13é CRANIA BRITANNICA. [Ohap. V. CHAP. V.] HISTORICAL ETHNOLOGY OP BRITAIN. 135
m
Belerium and the estuary of the UxeUa, is in like manner a memorial. Hercules or Melkarth,
King of the City, was originally the same as the Sun or Baal, the Lord*, and, conjointly with
Astarte, was the tutelary deity of Tyre, Gades, and probably all the Tyrian colonies, whence liis
worship was largely diffused. Two altars found at Corbridge, Northumberland, inscribed
in Greek characters, the one to the Tyrian Hercules — hpakaei ttpiq, — the other to
Astarte—ACTAPTHct—show that in Roman times at least the worship of these deities had
extended to Britain. Of that of Hercules by the ancient Celtic population of this island, there
is more satisfactory proof in the inscribed stone found at SUchester, which had formed part of a
temple to Hercules of the Segontiaci—deo heii[ctjli] s^G0N[TiAC03iTM]i. This would show
that his worship by the Britons existed before the time of the Romans, by whom it was adopted §.
Lucian gives a curious description of the Hercules of the Gauls, known in the second century
under the Celtic name of Ogmius, which is perhaps identical with that of Ogham, the name of
an alphabet of the Irish. In Gallic pictures, he was represented with the club, bow, and
lion's skin, though under the iigm-e of a decrepit old man, strong only in eloquence, drawing
after him a wilUng crowd by slender chains of gold and amber, which extended from his tongue
to the ears of his listeners. As explained by a Gaulish philosopher or Druid, Hercules, not
Mercm-y, with them represented speech or eloquence; because, said he, Hercules is much
stronger, and being a wise man his conquests were made not by force but persuasion 1|.
The sketch now given of the mythology and reKgious rites of the Britons and other Celts,
shows many points of agi-eement with those of the East, and seems to justify the conclusion of
their introduction by Phoenician voyagers and perhaps settlers If. Many of the deities of
Gaul and Britain are shown to be identical with those of Phoenicia, and the difiPerences which
exist are the result of subsequent influences, especially Roman. Caesar tells us t h a t " the Druidical
system was beKeved to have been discovered in Britain and thence brought over to Gaul." This
SicUian Heraclea, cited by Kenrick, "Plia!nicia,"p.461.) This
bold headland, with the opposite isle of Lundy, may have
formed the British Pdlars of Hercules, just as the Germans
had theirs on the northern ocean (Tac. Germ. c. 34), and
the Gauls theirs on their western shore (Scymn. Ch. 188).
* Kenrick, " Phcenicia," p. 322. Eawlinson, " Herodotus,"
vol. ii. p. 81. Oxen are everywhere mixed up with the story
of Hercules, as well as with that of the Sun and Apollo.
The human-headed bronze bull found in Cornwall {ante,)i. 130,
note *• ) may therefore have been a symbol of Melkarth, as
much as of any other of the eastern Baalim. So also may
have been the two archaic bronze bull-shaped celts, figured
by Douglas (Bibl. Top. Brit. vol. i. No. 33). The Hu Cadam
of the Triads, identified with Hesus, by Thierry and
others, is always represented as attended by oxen, and is himself
said to be called a bull by Welsh bards. He is, perhaps,
most correctly regarded as the Sun-god of the Celts ; though
he has been claimed as their Hercules (Davies, " Celtic Researches,"
p. 553 ; " Mythology," p. 125).
t Archseologia, vol. iii. p. 324.
J lb. vol. XT. p. 184. Gough's " Camden," vol. i. p. 204.
The Segontiaci are named only by Cffisar (B. G. lib. v. c. 21)
as a tribe of South Britons. Their locality is established by
this inscription, which confirms the statement of Henry of
Huntingdon (lib. i.), that by the Britons Silchester was called
" Kair Segent,—quse fuit super Tamesin non longe a Kedinge
et vocatur Silcestre." It appears to have been distinguished
from the Welsh Segontium (Caernarvon) by the name of
Calleva of the Attrebates; by which Belgic tribe the more
ancient Segontiaci seem to have been absorbed.
§ The ithyphallic figure of a giant with his club, cut in the
side of a hill at Ceme, Dorset, probably the deus Helith, said
to have been worshiped in this district by Walter of Coventry
(I.xi.),is perhaps a representation of thisBritish Hercules. This
figure, like that of the White Horse in Berkshire, covers nearly
an acre of ground. Hutchins's "Dorset , " 1813, vol. iii. p. 308.
II Lucian, Here. Gall. Comp. Zeuss, Gram. Celt. p. 1.
Belloguet, "Ethnog&ie Gauloise," 1858, p. 231. Thiswork,
valuable for Celtic mythology, did not reach the writer until
the preceding sheet was in print.
^ Ante, pp. 60, 61. The eastern origin of the Druidical
system, variously explained, is a commonly received view, which
has given rise to much wild and fruitless speculation. Thierry
(vol. i. p. 476) thinks its oriental elements were imported directly
from the East by the Cymri. Among English writers
who have adopted the Phoenician origin of the Druidical system
and mythology are Sammes (Britau. Antiq. 1676), who copied
extensively from Bochart; Pinkerton (History of Scotland,
1789, vol. i. p. 405) ; Jamieson (Scottish Dictionary, 1808,
s.v. Beltane); and C. O'Connor (Rer. Hib. Script. 1814, Proleg.
p. xx). Mr. H. L. Long's " Early Geography of Western
Europe," 1859, may be consulted to the same effect.
opinion, derived probably from Divitiacus and other Druids of Gaul, is confirmed by the express
statement that "such of the continental Gauls as desired a more accurate knowledge ot the
system resorted to Britain for instruction in it*." It is, however, hardly to be supposed that
an elaborate system like the Celtic cult, was an actual invention of the Britons, who were less
civilized than the Gauls. During a long series of centuries, intimate relations, in comiexion
with the important trade in tin, must have been estabHshed between the people of south-west
Britain and the Phoenicians of Gades, Carthage, and perhaps Tyre itself. This Phcemcian intercourse
with our island seems to have continued long after that with Gaul, of which there
is little more than mythic evidence, had ceased. It must have been cHefly by intercourse with
this Semitic people, that the people of the Danmonian promontory had, as Diodorus states,
become civilized in their habitst- In connexion with an improvement in manners, nothmg is more
probable than an adoption of religions ideas, by which the primeval nature-worship of Britain,
may have been modified, or in part supplanted. Wherever they had permanent settlements,
the Phoenicians established the worship of their gods, and even in Britain, where they may have
had a factory (in SciUy or at Ictis), and where they must at least have spent several weeks every
year they probably erected altars and sacrificed to Melkarth and Astarte. Policy may have extended
what religion began. What is more likely than that to consolidate their important mercantile
interests, the Phcenicians should have introduced some of their priests mto the island,
and that these, through their knowledge and the awe inspired by their rites and doctrmes,
should acquire an influence over the petty chieftains, such as we know was subsequently
exercised by the Druids, and by means of which the monopoly of the trade in tm might be
secured ? In this way, perhaps, may be explained that religious system, in part of native and m
part of foreign origin, wHch the Belgic Gauls, at an uncertain period before the time of Ceesar,
found established in Britain, and which was by them communicated to the continental Celts.
LANGUAGE AND LETTERS.
Cffisar states that the language of the Belgic Gauls differed from that of the Celtic tribes of
the southern and central parts of Gauli ; but his words are variously interpreted, according to
the absolute or qualified sense in which they are taken. Strabo, however, teUs us that this
difference was not considerable§. Similar is the testimony of Tacitus, as to the language of
the people of South Britain, which he says differed but slightly from that of the opposite coast
of Gaul II. Erom these notices, the learned Zeuss concludes that the diversity in the languages
of the people of Celtic and Belgic Gaul and the south of Britain was one of dialect, and
pro^bly not so mai-ked, but that they were mutuaUy intelligible^. The substantial identity of
the language of these peoples is almost proved, by a comparison of the names of persons and
* B. G. lib. vi. c. 13. "Disciplina in Britannia reperta,
atque inde in GaUiam translata esse, existhnatur ; et nunc, qui
diligentius earn rem cognoscere volunt, plerumque ilio, discendi
causa proficiscuntur."
t Diod. hb. V. c. 22. The words are very strong—.f.Xo-
(,efoi re Siaijitpóms ehi, tuì êià Ti)y rêv iéyi^iv c/jTropiur éiriliLÎiav
ràs àyuyas—and must be taken to refer to
the early visits of the Phoenicians and Massaliot Greeks, rather
than to those of the R o m a n s , which when Diodorus wrote had
scarcely begun.
X B. G. lib. i. 0. 1. "Hi omnes(Belgoe, Aquilani, Celtoe)
lingua, institutis, legibus, inter se différant." The language, no
less than the physical characteristics, of the Aquitani differed
entirely from that of the Celts and Belgee, resembling those of
the Iberians (Strabo, lib. iv. c. 1. § 1 ; c. 2. § 1), and does not
belong to this inquiry.
§ Strabo, lib. iv. c. 1. § 1. ¡iiKpoi' Trapa\kdrroyTas rats
yXwTTaiS.
II Vit. Agric. c. xi. " Proximi Gallis * * * sermo hand
multum diversus."
^ Zeuss, Gram. Celt. 1853, proef. p. iv.
T 2