Celtic Mythology: History of Celts, Religion, Archeological Finds, Legends & Myths. T. W. Rolleston

Orelli, 2107, 2072; Monnier, 532; Tacitus, xxi. 38.

65. Holder, i. 824; Reinach, Rev. Arch. xx. 262; D'Arbois, Les Celtes, 20. Other grouped gods are the Bacucei, Castoeci, Icotii, Ifles, Lugoves, Nervini, and Silvani. See Holder, s.v.

66. For all these see Holder, s.v.

67. Professor Anwyl gives the following statistics: There are 35 goddesses mentioned once, 2 twice, 3 thrice, 1 four times, 2 six times, 2 eleven times, 1 fourteen times (Sirona), 1 twenty-one times (Rosmerta), 1 twenty-six times (Epona) (Trans. Gael. Soc. Inverness, xxvi. 413).

68. Cæsar, vi. 17.

69. D'Arbois, Les Celtes, 54; Rev. Arch. i. 201. See Holder, s.v.

70. Solinus, xxii. 10; Holder, s.v.

71. Ptolemy, ii. 2.

72. See p. 71, infra.

73. Dio Cass. lxii. 7; Amm. Mare, xxvii. 4. 4.

74. Plutarch, de Vir. Mul. 20; Arrian, Cyneg. xxxiv. 1.

75. S. Greg. Hist. viii. 15.

76. Grimm, Teut. Myth. 283, 933; Reinach, RC xvi. 261.

77. Reinach, BF 50.

78. Holder, i. 1286; Robert, RC iv. 133.

79. Rh^ys, HL 27.

80. Anwyl, Celt. Rev. 1906, 43.

81. Holder, s.v.; Bulliot, RC ii. 22.

82. Holder, i. 10, 89.

83. Holder, s.v.; see p. 213, infra.

84. Holder, ii. 463. They are very numerous in South-East Gaul, where also three-headed gods are found.

85. See pp. 274-5, infra.

86. Courcelle-Seneuil, 80-81.

87. See my article "Calendar" in Hastings' Encyclop. of Religion and Ethics, iii. 80.

88. CIL v. 4208, 5771, vii. 927; Holder, ii. 89.

89. For all these titles see Holder, s.v.

90. There is a large literature devoted to the Matres. See De Wal, Die Mæder Gottinem; Vallentin, Le Culte des Matræ; Daremberg-Saglio, Dict. s.v. Matres; Ihm, Jahrbuch. des Vereins von Alterth. in Rheinlande, No. 83; Roscher, Lexicon, ii. 2464 f.

91. See Maury, Fées du Moyen Age; Sébillot, i. 262; Monnier, 439 f.; Wright, Celt, Roman, and Saxon, 286 f.; Vallentin, RC iv. 29. The Matres may already have had a sinister aspect in Roman times, as they appear to be intended by an inscription Lamiis Tribus on an altar at Newcastle. Hübner, 507.

92. Anwyl, Celt. Rev. 1906, 28. Cf. Y Foel Famau, "the hill of the Mothers," in the Clwydian range.

93. See p. 73, infra.

94. Vallentin, op. cit. iv. 29; Maury, Croyances du Moyen Age, 382.

95. Holder, s.v.

96. See pp. 69, 317, infra.

97. For all these see Holder, s.v.; Rh^ys, HL 103; RC iv. 34.

98. Florus, ii. 4.

99. See the table of identifications, p. 125, infra.

100. We need not assume with Jullian, 18, that there was one supreme god, now a war-god, now a god of peace. Any prominent god may have become a war-god on occasion.

      The Irish Mythological Cycle

       Table of Contents

Three divine and heroic cycles of myths are known in Ireland, one telling of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the others of Cúchulainn and of the Fians. They are distinct in character and contents, but the gods of the first cycle often help the heroes of the other groups, as the gods of Greece and India assisted the heroes of the epics. We shall see that some of the personages of these cycles may have been known in Gaul; they are remembered in Wales, but, in the Highlands, where stories of Cúchulainn and Fionn are still told, the Tuatha Dé Danann are less known now than in 1567, when Bishop Carsewell lamented the love of the Highlanders for "idle, turbulent, lying, worldly stories concerning the Tuatha Dédanans."¹⁰¹

As the new Achæan religion in Greece and the Vedic sacred books of India regarded the aboriginal gods and heroes as demons and goblins, so did Christianity in Ireland sometimes speak of the older gods there. On the other hand, it was mainly Christian scribes who changed the old mythology into history, and made the gods and heroes kings. Doubtless myths already existed, telling of the descent of rulers and people from divinities, just as the Gauls spoke of their