to be believed, on their mere assertion, in all that they have
thought fit to dream and invent respecting the opinions of
their forefathers. They make an appeal to oral tradition, and
pretend that the bards o f' Wales have- handed down among1
them the esoteric doctrine of the Druids by a-perpetual succession
from the time when the pagan worship Of the ancient*
Celts was in its full prevalence and integrity. That they
actually possess such traditionary knowledge they have never
condescended to furnish the slightest proof., They have indeed
the remains of bards, some of which/amf particularly
the verses o f Taliessin, contain many obscure passages, which
are, like the Sibylline poems, of dark and mysterious-import*
supposed to be pregnant with mysteries 0f 0ld mythology*
and equally susceptible of almost any interpretation. These
compositions are curious reliefs of antiquity and of times little
explored,- and they are highly deserving of amtpreCareful and
of a much more critical elucidation than they havè'%et obtained.
But the poems of Welsh and Irislf bards, composed
some centuries after the extirpation ofthe Druids, and long after
the establishment of Christianity in Britain, amoiijg a people
whose intellectual character had been entirely formed upoh1*
the model of monkish lore, (and that the prevalent dotions of
the Welsh and Irish were of this description, IVettnitis and
Mark the Hermit, and the Irish fables clearly próve,)-can
hardly be trusted as exhibiting an authentic representation of
the primitive mythology ofthe Gauls. W e have for an inquiry
into this subject no other data than a few passages left by
ancient writers, and some inscriptions which have been found
in various parts of Gaul and Britain.
The Greeks and Romans fancied that they-recognised the
objects of their own worship in the gods adored by all other
nations; and when Caesar informs us that the Gauls performed
divine honours to five of the Roman divinities, we are to understand
by the assertion that the five principal Objects qf
adoration among the Celtic people bore some resemblance in
their .attributes and in the ceremonial of »the worship paid to
them, to t he Roman gods with whom Csesar identified them.
These five divinities were Mercury, Apollo, Mars, Jupiter, and
Minerva. Mercury, as Caesar declares, was the principal
^object of rèligious worship, and töLfeim the- most numerous
imagéswere inscribed. It'seém&that the Gauls were idolaters,
and that their principal god was; like Mercury, the inventor of
arts>Aercondfiistbrmnd^gdaJd|MfiS^ourö.eys, and the patron
-of-gain and 'merchandisëi*h'Stfdht we are told were the
aPti^butesfdf|the/ Gaulish Merfewy. Apollo, or the Gldlish
deify taken for Apollo by the Romans/ was a protector
a-gainsfi diseases; Minerva was- the promote?# bf arts, Jupiter
the ruler- of the heavenly firmament,f-Mars- thegod* of war.
Three of these Gallic divinities, but it is uncertain which óf
tliemy^re' mentioned’.in a celebrated passage'of Lucan under
their proper Celtict dbsigriatibnsi ^
£C Etiquibus initnitis placatur sanguine diral’ 1
1/ Teutates, hoirensque>feris altaribus . H esus„ ^;,
Et Taranis $cy thicas »ijqn^ miti^ara,,iDian®,_...
1 ‘ Vo's quoque/qui ’fortes animas, belloque peremptas
’ ■* Laudibusj&^lW^um Vatés’ dimittitis' asviim
. - Pliinma'/securi ffudistis. carmina BaTdi. • *
Et.vp.s barbaricos yitus,’ inqremque6sini^tE,u'm
Sa.crorum I>midai4p,ositis repetystte ab armis.”
I t is^prnhage.. that ?Tar^ni^ was the CeUie.g.p,d|,whom the
Rom)prs,44|%tified with J upiter; because tar an is; .the Welsh
W(Wpur thunder. 11 is unsafe to infer fitly th in g ^ ^ ^ ^ in g thei
Qel^,from,what; is known concerning^theJ^utgjue. nations,
bjjt it may h^tWSrth while to ofisejye that the Thqrrpf. the
Northmen, wjio has always been identified with Jupiter, was,
a£CQrdingf to Adargt(of Bremqn3 the ruler of the air, and of
lightning and thunder,winds and storms. Taran in Welsh,
Toran iii,Erse, is in name as well assin; attributes analogous to
Thor.
I t is. generally supposed that Hesus, who is also mentioned
by Lactantius, is the Celtic god identified with Mars. A
.statue of thisNgod, at lqast qpp bearing the namo of Esus, was
formerly discovered underground in Paris, It has been described...
by. many writers as resembling a man in the vigour
:of youth, naked exgept a covering round the loins and .a loose
garment over the left shoulder, wearing a.crown of boughs,
and holding in .the ., left hand a branch which he is about to
cut off with an axe brandished in the.right.
Mercury is supposed to be Teutates. In some copies of thé