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128 CEANIA BRITANNICA. [Omvp. V.
nothing more than rude stone maenhirs, or obelisks, or even cairns*, by which the boundaries
of tribes and the distances on the roads were marked, may have misled Caesar in this respect t-
Simulacrum does not necessarily imply a statue in human form, and there is no evidence that
the ancient Gauls either possessed or tolerated statues of any of their deities Î, whom they
probably worshipped imder the symbol of rude columns of wood or stone, like the hoetyli of the
Phoenicians§. The idols of the pagan Irish were stones of this description. Such were those
called Kermund-Kelstach, at Clogher ; and Crom-Cruach, in Cavan, the top of which was covered
with gold, and had twelve other stones standing round it. It was an especial object of worship
down to the time of St. Patrick, by whom it was destroyed. The Irish are said to have sacrificed '
to it their first-born, and in adoring it to have wounded their bodies and faces ||. Strange as it
must ajipear, the worship of a rude stone is practised to this day in the Irish isles of Inniskea, on
the coast of Mayo^. The stone, which is called Neevotigi, is clothed in a dress of flannel, reminding
ns of that in the temple at Delphi, which on solemn occasions was -«Tapped in white wool.
Mars was supposed to preside over battles, and to him, Osesar says, the Gauls devoted the
spoils of war and sacrificed the captm-ed animals. It was to this Celtic Mars that the Transalpine
king Aneroest, 225 B.c., vowed a tore**. One of Ms native names was Camulus-, and
the Eemi, in the reign of Claudius, dedicated a temple to him,—mabti CAM"[iiot+. In North
Britain, the same god was worshipped under the name of Belatucader ; many altars of the
Eoman period having been found ÎÎ, which identify him with Mars ; deo mabti belatucabeo.
That he was a native deity appears from the latter part of the name, clearly the same as the Welsh
mdr, mighty or warlike.
Jupiter, as Csesar teUs us, was believed to rule the firmament. He was known to the
Gauls as Taranis. In the Celtic, taran (Cymr.) and torrann (Gael.) signify thunder, in the
personification of which, this deity probably originated. That in Britaia he was identified with
Jupiter, appears from an altar found at Chester, inscribed i. o. m. tan Alio, where 'Tanarus'
must stand for Taranis According to Maximus Tyrius, the symbol under which Jupiter
was worshipped by the Celts was a high oak || ||.
Lucan enumerates under their native names three of the principal Celtic deities, Teutates,
* That the hermfs of the ancients were often mere cairns of
stones appears from the definitions of Suidas (s. v. ipfialov),
Hesychiusand Isidore, and from the Vulgate version ofProverbs,
c. xxvi. V. 8—" sieut qui mittit lapidem in aeervum Mercurii."
t Tacitus, however, using the very words which Ceesar applies
to the Gauls, says that Mercury was the chief deity of the
Germans. (Germ. c. 9). By Herodotus also (lib. v. c. 7)
Mercury is represented as the principal god of the Thracian
kings, but not of the people.
^ Tacitus (Hist. lib. ii. c. 3) applies the very word used by
CiEsar to the conical stone, " metge modo essurgens," the
symbol of the Yeuus of Paphos. " Simulacrum Dese non
effigie humana," &c. Lucan (Hb. iii. v. 412-416) speaks of
the images {simulacra) of the gods in the sacred grove of the
Gauls near Massilia, as shapeless trunks of trees,—" non vulgatis
sacrata figuris." The Germans thought it impious to
represent their deities in human form, " neque in ullam
humani oris speciem assimilare (deos)" (Germ. c. 9); and
this was also the opinion of the Ganls when they invaded
Greece under Brennus, 2/9 B.C. (Diodorus, lib. xsii. fragm. 9.)
§ In the East the oldest images of the gods were rude stones.
Such was the image of Dusares or Urotal of the Arabians
(Maxim. Tyr. Diss. viii. § 8) ; that of Cybele at Pessinus
(Livy, hb. xxix. c. 11); the solar god of Emesa, the Diana of
Perga, and many others. Pausanias names several temples in
Greece where the symbol of the deity was of the same description
; e.y. lib. iii. c. 20, lib. ix. c. 24,27; and says (lib. vii.
c. 22) that this was the ancient Greek nsage. fComp. Clem.
Alex. Strom, lib. i. c. 24, Cohort, ad Gentes, c. 4.) Even by
the old Romans, Jove was worshipped as Jupiter-Lapis, under
the symbol of a ilintstone. Serv. ad JEu. lib. viii. v. 641.
II Dinnseanchus apud O'Connor, Ker. Hib. Sciipt. 1814.
proleg. p. xxii. O'Flaherty, Ogygia, 1685. part 3.p. 197. Camb.
Evers. vol. i. p. 424. Annals of Four Masters, vol. i. pp. 43,p 55.
^ Notes and Queries, 1852, vol. v. p. 121. "This stone,"
says Sir J. Emerson Tennant, " is prayed to in times of sickness
and during storms ; its power is believed to be immense."
** Florus, lib. ii. c. 4. ft Orelli, 1977.
Especially in Cumberland, on the line of the Wall of Hadrian.
The Cocidius of inscriptions also appears to he a Celtic
name of Mars.
§§ Orelli, 2054. |||| Max. Tyr. Diss. viii. § 8.
Chap. V.] HISTOMOAL ETHNOLOGY OP BEITAIN. 129
Hesus, and Taranis, all of whom were worshipped with human sacrifices*. Of these, as we have
seen, Taranis was Jupiter. Teutates is generaHy regarded as Mercury, and Hesus as Mars ; but
for these identifications of Bocharfs there is no clear authority from inscriptions or other sources.
The common hypothesis that the name of Teutates is connected with those of the Egyptian
Thoth, and Phoenician Taut, must be rejectedt ; as in the Celtic it signifies Pather of the People
[teut, tud, tuath, people, and tat, tad, father), and corresponds with the Father Bis of Csesar, to
whom the Druids traced the origin of the Ganls Î. Of Resus there is nothing ' conclusive. ^ On
the bas-reUef at Paris, inscribed with the name of ests, he is represented crowned with foliage,
engaged in cutting a tree, axe in hand§. But even if the branch he is cutting be, as some tliinlc,
the sacred Mistletoe, we fail in recognising the attributes of any known deity. Por anything
that appears on these sculptures, he may reaUy have been the Celtic Mercury and the Hu
Cadarn of the Triads, who is always represented as a " dux itinerum."
Caisar names ApoUo as the god, who after Mercury was most worshipped by the Gauls;—
perhaps he was their supreme deity. There were in Gaul, in Eoman times, numerous temples of
Apollo, which probably represented older native fanes; as that of Augustodunum, celebrated for
its thermal waters ||, and that at Tolosa, which Orosius says was dedicated to ApoUol". In
Britain he was worshipped at Bath (Aqua; SoUs), Eibchester and other places. If the island of
the Hyperboreans of Hecatseus be identified, as we think it is to be, with Britain**, his worship
there must have been estabUshed at a very early period. Apollo, says Hecatseus, was adored
in this island more than any of the gods. That by Apollo the sun was intended, is seen in
what was fabled of the personal manifestation of the deity after the lapse of every cycle of
nineteen years. The Celtic name of Apollo, as appears from Ausonius and Herodian, was Beltn,
in inscriptions B E i ENUs t t , or in others abe l l ioU- Of his worship in Gaul there are many traces.
Gregory of Tom-s names a Möns Belenatensis in Auvergne, which was perhaps dedicated to
him§§. Near Carnac in Brittany is a place caEed Bets, which may have derived its name
* Lucan, lib. i. v. 444.
" Et quibus immitis placatur sanguine diro
Teutates, horrensque feris altaribns Hesus,
Et Taranis Scythicoe non mitior ara Dianoe."
Lactant. Instit. lib. i. c. 21. " Galli Hesnm atque Teutatem
liumano cruore placabant."
t Modern editors with reason reject "Teutatem" after
" Mercurium" in Livy.hb.xxvi. c. 44, as not found iu the MSS.
t Coesar, B. G. lib. vi. c. 18. " Ab Dite patre proguatos
proedicant." Adelung (Mith. vol. ii. p. 75) quotes Sulpicius,
to the effect that Teutates was the god of Death, though we
have not found this passage iu his works. A similar tradition
to that of the Gauls seems to have existed among the Germans,
whose origin was traced to the god Tuisto, a name supposed
by some to be another form of Teutates. "Tuistonem denm
terra editum, et filium Mannum originem gentis eonditoresque
" (Tac. Germ. c. 2). Tuisto, however, is usually supposed
to have been the German Mars, and to have given his
name to Tuesday, dies Martis.
§ Moutfaucou, Ant. Exp. tom. ii. p. 423. Orelli, 1993.
Martin, Religion des Gaulois, 1727, torn. ii. pi. 25. The basreliefs
found at Notre Dame, Paris, in 1711, belonged to a
Romano-Gallic pantheon, of the time of Tiberius. The
s c u l p t u r e d figures are those of VULCANOS, IOVIS, ESVS,
TAKVOS-TRIGAUANOS, CASTOR, , CERKVNNOS, SEVE**
RI*»S. "With these should be compared the sculptured stone
with the Romano-GalUc deities of ARDOINE, CAMVLO, IOVI,
MERCVRIO, HERCVLI. Orclli, I960. Mattlu, tom. i. p. 486.
II Eumenius (Constantin, c. 21, 22) speaks of the Apollo
of the ^ d u i at Augustodunum as " Apollo noster,"—he being
a Romanised Gaul. Comp. Instaur. Schol. c. 9.
K Orosius, lib. V. e. 15. ** Ante, p. 126, note *.
t t Auson. Prof. Bnrd. iv. x.
" Tu Baiocassis stirpe Druidarum satns
Beleni sacratum duels e templo genus.
Et inde vobis nomina
Tibi Patera:," &c. {ante, p. 120.)
See also Herodian (who gives the native name as BéXiv), lib.
viii. c. 3. Tertullian, Apol. lib. xxii. c. 24 ; " Noricis Belenus."
Jul. Capit. Maximin. c. 22. Altars inscribed APOLLINI
HELENO have been found at Aquileia. Orelli, 1967, &c. The
name of the deity is preserved in that of the Belindi, a people of
Aquitanian Gaul, on whose coins the head of the Celtic Apollo
is inscribed niLtNos. Akerman, Coins of Gallia, &c. p. 126.
XX An altar inscribed DEO ABELLIONI was found near the
Pyrenees, at the ancient Lugdunum Convenarum. Orelli,
1952, 1953.
§§ Greg. Tur. Glor. Confes. e. 5. The enclosure or eancellus,
on the summit of the hill in St. Martin's time, may have
been the fane of Belin.
i : .
4