i
132 CEANIA BRITANNICA. [ C H A P . V.
The goddess identified with Diana hy the Romans, the A EDVINNA of some tribes *, was
perhaps Minerva Belisama imder another name. So also seems to have been N E H A I L E N I A , who,
as inscriptions show, was extensively worshipped by the Celtic and German tribes, near the
mouths of the Schelde and Rhine. This deity, with reason believed to be the goddess of the
New-Moon, having power over the tides, is represented in Romano-Gaiilish sculptures as accompanied
by a dog, and as standing on the shore with her foot on the prow of a ship t- Tacitus
says that some of the Suevic tribes worshipped Isis, and that her symbol was in the form of a
ship J. That this German Isis was really the Moon, and that her worship extended to Gaul, is
probable from the altar—LVNJS ET ISIDI, found at Nismes, and from another at Soissons—
I S I D I MYIII0IITMIE§, which may refer not merely to her innumerable names, but also to the
various deities, barbaric and Roman, with whom the Egyptian goddess was identified |1. The
Gauls were famUiar with Diana (Artemis), the tutelary divinity of Massilia, and may have thence
derived some of the ideas embodied in their OTO great goddess. The Ephesian Artemis represented
the earth as much as the moon, and seems to have been originally the same as the Magna
Mater of the East and the Greek Rhea. The worship of this great earth goddess, under the
name of Berecynthia, existed in central Gaul until late ia the fom-th centiuy, when her image
was carried in procession round the fields in a car drawn by oxen If. It is possible that these
rites were introduced into Gaul by the Romans, but they closely resemble those observed in the
worship of Hertha, or Mother Earth, by a great part of the Suevi of Germany, in whose case a
Roman origin is not to be supposed**. The Mother of the Gods, whose symbol among the Jistyi
was the image of a boar, was doubtless the same deity f t - la this worship of Mother Earth and
of the Great Mother of the Gods in Gaul and Germany, that of the D E J E MATRES of later times
probably originated iJ. The Romans may have represented the divinity under a triple form, in
part from, the variety of name and place with which this worship of the earth was connected §§.
In very early times two earth goddesses were worshipped by the Celts, who seem to represent
both the Dese Matres of the Roman period, and the more ancient Cabiri of Greece and the
East. Artemidorus, who visited Gaul about 100 B.C., says, " there was an island near Britain
* ARDOINA (Orelli, I9C0), DIANA AHDVINNA (Gruter,
cccxiv. 3). Her especial seat of worship was the forest .\rduenna,
where a gre^t image of Diana was destroyed by St. Wulfroy in
the 6th century. (Greg. Tur. Hist. Franc, lib. viii. c. 15.)
t Orelli, 2029-2031. Montfaucou, torn. ii. p. 444. One
of the altars was dedicated by a British chalk-merchaut, in
gratitude for the preservation of his freight. The traces of
her worship are not confined to the isle of Walcheren or to the
Netherlands, but have been found at Paris and Nismes.
} Tacitus, Mor. Germ. c. 9. The Egyptian Isis represented
the Moon and also the Earth. The mformants of Tacitus
are by some supposed to have taken a figure of the crescent
moon for that of a ship.
§ Gruter, xlii. 1; k.'ixiii. 11. Orelli, 1876, 1877.
II In the later period of paganism, Isis was identified with
nearly all the female divinities of Greece and Rome (Apuleius,
Metam. lib. xi. c. 3, " numen unicnm, nomine multijugo").
The same reference to the common origin of these deities is
seen in the curious inscription in praise of the Mother of the
Gods, found at Carvoran near the wall of Hadrian ;
" Imminet Leoni Virgo crelesti situ," &c.
(Bruce, "Roman Wall," p. 412.)
% Greg. Tur. Glor. Confess, c. 77. The suppression of
these rites at Autun, by St. Simplicius, is described.
** Tacitus (Mor. Germ. c. 38-41) minutely describes the
festive progresses of Hertha, in her car drawn by heifers. The
rites were completed by a human sacrifice. Dr. Smith observes,
"Nearly all the circumstances mentioned here concerning
the worship of Herthus agree with those practised at
the worship of the deity of the earth (called Ceres, Rhea, Ops,
Demeter, Cybele or Isis) in Thrace and Phrygia (Smith's Tacitus,
note, ad toe.).'* Compare Virgil, jEn. lib. vi. v. 785.
" qualis Berecynthia Mater
luvehitur curru Phrygias turrita per urbes."
f t Tac. Mor. Germ. c. 45. The boar, as the symbol of
fecundity, was sacred to Demeter.
t t Whilst Cicero (Verr. Ub. iv. c. 44) speaks of the celebrated
temple of Enguium, as that of "Mater Magna," Diodorus
(lib. iv. c. 79) and Plutarch (Marcell. c. 20) call it
that of the Deoe Matres—etai Mcircpei.
§§ On altars found in Gaul, Germany and Britain, they
are represented as three females seated, having baskets of fruit
on their knees, symbolical of the plenty they were believed to
confer. See OreUi, 2074-2097.
CHAP. V.] HISTORICAL ETHNOLOGY OP BRITAIN. 133
where the sacred rites of Demeter and Persephone were celebrated, in the same manner as in
Samothrace"*. It is now generally admitted that the gods of Samothrace were the mysterious
Cabiri—^by some supposed to be the cMhonian divinities, Ceres, Proserpine and Pluto; by others
regarded as male deities of Phoenician origin, who presided over metallurgy and navigation t-
Samothrace, the most famous seat of their worship, was especially visited by sailors, who sought,
by initiation into their orgies, protection from the dangers of the Euxine. The island referred
to by Artemidorus was probably that of " Sena in the British sea, opposite the coast of the
Osismii," described by Mela as the seat of an oracle of a Gallic divinity, served by nine virgins,
especially consulted by sailors The orgies of the women in the not distant islets of the
Namnetse, are described, by Strabo, Dionysius, and Avienus, as those of Bacchus, but may reaUy
have been the same as those of Samothrace. There is at least little doubt, as Bochart long since
suggested, that the rites referred to by Artemidorus are those of the Cabiri, whose worship had
been introduced by Phoenician voyagers into this island of the "West §. This is curiously confirmed
by the statement of Diodorus, that the Celts near the Ocean chiefly venerated the Dioscuri,
who they said were brought to them from the sea ||. The Dioscuri, protectors of the sailor, if not
the same as the Cabiri, were at least often confounded with them If-
Another deity of the Celts, the idea of whom seems in great measure derived from the
Phtenicians, is Hercules. The Gauls preserved traditions of his exploits in their country**,
corresponding with the Greek story of the expedition of Hercules to the West, which are best
explained by the voyages and settlements of the Phcenicians, tinder the guidance of their
wandering god Melkarth. The Germans near the northern ocean had also a tradition that their
country was visited by Hercules, who was one of their chief deities t t . Of the Phoenician expeditions
to south-west Britain, the promontory of Hercules J J, which Ptolemy places between
* Strabo, hb. iv. c. 4. § 6. Artemidorus was famihar with
the western coast of Spain, and perhaps with that of Gaul.
f Cabiri, perhaps from the Semitic.ffa6i>, great. Rawlinson's
" Herodotus," vol. ii. pp. 94, 435. For the Cabiri, see Kenrick,
"Egypt of Herodotus," 1841, App. pp. 264-287; " Phoenicia,"
pp. 93, 326. For other views of these obscure deities,
see Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Romau Mythology, s. v.;
and Dictionary of Antiquities, s. v. Cabeiria. Mr. Kenrick
concludes that " in their original conception the Cabiri represented
the elements of fire and air combined in the idea of
flame." Fire seems to have been an object of the Cabiriac
worship. At Lemnos, the mysteries took place at night, and
lasted nine days. Sacrifices were offered to the dead, all fires
were extinguished through the island, and pure fire, brought
from Delos the isle of Apollo, was distributed, and a new life
began. The analogy to Druidical rites is here very striking.
J Mela, lib. iii. c. 6. See pp. 114,119, onie. Vallancey concluded
that the island referred to by Artemidorus was Ireland,
and wrote with his usual confidence of the Irish Cabiri. (Coll.
Reb. Hib. 1784, vol. iv. § 5. p. xxix.) The subject was more
learnedly, but still not satisfactorily, treated in the early work
of M. Adolphe Pictet, " Cuite des Cabires chez les Anciens
Irlandais," 1824. SeeHiggms, " Celtic Druids," 1829, p. 166.
§ Geog. Sacra, part 2. hb. i. c. 39.
[I Diodorus, lib. iv. c. 56. CASTOR and Pollux appear
among the Celtic deities, on the bas-reliefs of Paris, p. 129,
note §, ante.
^ The deities of the Naharvali, called Alois, identified with
the Dioscuri by the Romans (Tac. Germ. c. xliii.), may hkewise
have been the Cabiri, whose worship near the Oder or
Vistula is perhaps indicative of the visits of Phoenicians.
** Ammian. Marcell. lib. xv. c. 9. Thierry (Hist, des
Gaulois, ed. 1857, i. p. 132) may be consulted; also Heeren,
" Hist. Researches," vol. ii. p. 11. There can be no doubt that
as early as 121 B.C. two deities, according to the interpretatio
Homana, Hercules and Mars, were country-gods of the Allobroges
and other tribes of southern Gaul. Hence, in part, their
selection by Fabius Maximus for the honour of two temples at
the confluence of the Rhone and Isara(Strabo,lib.iv. c. 1. § 11).
In the Assyrian mythology, Nin or Hercules, and Nergal or
Mars, were associated or worshiped indifferently, as the gods
of war and hunting. The symbol of Nin was the Man-bull,
that of Nergal the Man-hon (Rawlinson's Herodotus, vol. i.
pp. 622, 633). See also Tac. Germ. c. ix. "Herculem ac
Martem."
f-f- Germ. c. 2. "Fuisse apud eos Herculem memorant."
Comp. c. 9, 34. Ann.lib. ii. c. 12. The Phcenician expeditions
to these shores were doubtless in search of amber (ante, p. 83).
The German Hercules seems to have been the HERCULES
SAXANUS a n d HERCULES MAGUSANBS of later R oma n times,
many altars to whom have been found in the Netherlands and
near the Rhine. Orelli, 2004-2011.
i t Now Hartland Point, Devonshire,—doubtless Rm Melkarth
of the Phoenicians. (See the legend on a coin of the
T