Celtic Mythology by Michel Boucher

Mythology A Generic Term

Mythology, in its definition, is the speech of stories that refer to
specific rituals or feasts. The ritualistic repetition of stories is
reserved for a class of individuals generally called priests or
shaman. In Rome under the republic, the Pontifex Maximus was, by virtue
of this knowledge, the most powerful of men. He was the spiritual king
of Rome.

In Celtic studies one cannot truly speak of a mythology in terms of the
continental religion. Later historicization of myths makes them more
akin to legend, as it was in Rome, giving a historical background to
present realities, place names, etc.

Compare the dinnshennhas in the Tain Bo Cuailgne with the story of the
treachery of Tarpeia, who died at the Tarpeian rock, giving it her
name. This historicization and place-name lore is common among peoples
who do not possess a distinct, "real" mythology. All events are
relegated to the role of legends and the ancient gods are relegated to
the role of humans.

The gods themselves are removed from the world of humans and do but on
rare occasions interfere in the affairs of men, if at all. These people
possess more what might be called a "pantheography."

Sources

We possess knowledge of Celtic gods and rituals from three types of
sources, each often more confusing than the last.

The first consists of dedicatory inscriptions in Gualish, Latin, Old
Irish, Ogam, and other local languages, found in most places where
Celts lived; but there are not very many of these. The second source
consists of plastic representations, in wood or stone, the latter
dating mostly from the Roman Empire, and some in metal (e.g. the
Gundestrup cauldron). The third consists of observations by Classical
authors and we shall touch upon a few during the course of the essay.

Much later the development of literature in Ireland and Wales brings
material which, though legendized, permits us to make comparisons with
other Indo-European traditions.

Moreover, surviving in one form or another, the oral tradition provides
in some passages, insights into the nature of these gods-cum-heroes.

The Gods and Goddesses

Lug, Lieu, Lugh

Lug was the foremost god on the continent, so far as we can determine,
and he was described by Iulius Caesar as being the inventor of all
arts, the guide on roads and journeys, and the patron of money making
and commerce. For these attributes, whose importance in Celtic society
we do not know, he has been unfairly confused with the nebulous
Mercurius, who himself is often confused with the tangible Hermes.

Hermes is an extremely complex but tangible character. He is, first and
foremost a god of the dead, and this is associated with his attribute
of thievery, but he is a cattle thief. Every night he steals some of
the animals from the flock of Apollo and brings them underground to the
river Styx. Then, one by one, he carries them across on his back to
Hades. They are often represented as lambs and this gave rise to the
further confusion of a St. Christophorus. The flock is obviously the
living souls as they enjoy the benefits of the solar Apollo. Hermes is
also a "ghandarva", a founder of dynasties. In this task he rivals Zeus
himself. Other more Mediterranean attributes of Hermes seem to have
been added through association with Egyptian Horus and Middle Eastern
deities.

Mercurius, a non-historicized god of the Roman pantheon, does not
possess these mighty attributes. In fact, he seems a rather paltry god
by comparison, taking for himself commerce and arts (presumably those
that are lucrative) as attested on the walls of Pompeii (1). The Romans
had confused him with the Greek Hermes, therefore it is not surprising
that an attempt would be made to confuse Lug with him.

Lug is the consummate god, possessing in one form or another all of the
attributes of the other gods. There are more inscriptions to Lug than
to any other Celtic god. This would seem to indicate that he was much
more popular than any other god. Also, many place-names attributed to
him (2) support this idea.

He is associated with the goddess Maia or Rosmerta. The association
could be made between her and the ancient Roman goddess of flowers
Maia (3).

Lugh, in Irish tradition, is samildanach. That is to say that he
possesses many arts together. This extraordinary aspect of Lug was
maintained even in Ireland in a very complete way. For this reason, and
for the fact that one of his arts was that of war, he was likely to
have been very popular among the ruling class and the aos dana. His
many arts are listed in the episode of the "Cath Maige Turid", when
wishing to enter Tara, he was asked by the doorkeeper which art he
possessed. As he listed them, he was told by the doorkeeper that they
already had someone with that art. Lugh then asked him if they had
someone who possessed them all. The gates were opened.

The Feast of Lughnasad, when Lugh bemoans the death of his nurse, and
of his two wives (4), was on August 1st and corresponded with the Feast
of Lug on the continent, held at Lugudunum. Augustus Imperator
implanted his own cult in the Empire, made Lugudunum the capital of
Gaul and instituted his Feast on August 1st, giving his name to the
month (as Iulius Caesar's name went to the month of July (5) and
replacing the cult of Lug on the continent.

In Gaelic literature, Lugh appears as a Tuatha De Danann, as in the
episode mentioned briefly above. He bacame king after Nuadha
Airgedlamh. In battle, he killed Balor of the baleful eye, drawing
therefore a further parallel between himself and Odysseos, in his
encounter with Polyphemos, the cyclops.

Odysseos, the resourceful Mediterranean man, has many stories of his
travels that draw parallels between him and Hermes. He serves the same
function as Hermes in his role as god of the dead by bringing the souls
of those who died in battle (6) to the far western island of Calypso.
This island has many of the characteristics of the island visited by
Cormac. By killing Polyphemos, he kills the solar single eye and
ensures darkness during the rest of his travels.

The Feast of Lughnasad is a harvest festival, which may also draw a
parallel between Lugh and Dionysos.

At this point, it might be wise to expose the following views. After a
brief exposition of the character of the divine Lug, one thing becomes
obvious: that there seems to be no perfect parallels between pantheons.
There are lists of attributes which are handed to one god in each
culture, often with a corresponding goddess. But it is known that the
Greek pantheon does not resemble, in many important points, the Roman
pantheon (7). Different historicizing structures cause different flows
of generations among similar archetypes. What determines the direction
of the flow is unknown, but we can guess that it might be something of
the order of socio-economic priorities which determine cultural
standards.

Therefore, there is no anthropological inaccuracy in drawing parallels
between different attributes of the same god in one culture which bears
similarities with two gods of another culture. The flow of generations
being different in each culture, they might have ended up as one god,
or one god might easily have been split into two or more in another
culture. The logical progressive development of generations and
attributes among the Greeks is due to their strong sense of
historicization. This might not have existed among the continental
Celts, providing a different flow.

Teutates, Esus & Taranis

   Et quibus inimitis placatur sanguine diro
   Teutates horrensque feris altaribus Esus
   Et Taranis Scythicae non mitior ara Dianae. (8)

This is almost all we know of these three gods. From other sources, it
appears that each god had a specific sacrifice consecrated to him.
Teutates' victims were asphyxiated head first in a full vat, Esus' were
suspended from a tree and ritually wounded, and Taranis' were burned
together in cages of wood (9). Teutates might easily have been the name
of the tribe, "teut", which became deified. In Germanic tradition, Thiu
is the wargod (10), corresponding to Mars-Ares. Taranis, whose name
seems to imply thunder, could be related to Iupiter Fulgurans (Tonnans)
in Rome, Thor in the nordic tradition, and Perkunas in the Lithuanian
tradition, all of which have the attribute of thunder.

Maponos, Mabon, Oengus

Often compared with the divine solar Apollo, Maponos (also known as
Belenos, the brilliant fire) has obvious solar characteristics. He was
a god of healing, and therefore of the renewal of life, and a possessor
of great horses (Atepomaros) (11). The feast of Beltaine (May-day),
was, as its name implies, a feast of the shining fire, or the summer
sun.

He is sometimes paired with Sirona, whose name means star. As Borvo,
god of the thermal waters, he is paired with Damona, the divine cow.
This refers to the old myth, found in Hindu tradition of the divine
bull carousing in the rivers with nymphs in the form of cows. An
attribute of great beauty for women among the Greeks was to have eyes
like a cow (e.g. Nausica, who is bathing in a river). Bovine animals of
a divine nature and riverine waters have a close sexual association.

In Wales, he appears as Mabon, son of Modron, a divine mother figure.
In Ireland, he is Oengus Og (In Mac Og, the young son), son of the
Daghda and of Boann (the Boyne), wife of Nechtan, a water deity and
king of the Bruigg. Here is found the same pattern of rivers and
fertility (Bo, of Boann, might mean "cow").

Brigantia, Brighid, St. Bridget

The cult of the goddess Sulevia on the contenent, was very similar to
the cult of the divine mother goddess in Rome, Mater Matuta (12). She
was, by virtue of her attributes of fertility-creativity, the patron
goddess of the arts and crafts. For this reason, her cult appears to
have been strong in the lower classes of society, as still attested
much later by an invocation not to appeal to Brighid when weaving or
knitting. The exact nature of the cult is unknown.

She was the alter-ego of Maponos in that she was the goddess of healing
waters (the thermal baths at Bath; aquae sulis) and of the art of
healing. She is well known on the continent as Belisama (most
brilliant), the same attribute as  Maponos-Belenos, and can therefor be
associated with fire and, eventually with the sun.

In Britain, she was Brigantia, the tribal goddess of the Brigants, a
warlike tribe. In Ireland, she is Brighid, subdivided as a triad of
mother goddesses. She is best known under her christianized name of St.
Bridget.

The feast-day of St. Bridget was on February 1, which indicates that
the old Celtic feast of Imbolc, also on February 1, was a feastday for
Sulevia-Brighid. The nature of this feast is unknown.

Gofannon-Goibhniu

The Gofannon-Goibhniu character is basically a development of the
chthonic Vulcanus. In every Indo-European culture, there has been an
underground deity that worked the metals, presumably because this is
where the metals came from. At this point, I suggest that divine smiths
are an invention of the Bronze Age, for obvious reasons.

In the Irish cycles, particularly in the Leabhear Gabhala, the divine
smith gathers importance as a pseudo-historical character. Also, this
is one of Oengus' arts, presumably important because he names it among
the first.

The divine smith is wily and resourceful, using these characteristics
to beat his enemies.

Ogmios, Oghma

Ogmios has been called the Celtic Hercules. He is definitely the
prototype of the champion. In Ireland, he is credited with the
invention of ogam writing, which bears his name.

His principal attribue, in Irish, is "grianainech", which means "of
the sun-like countenance", possibly indicating a relationship with
Belenos-Oengus.

Dis Pater, Donn

The origin of Dis Pater is more easily traceable than most gods because
of his name. It has been linked to an original *dyeush-deiwos in Indo-
European, from which one obtains, in Latin, *9d)yus-piter Iupiter, and
in Greek, Zeus. He is always considered to be in one form or another
the ancestor deity, common to all cultures in the Indo-European
complex.

In the Gaelic tradition, he lives on an island and beckons the dead
warriors, therefore taking on a relegated role of minor import, as a
god of the dead, similar to the later moralizing Greek myths concerning
Kronos in the Elysian Fields, after his terrible defeat at the hands of
Zeus, and showing the victors' magnanimity.

Sucellus & Nantosvelta

Sucellus is often represented with a mallet, a drinking cask and a dog.
He is also described, as Gofannon-Goibhniu, as a chthonic deity,
perhaps relating to an original deity of which the two are different
aspects. The mallet and the dog might refer to Culann of the Tain Bo
Cuailgne, an archetypal smith, and consequently to Cu Chulainn.

Sucellus, as Silvanus, god of the forests, is paired with Nantosvelta
and both are considered to be fertility deities. They occupy
approximately the same place as Siva and Parvati in the Hindu pantheon.

Cernunnos

Little is known of Cernunnos save his name and a few graphic
representations, one of them on the Gundestrup chauldron. It is
believed, as his name implies, that he was a horned deity of the
animals (presumably those of the hunt) and that his function may have
been to ensure the return of generations among the hunted animals.

Parallels in appearance have been drawn with a deity found on a Harappa
seal, in the upper Indus Valley, and the form of Siva known as
Pashupati, an animal deity.

Triads

Triads are a common feature of the Indo-European pantheons and can be
found in every culture of the I-E complex. Here, I will cite but a few.

The three Brighids, or triadic matres, of Ireland, the three sisters,
one of which is the queen Medb, and the sons of Uisnech, in the story
of Deirdre, indicate the ancient nature of the character archetypes for
these stories. In one form or another, they must have their roots in
the old Indo-European triadic structure, and these were maintained in
Ireland more conservatively, as have been maintained other aspects of
the Indo-European culture.

Tuatha De Danann

The stories dealing with the Tuatha De Danann can be found in the
Leabhar Gabhala Eireann. They are pertinent to three major movements:
the defeat of the Formore by the Tuatha De, the occupation of the
island by the Tuatha De, and the coming of the Gaels and the retreat of
the Tuatha De into the sidhe.

The Daghdha

The Daghdha has been understood as a god of mainland druidism. His
attributes are a club with which he kills his enemies and a cauldron
into which he dips his allies who died to give them life again. He had
regular trysts, one with Boann, mother of Oengus, and another with the
Morrighan, as she was bathing in a river, during which she offered to
help them at the battle of Moytura.

He is the historicized Father Figure of ancient continental myths, a
form of Dis Pater, and the ancestor one reveres. He may also be related
to the benevolent form of Kronos.

Nuadha

Known as Nudd or Lludd in Wales, Nuadha Airgedlamh (of the Silver Arm)
has been related to the Germanic Tyr who lost his arm at the battle of
Fenriz. The succession Nuadha-Lugh has been compared to the complex of
Indo-Iranian mythology Mithra-Varuna.

Manannan Mac Lir

Manannan Mac Lir is a very complex character (Manawyddan in the Welsh
Mabinogi). He appears as a god, a wanderer, a "ghandharva", a merchant,
and a shoemaker (in the Mabinogi).

He is Manannan, son of the sea, lives on the Isle of Man, in Emain
Ablach (Avalon), and is considered the lord of the joyous underworld.
He is the god of sea journeys (The Echtra of Bran) and consequently of
commerce. He might easily be related to Lugh in some of his attributes,
which both seem to share.

The parallel of Avalon might indicate his ancestry of the Welsh Arthur.
Some of the quests that Arthur sent his knights on are similar to the
Echtrai and Adventures of Irish literature, with a strong influence of
the continental Romantic school.

Medb

Apart from what has been mentioned of her before, Mebd is the fertility
goddess, the Aphrodite of Ireland, the promiscuous queen with a very
high sexual capacity (14). She forms half of the terrible couple, with
Aillil, and completely dominates her husband in the direction of the
war. Therefore, one might assume that she had at one time, the function
of a war goddess.

Goddesses of War

Medb has been mentioned above. Other than her, there are the three
Morrighans (Morrighan, the phantom queen, and Badhbh, the Crow, or
Raven, with Nemhain, Frenzy, or Macha) and Andraste, invoked by the
queen of the Iceni, Boudicca, before battle.

Macha

There are many place-names attributed to Macha  (Emain Macha and Ard
Macha, Armagh). There were, according to tradition, three Machas.

The first was the wife of Nemhed, of the third invasion, and she died
on a plain, giving it her name.

The second was a queen who is said to have ruled all of Ireland alone.
She married one of her rivals, Cimbaeth (like Medb and Aillil), and at
the same time trysted with the five sons of another rival. She bound
them to her and forced them to build the fortress of Emain Macha.

The third is in the Tain Bo Cuailgne, in the remscela concerning the
disease (couvade) of the Ulstermen. The horse contest here and her
victory suggestparallels between her and the continental Epona, also
with the Welsh Rhiannon.

Etain

In the story of her courtship, she symbolizes the ritual marriage of
the king with the kingdom as goddess. Etain is therefore the goddess
of sovereignty. The kingdom was viewed as a fertile woman whom the king
had to woo and marry to validate his overlordship.

In conclusion, it is very difficult to view Celtic mythology as a
distinct pantheon, and yet one has to be extremely careful to draw
definite parallels, as with all protohistoric cultures.

The sources we possess are anything but pure, and usually reflect the
views of their own society. Only later literature provides us sith
sufficient material from which to draw certain conclusions, otherwise
the subject would have been long closed.

Footnotes

1. Brion, Marcel POMPEII AND HERCULANEUM: THE GRIEF AND THE GLORY,
Sphere Books, London, 1972

2. Place-names attributed to Lug: Lugudunum (Lyons), Laon, Leydon,
Lutecia (Lug-tecia).

3. The feast of Bona Dea, or Maia, was Malalia, on May 1. It is noted
in the calendar of Numa, approximately 700 B.C. The names Maia and
Maria were later confused and May became the month of Mary (see A.K.
Michels THE ROMAN REPUBLICAN CALENDAR, Oxford University Press)

4. From class notes of CLA 2602, summer 1971, taught by Professor W.A.
Borgeaud.

5. See A.K. Michels (op. cit.) for cults of Iulius Caesar and Octavius
Augustus and their place in the Roman calendar.

6. It has been suggested that the wanderings of Odysseos form part of a
larger book of the Dead and that his return to Ithaca and the events
that ensued were added later. By reconstruction, it has been suggested
that the isle of the Pheacians was in fact the Elyssian Fields and
Odyssios' final stop in his accession to the hero's reward.

7. e.g. Zeus and Iupiter. The names have the same origin but the two
characters are very different. Iupiter corresponds more closely to the
dark magical king Kronos. Zeus corresponds to Dius Fidius, the god of
contracts, whose cult in Rome was supplanted by Iupiter.

8. M. Annaeus Lucanus: "De Bello Civili", Liber Primus, versi 444 ad
446. "and those who propitiate with horrid victims ruthless Teutates,
and Esus whose savage shrine makes men shudder, and Taranis whose altar
is no more benign than that of Scythian Diana." (trans. J.D. Duff, Loeb
Classics, Wm. Heinemann Ltd., London, 1957)

9. A similar occurence is recounted in the story of the vengeance of
Labraid against Cobthach Coel.

10. The gothie "Our Father" of Ulfila (A.D. 311-381) begins: "Atta
unsar, thu in himinam, weihnai namo thein, qimai thiudinassus theins,
wairthai wilja theins..." (Latin: adueniat regnum tuum; English: thy
Kingdom come) contains the fragment "thiu" ("unte theina thiudangardi..
for thine is the kingdom") referring to a very high authority of place,
the "teut" (Irish "tuath") and the king of the "thiudenassus".
Therefore, thiu (dYeush) or Teutates would likely be the chief god of
the continental peoples.

11. The horse is a solar animal in most Indo-European cultures. An
example is the investiture of Cyrus as told by Herodotus. The two
horses born at the same time as Cu Chulainn might indicate certain
solar aspects of the hero and relate him to Oghma grianainech.

12. Altheim, F. LA RELIGION ROMAINE ANTIQUE, Payot, Paris

13. Cu Chulainn is also the prototype of the hero and champion, in the
Irish tradition, and perhaps the two share this attribute. In
legendization, it is common for a human to possess one or more divine
attributes, so that he may manifest them in their perfection.

14. "I never have had a man without another standing in his shadow."
from the Pillow Talk of the Tain Bo Cuailgne.


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