Celtic gods are represented after Greco-Roman or Greco-Egyptian models. In some cases, however, the native name stands alone. Cults of local gods became cults of the genius of the place, coupled with the genius of the emperor. Again, since Augustus reinstated the cult of the Lares, with himself as chief Lar, the epithet Augustus was given to all gods to whom the character of the Lares could be ascribed, e.g. Or sometimes to the name of the Roman god is added a descriptive Celtic epithet or a word derived from a Celtic place-name. Hence we have thousands of inscriptions in which a god is called by the name of the Roman deity to whom he was assimilated and by his own Celtic name-Jupiter Taranis, Apollo Grannus, etc.
The Gauls seem to have adopted Roman civilisation easily, and to have acquiesced in the process of assimilation of their divinities to those of their conquerors. But, as in Gaul, it was often part of a state policy, and there the fusion of cults was intended to break the power of the Druids. The identification was seldom complete, and often extended only to one particular function or attribute. As the Greeks called by the names of their own gods those of Egypt, Persia, and Babylonia, so the Romans identified Greek, Teutonic, and Celtic gods with theirs. All the Gauls assert that they are descended from Dispater, their progenitor.”Īs will be seen in this chapter, the Gauls had many other gods than these, while the Roman gods, by whose names Caesar calls the Celtic divinities, probably only approximately corresponded to them in functions. Apollo heals diseases, Minerva teaches the elements of industry and the arts, Jupiter rules over the heavens, Mars directs war…. About these they hold much the same beliefs as other nations. After him they worship Apollo and Mars, Juppiter and Minerva. The passage in which Caesar sums up the Gaulish pantheon runs: “They worship chiefly the god Mercury of him there are many symbols, and they regard him as the inventor of all the arts, as the guide of travellers, and as possessing great influence over bargains and commerce. The Gods of Gaul and the Continental Celts
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