130 CRANIA BRITANNICA. [Chap. V.
from the same god*, as Kkemse the moimd called Tombeleine, near Mont St. Michel in
Normandy. As there is no obvions etymology of the name in the Celtic, it is probably derived
from the eastern Belus or Baal t , whose title of Baalsemen, Lord of Heaven, was brought to
the west by Phconician voyagers i- That the name of Belenus was of foreign origin is the more
probable, as there are traces of the solar deity under names, stni significant in both the Cymric
and the Gaelic. Under that of Sul, a Welsh name of the sun, he was worshipped in Brittany,
where, under Christianity, he was represented by a pretended St. Sul §. There are traces of this
name in that of various hills—Solsbury, Salisbury, Silbui-y—at Bath, Bibchester, Edinbm-gh,
and Abury, which are so many high places of the sun-god, or Celtic Apollo ||. The Gaelic name
of thè sun is grian, and an altar was found near the Porth inscribed like others in Germany,
APOLLINI GBANNO. On One of the bas-reliefs at Paris is the figiu-e of a deity under the form of
an old man with large horns growing from the head, inscribed oebntinnos, under which bovine
symbol, or imder that of the tabvos-tkigabanos, or bull with three cranes {tarw, bull;
garan, crane ; Cymr.) of the same sculptures, the sun-god of the Celts may have been intended**.
The horse, as on many British and Gallic coias, and in the famous White Horse of Berkshire,
seems to have been another symbol of this deity + t . The most common mode of his
representation, however, was that of a full human face, with radiating locks and moustache,
such as appears on certain coins of Cwaobelin %%, and in sculptui-es from Celtic sites where
the worship of Apollo was established, as at Polignac in Prance §§, and Bath and Caerleon in
Britain.
Csesar says that the attribute of the Celtic ApoUo was the cure and prevention of disease || ||.
* Archeeologia, vol. xsv. p. 220.
t This derivation has the sanction of Buttmann (quoted hy
Smith, Diet. s. V.) who as the root of the word Abellio, recognises
the Spartan BeXa, i. e. the sun (Hesych. s. v.). In ancient
Irish MSS., Bel is said to be the name of the god to whom
the fires of the Belteine were lighted. O'Donovan, Book of
Rights, p. liii.
X The Phffinician Baal had a temple at Massilia, as proved
by an inscription in the Punic language found there in 1845.
Kenrick, "Phoenicia," pp. 160, 174.
§ Mem. de 1'Acad. Celtique, 1802, torn. iii. p. 311. Sur
I'Origine du Culte de Saint Sul.
II Near Ribchester, Samelsbury perpetuates Belisama, the
name of the Ribble in Ptolemy, Salisbury, near the same place,
that of SuL At SaUsbury crags near Edinburgh, on the first
of May (Belteine) the people still assemble to see the sun rise.
At Silbury Hill (Abury) a feast is held on Palm Sunday, as on
various other hills in England, including Pontesford Hill, Shropshire,
at which last the object assigned is that of " seeking for
the golden arrow " (Hartshorne, Salop. Antiq. p. 179), reminding
us of the myth of the arrow of Apollo, said by Eratosthenes
to be hidden in the mountain of the Hyperboreans.
These customs may have been derived from the festival at
the vernal equinox in honour of the solar god.
^ At Inveresk, near Musselburgh, in 1565. Camden,
vol. iv. p. 41. Orelli, 1997-2000. The old name of Aix-la-
Chapelle, Ai[uis granum, shows the same derivation.
** An instance of the use of the bovine symbol by a Celtic
people is the bronze bull by which the Cimbri swore (Plutarch,
Mar. c. 23). In the East, the bull and heifer were symbols
of the great male and female deities. The small bronze bull
found at St. Just in Cornwall (Archaeological Journal, vol. vii.
p. 8; see also Dr. Barham^s "Remarks") is human headed, and
has the lunar crescent on the right side. It is of very archaic
form, and if not of Phoenieian workmanship, it at least embodies
ideas which may have been brought by Eastern voyagers.
f t ArcliEeologia, vol. xxxi. p. 291. The horse was devoted
to the Sun by the Persians, Massagetee and many other people.
(Herod.hb. i. c. 189, 210; lib. vii. c. 55. Justin, lib. 1. § 10.)
The very ancient Vedic hymns show that in the sun-worship
of India the horse typified the solar god and was sacrificed to
him. The sacred horses of the Germans (Tac. Germ. c. 10),
like those of the Persians, were white and dedicated to some
divinity, probably to the Sun. Compare Xenoph. Cyrop.
lib. viii. c. 3 ; Curt. lib. iii. c. 3.
t t Akennan, " Coins of Britannia," &c., 1846, p. 193.
pi. 24. No. 16.
§§ Gruter, xxxis. 1. Montfaucon, Ant. Exp. tom. i. pi. 32.
fig. 2. The more artistic head, with wings and snaky locks,
beard and moustache, from the portico at Bath, is probably a
more elaborate form of the same conception; as also the curious
winged head with serpents and fins of a fish, at Clermont,
formerly the capital of the Arverni (Martin, vol. ii. pi. 33).
Macrobius describes the rayed head of a deity called Neton bv
the Aeeitani [Aquitani ?], supposed to be Mars, but whom he
identifies with the sun (Saturn, lib. i. c. 19). On a coin of
Rhodes, Hehos is represented by the usual full face, but with
wings at the temples and serpents mixed with the snaky
locks. (Hunter's Collection of Coins, plate 45. No. 5.)
[Ill B. G. lib. vi. e. 17. "Apollincm raorbos depcllere."
; • r
CHAP. V.] H I S T O R I C A L ETHNOLOGY OF BRITAIN. 131
He must have been the deity invoked by the Gauls with a sacriflce of two white bulls, when the
panacea of the mistletoe was gathered. The Druidical belteine and deiseal were rites in honour
of the same god. Conical rocks and hills were especially sacred to him, and on these, after •
the introduction of Christianity, his worship was often replaced by veneration for the archangel
Michael, in whose brief history, as the destroyer of the great dragon, a resemblance to Apollo
was fancied. In proof, are the chapels dedicated to St. Michael on the rocky mounts on the
coasts of Normandy and CornwaU, on each of which Belin had probably been worshipped*.
The Celts had not only a great male divinity representing the Sun, but likewise a female
one symbolizing the passive powers of natui-e, and by whom the Moon (as by the Syrian Astarte
or Venus-Urania) was originally intended. The only female deity of the Gauls named by
CiBsar is identified by him with Minerva. Csesar says that she was believed to give the knowledge
of the useful and fine artsf. A centuiy earlier, Polybius described the principal hieron of
the Cisalpine Gauls, where were deposited the golden military standards called the Immoveable,
as that of Minerva i. Like the Athena of the Greeks, she was a warlike divinity, and clearly
the same as Victory, N.V,. She was supremely venerated by the Britons, under the name of
Andraste or Andate§. The Celtic for Victory is Buddig (in the Cymric, Buaidli in the Gaelic);
—the name of the goddess and that of the warlike queen her votaress being the same, and by
the Romans called Boadicea. It is not improbable, as Bochart conjectured, that the name in
Dion, Andraste, is the same with that of Astarte 1|. This is confirmed by the title of belisama,
clearly of Semitic origin, and corresponding with Baalsemen, Lord of Heaven, found on an
inscription as a name of Minerva, in the south of Prancel". The epithet, " Queen of Heaven,"
proper to the Syrian Astarte **, is altogether foreign to the Greek Athena and Roman Minerva.
Hence it may be inferred that the idea of this Celtic goddess was derived from that of Astarte,
who had a temple at Gades, and whose worship had been brought to the west by the Phoinicians.
Solinus says that the divinity presiding over the thermal waters at Bath, was Minerva, and that
a perpetual fire was maintained in her temple, as was the case in those of Phoenician origin.
The goddess worshipped conjointly with ApoUo at Aqnse Solis was clearly the Celtic Minerva,
as appears from the epithet Sul, by which she was there known+t, and which, like that of
Baalsemen, had both a feminine and masculine application. The Solimara worshipped by the
Bituriges may have been the same as the British Sul J J.
* Instances of chapels dedicated to St. Michael on mounts
are those at Montacute and on Glastonbury torr, both in
Somersetshire. In Brittany is that on the artificial Mont St.
Michel, near the great fane of Carnac. In the strange
system of the .'Vbraxas, "Michael" seems to have represented
the sun. Montfaucon, tom. ii. pp. 359, 3C6.
t B. G. lib. vi. c. 17. " Minervam operum atque artificiorum
initia tradere."
I Polyb. lib. ii. c. 32. This refers to 223 B.C., when the
Insubrian Gauls were defeated by Flaminius.
§ Dlou(Tj).Xiph.lib.lxii. §6, 7. Boadicea, after a favourable
augury, extended her hands to heaven, and exclaimed, " I give
thee thanks, Andraste, and I a female invoke thee a female also;
I pray and entreat thee for victory and security and liberty, and
mayest thou, O Queen, have dominion over us for ever."
II Bochart, Geog. Sacr. 1674, part 2. lib. i. cap. 42. DEA
ANDAUM of the Vocontii (Orelli, 1958) is probably the same
as the Andraste of Dion. Astarte or Ishtar was by the Babylonians
known as "Queen of Victory." RawHuson's Herodotus,
vol. i. Essay X.
^ MINERVIE BEI.ISAMJ! (Orelli, 1431, 1969). In an adjoining
district of Aquitania was Belsinum, named probably
after this deity. Belisama, as the name of the Ribble, would
apply either to the Celtic Minerva or Apollo, both of whom,
under Roman forms, were worshipped at Ribchester on the
banks of this river.
** Jeremiah, c. vii. v. 18.
t t DE.E STJLI, D E « STJLI MINERVYE. Auother altar is inscribed
suLEVis. There were formerly at Bath two churches,
one intra and one extra muros, dedicated to St. Mary, and two
to St. Michael similarly situated. ThatofSt. Mary intramuros
was built on the site of the pagan temple. The Virgm was intended
to represent Minerva, as the Archangel did Apollo.
J J The temple of SOLIMARA is named in an inscription
(Orelh, 2050). The name also occurs on Gaulish coins of the
Leuci. Akerman, " Coins of Gallia," &c. p. 166.
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