2) Celtic religion

Our understanding of Celtic religion is hindered, perhaps more than any other aspect of the Celtic world, by the lack of written sources and the difficulties involved in interpreting archeological evidence. These problems are increased by the secret nature of many Celtic religious cults, which was in part due to the great political respect commanded by Celtic priests and their consequent elitism. Therefore we have to turn to the limited observations of ancient non-Celtic authors, whose writings are biased by their view of the Celts as primitive barbarians. The Greek Diodorus of Sicily, writing his 'mythical history' in the first century вс, refers (Book V, 31) to the high social status and learning of the Celtic Druids: 'Those men called by us philosophers and theologians are held in great honour by them; they call them "Druids" . . . and no sacrifice may be performed without a Druid present... for only they speak the language of the gods.' This Druidic control of religious affairs accounts for the many occasions in myth when they are consulted by clan-chiefs and kings - like ancient Greek oracles, they were able to influence political decisions. Julius Caesar tells us in his Gallic War (Book VI, 11-16) that the Druidic system originated in Britain and was exported to Gaul. He too refers to their great authority. In Celtic society not only in religion, but also in educational and legal affairs, adding that their privileges included exemption from military service and taxation. Students of Druidic religion had to 'learn many verses by heart, sometimes for a period of 20 years. It is considered sacrilege to put their teachings into writing.' Celtic religion was thus intended to be mysterious and exclusive.

The importance of prophets in Celtic religion was also recorded by Diodorus: ‘These men predict the future by observing the flight and calls of birds, and by the sacrifice of holy animals: all orders of society are in their power . . . and in very important matters they prepare a human victim, plunging a dagger into his chest; by observing the way his limbs convulse аз he falls and the gushing of his blood, they are able to read the future.’ Recent archeology has provided evidence to support such statements made by Greek and Roman writers that the Celts practised human sacrifice. (Excavations in the 1980s of a sacred Gallic site at Ribemont in Picardy, France, revealed pits filled with human bones, the thigh bones purposefully arranged into right-angled patterns. This sanctuary was levelled by Julius Caesar during his conquest of Gaul. The body of 'Lindow Man', recently discovered in a Cheshire peat bog (now in the British Museum in London), might also have been the victim of Druidic sacrifice.

The names of Celtic deities are known from references in later myths and from religious inscriptions of the Roman period in Gaul and Britain. However, there are several reasons why their natures and mythical 'biographies' remain elusive compared to the many surviving divine stories of other ancient cultures. Celtic artists rarely produced anthro­pomorphic (human) images before they came under Greek influence during the 'La Tene' period (between the third and the first centuries вс). Therefore the relatively late artistic representations of Celtic divinities, produced by artists trained in the Graeco-Roman style, are not very helpful in telling us about original Celtic perceptions of their gods. Likewise it is difficult to unravel information about pagan religious ritual from Celtic literature as Christ­ian writers would later have adapted or omitted any blatant pagan elements. However, some scholars have argued that the underlying structures of many of the myths reflect their original significance in Druidic religious rituals, with the texts containing many significant pagan details.

Celtic divinities as well as religious rituals became inter­mingled with their Graeco-Roman counterparts during the period of Roman domination. Mercury, a god of merchants and 'inventor of all the arts', found his Celtic equivalent in Lugh, who in Irish mythology is called 'skilled in all the arts'. Animal gods were important in Celtic religion, and Epuna, particularly revered as a horse goddess, was even worshipped by the Romano-British cavalry. Cernunnos ('the horned one') is connected not only with the stag, but with bulls, rams and other powerful male animals. Both hunter and protector of animals, Cernunnos has persisted in British folk traditions as Herne the Hunter.

Celtic goddesses and gods represented the elemental forces of nature, and according to classical writers, their shrines tended to be in secluded groves. Many of these sacred sites must have disappeared, and our knowledge of ritual activities is mainly limited to the monumentalized religious sanctuaries of the Roman period. Although absolute evidence is lacking, Druidic religious rituals prob­ably also took place at pre-Celtic monuments such as stone circles. The Celtic religious year revolved around the con­trol of the seasons and nature by sun and moon, and topo­graphical 'focuses' of worship were ordained. Thus the Irish Druids met at Visnech, rhe 'navel' of Ireland, and Stonehenge in the south of England may also have been such a centre.

The Celtic year was divided into summer and winter. Summer began on the first of May, after the feast of Beltain on May-Eve. During this festival in honour of ‘the fire of Веl’ (Irish Bile was an ancient god of life and death), domestic fires were extinguished and rekindled from a new Druidic rite. Winter began on the first of November, pre­ceded by the feast of Samhain (our Hallowe'en) when, in Ireland, the Sidhe (fairies of the Otherworld) were believed to be abroad signalling the time of the dead.