Goddesses and divine consorts

One notable feature of Celtic sculpture is the frequent conjunction of male deity and female consort, such as “Mercury” and Rosmerta, or Sucellos and Nantosvelta. Essentially these reflect the coupling of the protecting god of tribe or nation with the mother-goddess who ensured the fertility of the land. It is in fact impossible to distinguish clearly between the individual goddesses and these mother-goddesses, matres or matronae, who figure so frequently in Celtic iconography, often, as in Irish tradition, in triadic form. Both types of goddesses are concerned with fertility and with the seasonal cycle of nature, and, on the evidence of insular tradition, both drew much of their power from the old concept of a great goddess who, like the Indian Aditi, was mother of all the gods. Welsh and Irish tradition also bring out the multifaceted character of the goddess, who in her various epiphanies or avatars assumes quite different and sometimes wholly contrasting forms and personalities. She may be the embodiment of sovereignty, youthful and beautiful in union with her rightful king, or aged and hideously ugly when lacking a fitting mate. She may be the spirit of war, like the fearsome Morrígan or the Badhbh Chatha (“Raven of Battle”), whose name is attested in its Gaulish form, Cathubodua, in Haute-Savoie, or the lovely otherworld visitor who invites the chosen hero to accompany her to the land of eternal youth. As the life-giving force she is often identified with rivers, such as the Seine (Sequana) and the Marne (Matrona) in Gaul or the Boyne (Boann) in Ireland; many rivers were called simply Devona, “the Divine.”
The goddess is the Celtic reflex of the primordial mother who creates life and fruitfulness through her union with the universal father-god. Welsh and Irish tradition preserve many variations on a basic triadic relationship of divine mother, father, and son. The goddess appears, for example, in Welsh as Modron (from Matrona, “Divine Mother”) and Rhiannon (“Divine Queen”) and in Irish as Boann and Macha. Her partner is represented by the Gaulish father-figure Sucellos, his Irish counterpart Dagda, and the Welsh Teyrnon (“Divine Lord”), and her son by the Welsh Mabon (from Maponos, “Divine Son”) and Pryderi and the Irish Oenghus and Mac ind Óg, among others.

Zoomorphic deities
The rich abundance of animal imagery in Celto-Roman iconography, representing the deities in combinations of animal and human forms, finds frequent echoes in the insular literary tradition. Perhaps the most familiar instance is the deity, or deity type, known as Cernunnos, “Horned One” or “Peaked One,” even though the name is attested only once, on a Paris relief. The interior relief of the Gundestrup Caldron, a 1st-century-BC vessel found in Denmark, provides a striking depiction of the antlered Cernunnos as “Lord of the Animals,” seated in the yogic lotus position and accompanied by a ram-headed serpent; in this role he closely resembles the Hindu god Siva in the guise of Pasupati, Lord of Beasts. Another prominent zoomorphic deity type is the divine bull, the Donn Cuailnge (“Brown Bull of Cooley”), which has a central role in the great Irish hero-tale Táin Bó Cuailnge (“The Cattle Raid of Cooley”) and which recalls the Tarvos Trigaranus (“The Bull of the Three Cranes”) pictured on reliefs from the cathedral at Trier, W.Ger., and at Nôtre-Dame de Paris and presumably the subject of a lost Gaulish narrative. Other animals that figure particularly prominently in association with the pantheon in Celto-Roman art as well as in insular literature are boars, dogs, bears, and horses. The horse, an instrument of Indo-European expansion, has always had a special place in the affections of the Celtic peoples. The goddess Epona, whose name, meaning “Divine Horse” or “Horse Goddess,” epitomizes the religious dimension of this relationship, was a pan-Celtic deity, and her cult was adopted by the Roman cavalry and spread throughout much of Europe, even to Rome itself. She has insular analogues in the Welsh Rhiannon and in the Irish Édaín Echraidhe (echraidhe, “horse riding”) and Macha, who outran the fastest steeds.

Tuatha de Danann - (Gaelic: “People of the Goddess Danu”), in Celtic mythology, a race inhabiting Ireland before the arrival of the Milesians (the ancestors of the modern Irish). They were said to have been skilled in magic, and the earliest reference to them relates that, after they were banished from heaven because of their knowledge, they descended on Ireland in a cloud of mist. They were thought to have disappeared into the hills when overcome by the Milesians. The Leabhar Gabhála (Book of Invasions), a fictitious history of Ireland from the earliest times, treats them as actual people, and they were so regarded by native historians up to the 17th century. In popular legend they have become associated with the numerous fairies still supposed to inhabit the Irish landscape.

Dagda - ( Celtic“Good God”) also called Eochaid Ollathair (“Eochaid the All-Father”), or In Ruad Ro-fhessa (“Red [or Mighty] One of Great Wisdom”)
in Celtic religion, one of the leaders of a mythological Irish people, the Tuatha Dé Danann (“People of the Goddess Danu”). The Dagda was credited with many powers and possessed a caldron that was never empty, fruit trees that were never barren, and two pigs—one live and the other perpetually roasting. He also had a huge club that had the power both to kill men and to restore them to life. With his harp, which played by itself, he summoned the seasons. The Dagda mated with the sinister war goddess Morrígan.

Macha - in Celtic religion, one of three war goddesses; it is also a collective name for the three, who were also referred to as the three Morrígan. As an individual, Macha was known by a great variety of names, including Dana and Badb (“Crow,” or “Raven”). She was the great earth mother, or female principle, and a great slaughterer of men, as was another of the trinity, Morrígan, or Black Annis, who survives in Arthurian legend as Morgan le Fay. The third goddess was Nemain.

Rhiannon - in Celtic religion, the Welsh manifestation of the Gaulish horse goddess Epona and the Irish goddess Macha. She is best-known from The Mabinogion, a collection of medieval Welsh tales, in which she makes her first appearance on a pale, mysterious steed and meets King Pwyll, whom she marries. Later she was unjustly accused of killing her infant son, and in punishment she was forced to act as a horse and to carry visitors to the royal court. According to another story, she was made to wear the collars of asses about her neck in the manner of a beast.
Danu
also spelled Anu, or Dana,
in Celtic religion, the earth-mother goddess or female principle, who was honoured under various names from eastern Europe to Ireland. The mythology that surrounded her was contradictory and confused; mother goddesses of earlier peoples were ultimately identified with her, as were many goddesses of the Celts themselves. Possibly a goddess of fertility, of wisdom, and of wind, she was believed to have suckled the gods. Her name was borne by the legendary Tuatha Dé Danann (“People of the Goddess Danu”), the Irish company of gods, who may be considered either as distinct individuals or as extensions of the goddess and who survive in Irish lore as the fairy folk, skilled in magic.

Brigit - also called Brigantia (Celtic: High One) in Celtic religion, ancient goddess of the poetic arts, crafts, prophecy, and divination; she was the equivalent of the Roman goddess Minerva (Greek Athena). In Ireland this Brigit was one of three goddesses of the same name, daughters of the Dagda, the great god of that country. Her two sisters were connected with healing and with the craft of the smith. Brigit was worshipped by the semi-sacred poetic class, the filid, who also had certain priestly functions.
Brigit was taken over into Christianity as St. Brigit, but she retained her strong pastoral associations. Her feast day was February 1, which was also the date of the pagan festival of Imbolc, the season when the ewes came into milk. St. Brigit had a great establishment at Kildare in Ireland that was probably founded on a pagan sanctuary. Her sacred fire there burned continually; it was tended by a series of 19 nuns and by the saint herself every 20th day. Brigit still plays an important role in modern Scottish folk tradition, where she figures as the midwife of the Virgin Mary. Numerous holy wells are dedicated to her.
Brigantia, patron goddess of the Brigantes of northern Britain, is substantially the same goddess as Brigit. Her connection with water is shown by her invocation in Roman times as “the nymph goddess”; several rivers in Britain and Ireland are named after her.

Bran - (Celtic: “Raven”), gigantic Celtic deity who figured in the Mabinogion (a collection of medieval Welsh tales) as “crowned king over this Island” (i.e., Britain). Because of his stature, he and his court had to live in a tent, as no house had ever been built large enough to contain him. The most important aspect of Brân's myth concerned his wondrous severed head. The ancient Celts worshiped the human head and believed it to be the seat of the soul, capable of independent life after the death of the body. They thought that it possessed powers of prophecy and was symbolic of fertility. They also believed that one of its functions was to provide entertainment in the otherworld.
According to the myth, Brân had been mortally wounded and requested his companions to cut off his head. He instructed them to take the head with them on their wanderings, telling them that it would not only provide them with marvelous entertainment and companionship but would also remain uncorrupted as long as they refrained from opening a certain forbidden door. If that door were opened, they would find themselves back in the real world and would remember all their sorrows. Eventually, they were to take the head and bury it on the White Mount in London. All happened as Brân had prophesied, and his companions passed 80 joyous and delightful years. The head was buried in London, where it kept away all invaders from Britain until it was finally unearthed. Brân is also the hero of The Voyage of Brân (see imram).

Cernunnos - (Celtic: “Horned One”), in Celtic religion, an archaic and powerful deity, widely worshipped as the “lord of wild things.” Cernunnos may have had a variety of names in different parts of the Celtic world, but his attributes were generally consistent. He wore stag antlers and was sometimes accompanied by a stag and by a sacred ram-horned serpent that was also a deity in its own right. He wore and sometimes also held a torque, the sacred neck ornament of Celtic gods and heroes. The earliest known depictions of Cernunnos were found at Val Camonica, in northern Italy, which was under Celtic occupation from about 400 BC. He was also portrayed on the Gundestrup Caldron, a silver ritual vessel found at Gundestrup in Jutland, Den., and dating to about the 1st century BC.
Cernunnos was worshipped primarily in Britain, although there are also traces of his cult in Ireland. The Christian Church strongly opposed him because of his powerful pagan influence. He was used as a symbol of the Antichrist and as such figured in Christian iconography and medieval manuscripts.

Belenus - (Celtic: possibly, Bright One), one of the most ancient and most widely worshipped of the pagan Celtic deities; he was associated with pastoralism. A great fire festival, called Beltane (or Beltine), was held on May 1 and was probably originally connected with his cult. On that day the cattle were purified and protected by fire before being put out to the open pastures for the summer. Despite associations of his name with fire or the sun, Belenus was not a sun god; in fact, there is no Celtic evidence for the worship of the sun as such, even though it was often used in religious imagery.
There are about 31 extant dedications to Belenus, an unusually high number for a religion that specialized in the number and diversity of its divine names and epithets. The cult of Belenus was practiced in northern Italy, Noricum in the eastern Alps, southern Gaul, and probably Britain.

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