7.5 Deities

The Romans record a bewildering array of barbarian deities worshipped by the people of north western Europe. Barry Cunliffe perceives a division between one group of gods relating to masculinity, the sky and individual tribes and a second, female group of goddesses with associations with fertility, the earth and a universality that transcended tribal differences. Wells and springs had female, divine links exemplified by the goddess Sulis worshipped at Bath.

While deities varied, several constant deities existed over a wide area. The main deities of Celtic religion, contrary to much misconception, were usually male. Very often Celtic gods were triple deities.

A great example is Lugos, a heroic sun god from Gaul and the southern, Gallic parts of Britain. He is also known as Lugh (in Ireland), Lleu (in Wales), and Lug (among Celtiberians, who were not culturally true Celts). Early depictions of him exist as early as the Hallstatt era, suggesting him as one of the longest existing gods of Celtic religion.

According to Caesar the god most honoured by the Gauls was ‘Mercury’, and this is confirmed by numerous images and inscriptions. The name Lugus is inferred from the recurrent place-name Lugdunon ('the fort of Lugus'). The Irish and Welsh cognates of Lugus are Lugh and Lleu, respectively, and certain traditions concerning these figures mesh neatly with those of the Gaulish god. Caesar's description of the latter as "the inventor of all the arts" might almost have been a paraphrase of Lugh's conventional epithet samildánach ("possessed of many talents"), while Lleu is addressed as "master of the twenty crafts" in the Mabinogi. An episode in the Irish tale of the Battle of Magh Tuiredh is a dramatic exposition of Lugh's claim to be master of all the arts and crafts.

Gaulish Mercury is associated with triplism: sometimes he has three faces, sometimes three phalluses, which may explain the plural dedications. He often seems to function as a god of sovereignty. Gaulish depictions of Lugus sometimes show him bearded and/or with wings or horns emerging directly from his head, rather than from a winged hat, that is unusual for the classical god. Sometimes there are classical depictions of that god, carrying a caduceus.

His iconography includes birds, particularly ravens and the cock, now the emblem of France; horses; the tree of life; dogs or wolves; a pair of snakes (compare with Hermes's Caduceus); mistletoe; shoes.

In Irish tradition Lug is associated with youth, kingship and healing, and his mastery of all arts suggests he transcends all divine functions. Like his Gaulish counterpart Lugus, he was compared with the archangel Michael.

Some modern scholars are sure that “Even today, the spirit of Lugus pervades the Celtic world, second only to Brigit in significance and accessibility. Trickster, psychopomp, experimenter, mover between worlds, granter of success and wealth through intelligent manipulation, and granter of continuity through change”.

Teutates, also spelled Toutatis (Celtic: "god of the tribe"), was one of three Celtic gods mentioned by the Roman poet Lucan in the 1st century AD, the other two being Esus ("lord") and Taranis ("thunderer"). According to later commentators, victims sacrificed to Teutates were killed by being plunged headfirst into a vat filled with an unspecified liquid. Present-day scholars frequently speak of ‘the toutates’ as plural, referring respectively to the patrons of the several tribes. Of two later commentators on Lucan's text, one identifies Teutates with Mercury, the other with Mars. He is also known from dedications in Britain, where his name was written Toutatis.

Taranis was the god of thunder worshipped in Gaul and Britain and mentioned, along with Esus and Toutatis, by the Roman poet Lucan in his epic poem Pharsalia as a Celtic deity to whom sacrificial offerings were made. He was associated with the wheel and may have received human sacrifices. Many representations of a bearded god with a thunderbolt in one hand and a wheel in the other have been recovered from Gaul, where this deity apparently came to be syncretised with Jupiter. He is likely connected with the Anglo-Saxon god Þunor, the Norse Thor, Ambisagrus, the Irish Tuireann and the Culdee saint Taran.

Esus is portrayed cutting branches from trees with his axe. He is supposed to have been a very powerful god of the Celts, but very few depictions have been found of him. We can also find such an idea that human sacrifices were “practised in the course of Essus worship and it intoned a sense of merciless behavior toward repeated criminals, rapists, traitors, and other societal dregs. The offender, if found guilty, would be taken to the temple of Essus, where an oak would be growing through an opening in the temple roof. His stomach would be cut open, and he would be hung from an oak branch”.

Ogma - God of eloquence, inspiration, language, magic, music, physical strength, poets, writers. Invented the Ogam script alphabet and carried a huge club similar to that of Hercules'. Lucian records depicted him as a bald old man with a bow and club leading an apparently happy band of men with chains attached to their ears from his tongue.

Dagda is a well-known Irish deity. He was the god of the arts, knowledge, magic, music, prophecy, prosperity, regeneration. Known as the "Good God" and "Lord of the Heavens," he was one of the high kings of the Tuatha De Danann and had four great palaces under hollow hills. His magical cauldron had an inexhaustible supply of food and his oak harp made the seasons change. By the way, cauldrons are often mentioned in Celtic tales. Some were said to bring wisdom to those who drank from them, and another was said to bring the dead back to life. Archaeologists have uncovered several cauldrons and buckets that were ornamented for ritual uses. Cauldron is a source of pre-Christian 'Holy Grail' myths in Celtic societies.

A recurrent figure in Gaulish iconography is a cross-legged deity with horns or antlers, sometimes surrounded by animals, often wearing or holding a torque. The name usually applied to him, Cernunnos, is attested only a few times. Figured representations of this god, however, are widespread. On the Gundestrup Cauldron and sometimes elsewhere, Cernunnos is accompanied by a ram-headed serpent. At Reims, he is depicted with a cornucopia overflowing with grains or coins. He is considered to be the god of animals, commerce, crossroads, fertility, reincarnation, virility, warriors, woodlands. Druids knew him as Hu Gadarn, the Honored God.

There were also several healing gods associated with the sun or with thermal springs, and are commonly identified with the Celtic ‘Apollo’.

Mother goddesses are a recurrent feature in Celtic religion. Iconographically, Celtic mothers may appear singly or, quite often, triply; they usually hold fruit or cornucopiae (cones) or paterae (dishes), they may also be full-breasted (or many-breasted) figures nursing infants. Welsh and Irish tradition preserve a number of mother figures such as the Welsh Dôn, Rhiannon (‘great queen’), and Modron (from Matrona, ‘great mother’) and the Irish Boand, Macha, Ernmas, and Danu.

Mother-goddesses were maternal symbols of creativity, birth, fertility, sexual union, nurturing, and the cycle of growth. The essential moments in the myth of the mother goddess is her disappearance and reappearance and the celebration of her divine marriage. Her disappearance had cosmic implications: decline in sexuality and growth. Her reappearance, choice of a male partner, and intercourse with him restored and guaranteed fertility, after which the male consort was frequently set aside and sent to the underworld to be replaced the next year.

Possibly a goddess of fertility, of wisdom, and of wind, Danu was believed to have suckled the gods. Her name was borne by the legendary Tuatha Dé Danann ("People of the Goddess Danu"), the Irish company of gods, who survive in Irish lore as the fairy folk, skilled in magic.

Epona or Rhiannon was the goddess of horses, donkeys, mules, also associated with fertility. She was usually depicted as a beautiful woman dressed in gold and riding a white horse. She was also worshipped by the Romans when they came to rule Gaul. She also seems to have existed from the early era.

Apart from trees traditionally associated with the Druids, we should also mention animal motives in Celtic religion. Particularly widespread is the image of a wild boar. But we should say while animal figurines and model wheels were common in some parts of Iron Age Europe, they are very rare in Britain. No authentic Iron Age statue or figurine has been found in Britain made earlier than the 1st century BC. The idea of making small and large statues in bronze or stone was only introduced to Britain by the Romans in AD 43.