a structural analysis of the relationship between the early societies and their myths. For Dumdzil, these societies had a tripartite, hierarchical social *structure: a priestly 'class,' a warrior 'class' and a herdsman-cultivator 'class,' each with its own supernatural counterpart and each,
together with its mythological representation, having a functional role in the shaping of the social system—sovereignty (both juridical and magico-religious), vigour and force, fertility and well-being. Within this system social classi- fication and religious beliefs formed an inte- grated whole.
In her well-planned, fully documented and splendidly illustrated book on Pagan Celtic Britain, Dr Anne Ross makes careful use of the three main sources and displays a firm grasp both of the archaeological material and of the literary evidence. She has succeeded in tracing clear patterns of religious ideas and attitudes which may be called cults. Her view of the Druids is clear: they 'were little different from the priest/shamans of the entire barbarian and later pagan world'; very tentatively she sug- gests that they 'were moving towards the establishment both of a central political organi- sation and of a truly "national" religion at the time of the Roman conquest of Gaul.'
The cults cannot be rigidly or exclusively de- fined. Inscriptions giving the names of Celtic gods and goddesses rarely accompany the repre- sentations of these deities. Again, a Celtic god was often given more than one name or descrip- tive epithet, many of them still difficult to interpret with certainty. Roman interpretation and influence added a further complication : a native god would be equated with a Roman one and given a classical form; and since the range of Romano-British iconography was limited, every god-type could not be adequately portrayed. Celtic cults also continued to be imported from Gaul.
Dr Ross gives a good description of the sacred precincts or cult sites which were usually situated near springs, wells, the sources of rivers, groves, trees and grave mounds. At many of these natives and Romans would later practise their own cults of water deities in an eirenic spirit.
The human head has been a cult symbol for many peoples, but for the Celts, both on the continent and in Britain, the head, often with two or three faces, sometimes in phallic shape, seems to have been a distinctive expression of divine powers of fertility and death, of prophecy and wisdom, of generosity and un- failing sustenance. There was also a cult of horned beasts and of horned fertility gods. Dr Ross's examination of the archaeological evidence shows that in north Britain, in the territories of the Brigantes, the bull- or ram- horned type had a strong cult—as warrior, as guardian of herds and flocks, or as protector of hunters and wild animals.
The warrior god, personifying the group's ideals of valour and heroism, had a variety of names which still exercise the skill of the philologist. In Roman 43ritain he became identi- fied with Mars, and like Mars he could be both warrior and healer. His cult again shows marked regional differences: in the area around the Severn estuary it was his healing and fer- tility functions which were emphasised, while in north Britain his,' military function pre- dominated. These regional variations reflect the 'multifunctional character of many Celtic gods and Dr Ross makes the point that the em- phasis on particular aspects was the result of local circumstances. The archaism of the early literatures. is more helpful than iconography in understanding the multifunctional nature of goddesses, whether singly or in groups of three '—as mother, as warrior, as ruler of beasts or as the fount of local fertility.
Throughout this scholarly study Dr Ross has consistently sought to place the heterogeneous evidence against the larger background of Celtic tradition. In the final chapter she ex- amines in detail how the widely spread native cults were practised within the narrower limits of north Britain in pre-Roman and Roman times and she illustrates the effects of social, political and economic factors. The strength of these cults persisted in modified and concealed forms far into the Christian period and the attenuated legends of the native gods brought comfort and aroused fear for many generations.
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