Gaelic Folklore (35): The Celtic Goddesses Healer

The Celtic Goddesses Healer

Introduction

The evidence for a healer-goddess in Celtic Europe during the early first millennium AD is based almost entirely upon iconographical and epigraphic evidence. Certain concepts need to be introduced here in order that the role of the Goddess as healer may be better understood.

First, there is a strong link between religion and medicine: this is something that is evidenced both in the classical and in the Celtic world. Sick people in antiquity relied upon the healing skills of the supernatural powers at least as much as upon empirical medicine. Indeed, at many therapeutic sanctuaries in Gaul and Britain, doctors were present as well as priests, for example at Fontes Sequanae and Bath; it is even possible that the two roles were sometimes combined in the one individual.

Second, the perception of the numinous in water is important. There is abundant evidence in non-Mediterranean Europe from at least the later Bronze Age—say around 1300 BC—that water was a central focus of ritual activity. During the later Iron Age this activity began to manifest itself in the development of healing sanctuaries on the sites of thermal springs, a phenomenon which burgeoned in the Romano-Celtic phase in the Rhineland, Gaul and Britain.

Third, the evidence for healing cults in Celtic Europe demonstrates a very close link between healing, regeneration and fertility, which may account for the fact that many Celtic divine healers were perceived as female, and for the strong association between curative cult establishments and the mothergoddesses. There is evidence that many devotees of healing-deities were women; the fact that most stone altars were dedicated by men probably does not reflect anything other than economic or social factors. Women may not normally have had the means to erect expensive stone monuments as readily as their male counterparts. However, the cult of Apollo Vindonnus at Essarois in Burgundy seems—from the exvotoes— to have been patronized by women. The lady wearing a torc whose wooden image was dedicated at the thermal shrine of Chamalières in the first century AD was probably a devotee, but it is just possible that she may have been the goddess herself. There is a small amount of evidence for the association of women with the healing professions: at Grand in the Vosges, a stone of Romano-Celtic date depicts the inside of a chemist’s shop with a female chemist at work with mortar and herbs. An inscription and image on a tombstone at Metz betray the presence of a female doctor in the first century AD.

Fourth, we must be wary of positing theories- about the status of women in Celtic society from the importance of the Goddess. Having sounded this note of caution, it is, however, interesting that classical literary references to Celtic women contain many allusions to the contrast between their status and that of their more lowly Mediterranean sisters.

Sequana Of Burgundy

Sequana was a water-spirit, the personification of the River Seine at its source, Fontes Sequanae. Here, in the valley of the Châtillon Plateau, a spring of fresh, pure water wells up from the ground and was the focus of religious devotion from the later first century BC. The spring is pure but it contains no genuine mineral properties. Sequana is special in that she is not paired with any Roman goddess; her name is known from about ten inscriptions, and there is a bronze cult-statue of Sequana herself. In 1963, during the excavation of buildings dating to the Roman period, more than 200 wooden votives were discovered in water-logged ground, apparently pre-dating Roman levels and originally set up perhaps around the sacred pool. The pre-Roman activity centered upon the pool itself; there is no evidence of permanent structures at this time. Shortly after the Roman occupation of the region the sanctuary was monumentalized and the spring canalized. It was now an extensive religious complex, containing two temples, porticoes, a dormitory and reservoirs, still centered on the sacred spring and pool. The votive images were now of stone. In common with the activities at classical healing shrines, sick pilgrims visited the sanctuary bearing offerings—possibly bought at the shrine shop—bathed, slept, and asked for a cure with gifts of models of themselves or their afflictions. Eyes, chest, genitals, limbs—these were just a few of the complaints represented by the votives. The eye problems so prevalent at many shrines could have been due to poor hygiene or malnutrition: a lack of animal fat can cause night-blindness. The votive model breasts in bronze and silver may denote milk deficiency, a serious problem for child-rearing in antiquity. Sequana was not a specialist: she healed all afflictions.

Sequana

Sirona And Her Peers

There is a group of continental healer-goddesses who have a common characteristic: namely, the possession of a male partner. It is the case with the healers, as with other divine couples like Mercury and Rosmerta, that the native goddess seems often to possess a wider variety of functions and concerns than her consort and, in addition, is the less influenced by Graeco-Roman traditions. These goddesses usually have completely native names, and symbolism which is less influenced by Graeco-Roman art forms than their male companions. In addition, they show evidence of independent identity: they are not mere female ciphers attached to the cults of male divinities.

Sirona

Sirona

Sirona is the divine partner of the Celtic healing Apollo, normally called Apollo Grannus (a native epithet associated with Grand in the Vosges). But she occurs alone, for example at Corseul in Brittany, where she is called Tsirona; her high rank is shown by inscriptions where she is linked with the spirit of the emperor. Sirona was venerated alone also at Baumburg in Noricum (Austria). Her cult was widely distributed and may well have pre-dated the Roman occupation of Gaul and elsewhere. Sirona was at her most popular among the Terveri: the main cult-centre was at Hochscheid, a spring sanctuary in the Moselle Basin, to which we shall return. But, elsewhere among the Treveri, Sirona was invoked at Nietaldorf, Bitburg and Sainte-Fontaine, and among the neighbouring Mediomatrici at Sablon, Metz. Sirona’s spring-cult is evidenced at Wiesbaden, Mainz and Luxeuil and even at Brigetio in Hungary, where, in the third century AD, a temple was set up to Apollo Grannus and Sarana. In the second century AD a temple was erected at Hochscheid, on the site of a spring whose waters supplied a cistern. The evidence of coins suggests that this building replaced an earlier shrine, perhaps of wood. Pilgrims offered presents of coins, figurines, etc. It seems to have been a wealthy shrine for so remote a region, perhaps a personal endowment by a prosperous trader or villa-owner who had occasion to be grateful to the guardians of the spring. 

The imagery here is interesting and Sirona’s is the more informative. There were large stone statues of Apollo and Sirona; he is entirely Classical, but Sirona is represented as a woman in a long robe and a diadem, a snake round her right forearm, and a bowl of three eggs held in her left hand. The serpent/egg symbolism is essentially regenerative as well as curative. The snake’s skin-sloughing habit gives it symbolism of rebirth and perhaps also the idea of sloughing off disease. Clay figurines brought to the shrine as gifts show Sirona seated, like a mother-goddess, with a small lapdog, which is perhaps indicative of healing. There is an Irish historical link between women and lapdogs which is suggested by Cormick as being possibly associated with the use of these animals as ‘hot-water bottles’ to comfort period pains. The imagery of the couple in bronze at Malain in Burgundy is essentially similar to that at Hochscheid: this group has a dedicatory inscription beneath the images. On other sites, the fertility aspect of Sirona’s cult is evidenced by the imagery; for example, at Sainte-Fontaine, where the goddess bears corn and fruit, and at Mainz and Baumburg where she is accompanied by ears of corn. This symbolism of the earth’s abundance bears out the association between healing springs and the mother-goddess cult. Sirona’s name is interesting: it is philologically related to ‘star’, so perhaps associated with night and darkness. There could be a link with the moon, the female menstrual cycle and the darkness of the womb.

Sirona and Apollo

Ancamna and Damona

These two continental goddesses are distinctive in their apparent polyandry, changing partners from site to site. Ancamna is known only from epigraphy. She was a Treveran deity, partner of Lenus Mars at Trier. But at Moehn, a rural sanctuary where Lenus was also venerated, Ancamna was coupled with Mars Smertrius, another native version of the Roman god. Is this the same deity with two names, or are they separate entities? Mars’s association with healing is common in the Celtic world, where his war role was transmuted into that of a guardian-protector against disease, as at Mavilly, where he appears (with a goddess) dressed as a warrior, but accompanied by a ram-horned snake, symbol of regeneration. Mavilly was particularly renowned for the cure of eye disease. Damona’s name means ‘divine cow’ or ‘great cow’, and this may reflect her role as a goddess of wealth and fertility. But first and foremost she was a healer, worshipped especially in Burgundy; she had a number of partners, but her main sanctuary was at Alesia, where she was coupled with Apollo Moritasgus. The two were venerated at a shrine with a pool in which sick pilgrims bathed in the hope of a cure. No image of Moritasgus survives but there is a fragment of Damona’s statue, showing a strong link between her iconography and that of Sirona: a carved stone head is crowned with corn-ears and a hand entwined with a serpent’s coils. At Bourbonne-Lancy, Damona’s consort was Borvo, another spring-god, and an inscription from the curative shrine relates to Damona’s association with the therapeutic sleep enjoyed by pilgrims seeking a healing dream or vision from the divine healers. The names of both Borvo and Moritasgus mean ‘bubbling’ or ‘seething’ water. 

At another Burgundian shrine, Arnay-le-Duc, Damona’s partner is yet another god, Abilus. Again a fragmentary image of the goddess represents her with a stone snake curled round a human arm. It is worth remembering that the Graeco-Roman healer-god, Asklepios, is often depicted with a coiled serpent. The polyandrous nature of Damona’s cult supports her status as an independent native divinity whose identity was not based on her association with any one god. Her rank is further enhanced by epigraphic evidence from the curative sanctuary of Bourbonne-les-Bains, where Damona was worshipped alone.

Ancamna and Mars Smertius

Other Gaulish Spring Goddesses

Many other spring-goddesses are recorded only on inscriptions, often again associated with male partners: Bormana and Bormanus were venerated in southern Gaul; Luxovius and Bricta at Luxeuil. Others were lone goddesses: Telo was the eponymous spring-spirit of Toulon in the Dordogne; Januaria at Beire-le-Châtel in Burgundy is mentioned on a statue of a figure playing pan-pipes. We have little clue as to Januaria’s precise function, though she was worshipped at a curative shrine. The musical instrument may indeed be a symbol of healing sleep, just as in vernacular myth healing deities such as Cliodna were associated with music—this time with singing birds. The name of the Treveran goddess Icovellauna may be linked with water-imagery: she was venerated at Trier and at the thermal springs of Sablon, Metz. Aveta was a spring goddess of the Treveri, to whom pilgrims at Trier offered small clay figurines of mother-goddesses with baskets of fruit, with dogs or with babies.

Sulis: Healer And Avenger

The site of Bath, Aquae Sulis, was sacred before the Roman period: this is implied by the presence of eighteen Celtic Iron Age coins from the lowest levels. Early in the Roman period—just fifteen years or so after the occupation—a great temple, baths and a huge religious precinct were constructed around the great spring, which pumps out hot water beside the River Avon at a rate of a quarter of a million gallons a day; a huge altar was set up in front of the temple, and a reservoir containing the main spring enclosed by a low stone wall. This was a great Neronian or Flavian building programme using Roman engineers.

There were major alterations c. AD 200, which argue for a new slant to the cult: the temple was enlarged but the reservoir, which had been visible all over the precinct, including the baths, was enclosed in a huge vaulted hall, restricting both physical and visual access to it, and making the water more remote and mysterious. Pilgrims could now only approach the spring through a dim passageway—does this imply Otherworld symbolism?

The goddess at Bath was Sulis, a native deity, but she was equated with Minerva, which seems a curious conflation. If Sulis really is a healer-goddess, as her presence at the hot spring implies, then she may be linked with Minerva because the latter was perceived as goddess of the craft of medicine. But in addition there is a philological link between the name Sulis and the sun—the sun and healing were closely linked in the Celtic world.  Indeed the solar association may have come about at least partly because Sulis’s springs were hot.

The cult of Sulis flourished until the mid-fourth century AD. The springs have genuine medicinal properties which are good for such ailments as arthritis and gout; this must have gained Sulis a reputation for being able to cure everything. There were many devotees who donated ivory and bronze model breasts, spindle-whorls and jewellery. But unlike—say—Sequana’s shrine, very few anatomical votives have been found. Pilgrims visited the shrine perhaps for a physical cure, or perhaps more often for spiritual refreshment. Immersion, purification, imbibing the water and thus the spirit of the goddess, the healing sleep, sacrifice, festivals and prayers all must have taken place here, as well as the offering of gifts. The spring appears to have been the focus of personal contact with the goddess, to whom prayers, vows, requests and thanks were made. Stone altars record gratitude for Sulis’s help. Money, rings, brooches and combs as well as other personal offerings were cast in, some by women, perhaps sometimes on impulse.

Ritual activity is represented at Bath: a priest of Sulis, Calpurnius Receptus, died here aged 75. A haruspex (literally ‘gut-gazer’) may have been present in a personal rather than an official capacity. Part of a head-dress was found, suggesting liturgical regalia. About 12,000 coins come from the reservoir.

This seems a large quantity but it works out as only an average of c. 24–48 coins a year. The presence of silver, pewter and bronze vessels could represent a ritual purpose (the drinking or pouring of the sacred water), but they could also have been offerings.

The question needs to be asked as to whether the assumption that Sulis is primarily a healer-goddess is valid. The only real evidence is her presence at the site of a major thermal spring. The third-century Roman writer Solinus refers to Bath having springs ‘furnished luxuriously for human use …over them Minerva presides’. There is no mention of healing. The inscriptions dedicating altars to the goddess do not specifically mention the curing of disease, whilst this does occur at Fontes Sequanae. Most importantly, there is a significant lack of anatomical votives, which are such clear indications of healing cults elsewhere. Certainly, I think, we have to reconsider Sulis’s role, even though the hot springs must have played a genuine part in the establishment of the cult.

Sulis / Minerva

The diversity of Sulis’s cult is nowhere shown more clearly than in the extraordinary group of 130 lead and pewter curses or defixiones from Bath found in the reservoir where they had been cast by vengeful devotees. This aspect of the goddess’s nature and powers is seemingly at variance with the role of benevolent healer. Sulis was clearly perceived as an avenger of wrongs. Water and curses have a well-established link; as late as the nineteenth century in Wales, a man was imprisoned for inscribing a curse on a lead sheet and throwing it into a well. In a sense the named or unnamed malefactor was being symbolically sacrificed to the goddess. The ‘fixing’ was an important element of the defixio, so that the curse would not rebound on the curser. The choice of lead or pewter is significant both practically and symbolically. The curses are very harsh, associated with fertility, sleep, blood and internal disorders.

So there is a strong link with disease in this negative aspect of Sulis’s cult: Docimedes has lost two gloves. He asks that the person who has stolen them should lose his mind and his eyes in the temple where she appoints. Docilianus, son of Brucerus to the most holy goddess Sulis. I curse him who has stolen my hooded cloak, whether man or woman, slave or free, that the goddess inflict death upon him, and not allow him sleep or children, now and in the future, until he has brought my hooded cloak to the temple of her divinity.

The cult of Sulis, whatever its precise nature, was popular and successful, attracting people over a wide area and over long periods of time—nearly four centuries. If we are right to interpret her cult as primarily that of a healer, then the reversal of benevolence and vengeance is interesting. What the goddess could give she could also take away, especially if the evil deed was perpetrated within her sacred space.

Healing And The Mother-Goddesses

The symbolism of the divine female healers has already demonstrated a close link between curing, fertility and regeneration. The mother-goddesses themselves, often in their distinctive triadic form, appear at thermal spring-sanctuaries, presumably as healers themselves. There is a natural link between the mother, childbirth and women’s health before, during and after pregnancy.

The Mothers were perceived as protectors and nourishers of children. Good examples of mother-goddesses at springshrines include those at Vertault and Bath. At Aix-les-Bains, pilgrims at the curative shrine worshipped the Matres Comedovae, the med element perhaps referring specifically to health. The Matres Griselicae were the eponymous healers at Greoulx, the Glanicae at Glanum, and the

Nemausicae at Nîmes, all in Provence. At Arrington in Cambridgeshire, a recent discovery consists of the burial of an infant who died of hydrocephalus: he was placed in a coffin on top of which was a group of clay figurines, including a mother-goddess of distinctively Rhenish type. Was she placed in his grave as a symbolic mother but also as a healer, so that he would be whole in his life in the Otherworld?

The association between mothers and healers is enhanced by certain aspects of their symbolism, notably the presence with them of such animals as dogs and snakes. Dogs were associated with self-healing, and there were sacred dogs at the great healing sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus in Greece. In Britain, images of dogs were notable occurrences at the healing shrine of Nodens at Lydney. We have seen the association between dogs, Sirona and Aveta. Snakes were potent symbols of rebirth and fertility, again associated with healing.

-Conclusion

From our own experience in modern times we know that health figures prominently in, for example, governmental responsibility and spending. Health is a fundamental concern to humankind and must always have been so. In antiquity, many diseases that to us are commonplace and curable were neither understood nor capable of effective treatment. So the gods played a crucial role in the physical and spiritual well-being of the community.

In the Celtic world, we know of many great healing-cults which were more or less influenced by the imagery and belief-systems of the Classical world. But I think it fair to say that some of the most interesting cults were those centred upon the goddesses; Sulis, Sequana, Sirona and their sisters in healing all presided over important popular sanctuaries to which pilgrims were attracted from far afield, drawn by the successful reputations of the goddesses.

The links between healing and fertility are interesting, and these appear to be specific to the female healers. Perhaps more fascinating still is the reversal of beneficence and malignancy in Sulis’s cult, where curing and cursing were both under the goddess’s jurisdiction.

The healing deities may have played a large part in people’s lives not only because they attended to their physical well-being but also perhaps because they offered spiritual renewal. This is not usually evidenced archaeologically but it is more than likely that pilgrims prayed to these divinities for many and complex reasons other than those of pure health.

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the healing-goddess cult is the manner in which it has survived into modern Christianity all over Europe. There are numerous instances of shrines to the Virgin Mary as a healer to whom pilgrims have come in recent years as suppliants, bearing gifts identical to those found in such sanctuaries as Fontes Sequanae. I will give just one example, from Malta, where Melleiha Bay, a subterranean shrine to Mary, cut into the rock, is associated with a natural spring. The gifts which decorate the walls include wax or silver models of limbs, hearts or eyes, baby clothes, shoes, crutches, plaster-casts, X-rays, pictures of children, even crash-helmets: all offered to Mary in hope or thanksgiving. There is a legend that the statue of Mary was often moved to a more respectable place within the main church later built above the original shrine but that, during the night, she always moved back down the forty steps to her old position by the spring. The dedications have been taking place for more than two hundred years and probably much longer; the shrine itself is said to be eight hundred years old. The link between divine female presence, spring-water and healing, shown here, is indistinguishable from perceptions of pagan Celtic pilgrims in the early first millennium AD.

Miranda Green, The Concept Of The Goddess, Chapter Two.

Gaelic Folklore (34): Sanctuaries and Sacred Places

Sanctuaries and Sacred Places 

Drawing on iron age texts and a critical examination of archaeological data, it is possible to suggest some key features of the sacred spaces among the Celts.

Written Evidence

As the iron age Celts made limited use of writing, textual accounts of Celtic peoples derive almost entirely from Graeco-Roman sources. Those classical texts contemporary with the Iron Age are most relevant to a discussion of iron age sites, and the present account concentrates on these. As the product of an external, conquering society, classical commentaries are in many ways a problematic source of data on the Celts. But at the same time, such accounts are iron age artefacts, and when treated as such can yield much information.  Most classical accounts of Celtic sacred space date to the later Iron Age (i.e. La Tene D; C.120-0 Bc). Greek colonization in the western Mediterranean, under way by the sixth century Bc, and Celtic expansion into northern Italy from the fourth to second centuries Bc and Asia Minor from the third generated limited textual data on the Celts, but it was only from C.125-120 Bc, with Roman intervention in the Provincia, that significant quantities of data emerged on Celtic peoples and practices. The date of these texts ensures that the question of Graeco-Roman influence, both on Celtic practices and on their literary depiction, is ever-present in assessing the literary evidence. 

Underlying most iron age texts is thus a common theme: a sacred area comprising or including an enclosure. How such enclosures were realized is nowhere specified, but the concept of sacred enclosure is clear. Ironically, given their interest to the excavators of the weapon-rich sites discussed below, almost the only texts for which enclosure remains an uncertainty are Caesar's references to loci consecrati (sacred spots). Caesar uses the term for the druidic meeting-place among the Carnutes of Gaul and for heaps of battle spoil dedicated to 'Mercury'. In the latter case, Caesar simply says that booty was piled up in heaps; enclosure need not be implied. Elsewhere, Diodorus referred to booty being taken off the battlefield, without specifying its fate. Livy suggested spoils were heaped on the battlefield, apparently ruling out formal structure, but wrote with reference to the Celtic sack of Rome in 390 Bc. As Brunaux suggested, battlefield booty heaps may have been used in foreign territory, when spoils could not be moved to existing loci. Whatever the case, it is clear from Caesar's account that in later iron age Gaul booty heaps were conceptually bounded by their taboo status. The almost total absence of any detail on construction and use make it difficult to determine the nature of Celtic cult sites. But the formalized structuring of space, incorporating enclosing works, is suggested by most texts.

A 'Natural' Religion?

'Natural' loci such as woods, groves and trees are often advanced as Celtic cult loci par excellence. This concept of Celtic sacred space derives in part from classical texts, but references on this theme do not commence before the first century AD, when woodland sites are frequently associated with the druids. Iron age references to 'natural' loci are rare. In C.100 Bc Artemidorus commented on an open-air ritual at Cape St Vincent in western Spain, and Poseidonios on the use of lakes as sacred repositories in the Toulouse area of the Provincia. Strabo also stated that the Celtiberians worshipped a nameless god outside their houses.

Although only Artemidorus makes explicit reference to the absence of structures, all three texts may imply rituals without use of formal (roofed) structures, or otherwise involving the restructuring of space; for example by construction of an enclosure. There are no other iron age references to such 'natural' cult sites.

The first-century AD change in emphasis to woodland sites is ignored by archaeological commentators except Wait, although we can advance reasons for a change in practice at this point. Imperial proscription of the druids could have forced the use of secluded locales. Equally, as Chadwick noted, the textual association of druids and groves could be the result of a spurious etymology, voiced in Pliny's suggestion that 'druid' derives from the Greek word for oak.  It is not impossible that the association of groves with Celtic religion is a literary construct of the first century AD.

The concept of nature-based Celtic religion is also predicated on the apparent paucity of archaeological evidence for tectonic loci. As such sites would leave little archaeological trace, this proposition remains difficult to test, but it is important to note that the archaeological record is likely to be biased in favour of formal structures. Bearing this in mind, what evidence can be adduced for 'natural' loci?

Nemeton

Nemeton is a Celtic descriptor for sites of cult significance. Nemeton is attested mainly in post-conquest place-names and epigraphy, over a wide area. Place-names include Augustonemetum (Clermont-Ferrand) and Nemetodorum (Nanterre) in Gaul, Nemetobriga (near Ortense) in Spain, and Medionemeton (near the Antonine Wall) in Britain. Epigraphic attestations include Mars Rigonemetis from Britain (Nettleham) and Nemetona from Altripp (Spier). Nemeton is commonly glossed 'sacred, with little indication that it principally denoted such sites. It is suggested nemeton had several meanings, including grove or clearing and small shrine or chapel (d. the Irish nemed, glossed sacellum, suggestive of a small shrine). Formal structural associations are a possibility for some examples, as at Vaison-la-Romaine (Vaucluse, France), where an inscription records the dedication of a nemeton to Belissama. and the context suggests a structure or precinct. Nemeton thus remains enigmatic. The most acceptable gloss, MacCana's 'a sacred place', simply emphasizes how little we may infer from the term regarding the form of Celtic cult sites.

Trees and Groves

Groves continue to be advanced as Celtic cult sites, essentially by reference to nemeton attestations, and the first-century AD texts discussed above. Such sites would have little archaeological visibility, but some recent discoveries may suggest that representations of trees were employed in cult contexts. These are the finds of bronze leaves at the St-Maur sanctuary (Oise, France) and the remains of a golden tree from a pit at Manching (Bavaria). These finds are problematic; the Manching tree, which probably dates to the third century BC, and from which were suspended golden leaves and fruit, is apparently of Greek manufacture. The cult association of the find, which is not from one of the possible Manching cult foci, is also uncertain. Iron leaves, again designed for suspension, were found in a settlement context at Villeneuve-St-Germain (Aisne, France). The positioning and use of such finds within sanctuaries (where related to these) are as yet unknown.

Water

'Watery' loci such as a springs, lakes and bogs have traditionally been argued as important sacred spaces for Celts.

Springs

Springs are commonly seen as a focus for Celtic rituals. Textual evidence in this respect is very sparse. Hirtius' account of the diversion of a spring at Uxellodunum in 51 BC, and the subsequent surrender of the oppidum is a possible reference of iron age date, but a utilitarian function could well be implied for this spring. The one reference to springs in a clear iron age cult context is Lucan's overwrought account of a Lucus near Marseilles, written in the first century AD with reference to the Civil War.

Archaeological evidence for springs as pre-conquest cult foci is virtually non-existent. The argument for Celtic use of such loci is heavily dependent on the well-documented post-conquest use of springs for cult purposes. Finds of wooden statuary (a non-classical medium) at the Cote d'Or sites of Sources de la Seine and Elssarois and at Chamalieres (Puy-de-Dome), and elsewhere in France, have been argued to show a Celtic presence at springs, but can nowhere be dated before the first century AD. The recently excavated examples from Montlay-en-Auxois (Cote d'Or) were found in wooden catchment pools dated by dendrochronology to AD 86-119.

On the other hand, cult activity occurred from the early post-conquest period at many springs: Luxeuil and St-Marcel (Indre), Avord and Sagonne (Cher), Vichy (Allier), Chateauneuf-Ies-Bains (Puy-de-Dome), and Coren and Vic-sur-Cere (Cantal) have all produced early post-conquest coins or ceramics. There are two ways to consider this phenomenon: either by the retrospective inference that such sites are close enough in date to the Roman intervention to suggest they represent the survival of pre-conquest practices; or as a veritable post-conquest phenomenon. On present evidence, the balance is in favour of the latter.

Lakes

Poseidonios, who visited Mediterranean Gaul in C.IOO BC, refered to sacred lakes as repositories for treasures among the Tectosages of Toulouse. This passage is often cited as evidence for a widespread use of sacred lakes by Celtic peoples, but the text is clearly specific to the Tectosages. Archaeological evidence for lakes in cult contexts is, however, more widespread. The deposition of high-value metal in watery contexts, including lakes, is well attested archaeologically in Atlantic Europe. This practice increased during the Iron Age in Britain, though on the Continent it declined after the second century BC. Numerous lakes are interpreted as depositional cult foci, including Llyn Cerrig Bach (Anglesey) and Carlingwark (Scotland). A similar interpretation was originally advanced for the lake site at La Tene, (Neuchatel, Switzerland), where thousands of weapons and tools, and some jewellery and coins, were found.

Bogs

Bogs also served as foci for metalwork deposits. This practice was not restricted to Celtic peoples, and features for example in Germanic cult. The Gundestrup Cauldron, widely seen as the quintessential 'Celtic' cult artefact, was in fact found in a bog in Himmerland, Denmark.  Human remains are mainly known from Germanic contexts, but sometimes occur in Britain and Ireland. The Lindow bog body (Lindow Moss, Cheshire) is a recent example. Dating of the body is problematic, but radiocarbon dates from the most recent analysis cluster around the first century AD. Lindow man suffered a threefold death (by axe blows, garrotting and cutting of the throat). This triplication suggests a death with ritual links. Where datable, however, British bog bodies are mainly of bronze age or Roman date, and their ritual associations unclear. The extent to which such deposits represent an iron age ritual phenomenon is thus uncertain. 

There is some evidence that islands were favoured as cult sites by Atlantic Celtic peoples. Several texts may be noted in this context. Posidonius described a Gallic site on an island off the mouth of the Loire, served by female religious specialists. Tacitus, describing Suetonius' attack on Mona (Anglesey), associated the island with the druids and with women whom he compared to the Furies. After the conquest, Mela referred to virgin priestesses on the island of Sena (Brittany). Female religious specialists are linked to islands in all three passages. The implication is possibly of sexual boundedness. Islands are also physically bounded, relating them conceptually to other forms of enclosure noted here. In Britain, archaeological evidence for an island sanctuary occurs in the form of a wooden circular temple on Hayling Island.

A link theme in the above discussion is that of water as a boundary. Brunaux has suggested that lakes were natural sanctuaries, without enclosure or protection. This may not always have been the case, but water, or islands in water, clearly offer a ready-made form of enclosure. Both textual and archaeological evidence for iron age 'natural' foci is thus very restricted, the latter being largely limited to certain water categories. It is very likely that Celtic peoples did employ natural forces as cult foci, without restructuring their space. In the Graeco-Roman world, for example, such loci co-existed with formal, public, cult centres and the same is clearly probable for Celtic peoples. Indeed, it is possible to argue that our concept of Celtic religious life is distorted by the poor recognition of 'natural' cult loci by both classical commentators and archaeologists. In this context, the lack of textual data may reflect the fact that non-structural loci would not have been easily recognizable to external observers.

But at the same time, natural forces, including trees and springs, were familiar cult loci in the Graeco-Roman world.  It remains significant that almost all iron age textual references suggest, with varying degrees of certainty, that the designation of Celtic cult sites involved the restructuring of space. Equally, while the difficulties of archaeological recognition of 'natural' sites must be borne in mind when assessing their importance to the Celts, it is also reasonable to expect some positive archaeological evidence in their favour. In many of the cases examined above, this is clearly lacking.

Wells and Shafts

Wells and shafts have long been argued as Celtic cult sites. The British record has been comprehensively documented but evidence for iron age usage is extremely poor. Stronger evidence for ritual wells and shafts comes from the continent. Shafts have been recovered, for example, inside or under the banks of southern German Viereckschanzen. Bavarian examples occur at Holzhausen, Tomerdingen, Schonfeld and Kreutzpullach. Fellbach-Schmiden (Baden-Wiirttemberg) may also be noted in this context. At Holzhausen, three shafts up to 36.5 m deep were sunk in the Iron Age. The presence of organic material, burning within shafts, and the deliberate placement of a wooden stake and a flesh-hook in two shafts led the excavator to suggest these had been used for the disposal of sacrificial remains. At Fellbach-Schmiden fragments of three deer figurines were recovered from an oaklined shaft (by dendrochronology to 123 BC).

Beyond southern Germany, shafts with iron age fills are rare. Gallic examples are mainly restricted to the Provincia. The fills of some Toulouse shafts date to the first century BC (e.g. the ceramic-filled shaft from Vieille-Toulouse), but none securely predates the Roman intervention. Pre-conquest fills occur elsewhere in the Provincia, as at Nimes, but these shafts seem to have had utilitarian roles. Most Gallic examples postdate the Augustan era, as at Argentomagus  where shafts date to the first century AD and the first- to second-century AD examples at Chartres (Eure-etLoir) Given this dating, it is important to recall that the use of shafts for cult purposes was common in the Graeco-Roman world and it seems very possible that wells and shafts are essentially post-conquest cult loci.

Celto-Ligurian Sanctuaries

These well-documented stone-built structures of Provence include Entremont, Roquepertuse  and Glanum.

They comprise monumental propylaea, decorated with sculptured reliefs, frequently of the human head, and often associated with free-standing sculptures of cross-legged anthropomorphic figures. The dating of some examples is uncertain, but Entremont and Roquepertuse were probably destroyed during the Roman intervention in c. 125 Be. These sites provide much information on sanctuary structure, but they represent an exceptional, localized development, owing much to the long Greek contacts in the Bouches-du-Rhone area, and, with the exception of a dieu-accroupi from Argentomagus , do not appear to be replicated elsewhere in Celtic Europe.

Enclosures and their related structures

Until recently, it was thought that prior to the second century Be, iron age Celtic peoples rarely constructed special cult sites, and possible early sites like the early third-century Be rectilinear enclosure at Libenice (Prague) were considered exceptions to this rule. Excavation in the last decade, particularly in northern France, has changed this position somewhat (the sanctuary at Gournay-sur-Aronde (Oise), for example, has fourth-century Be origins), but it remains true that the majority of excavated cult sites employing enclosures do not predate 250 Be.

Viereckschanzen

This term was originally applied to a series of Bavarian rectilinear enclosures delimited by an earth bank and ditch, enclosing an area of approximately I ha.  Viereckschanzen were classified on morphological and typological criteria by Schwarz, who was influential in arguing for the cult function of such sites. In contrast to the 'Belgic' sanctuaries discussed below, the assemblages from excavated Viereckschanzen are generally very poor, and the cult function of most examples is uncertain. Sites across Celtic Europe, from Gosbecks in Britain to Msecke Zehrovice in Bohemia have been related to the Bavarian Viereckschanzen on morphological grounds. There has been a marked tendency to assume commonality of function across the series, and taking Holzhausen as an indicator, this role has often been argued to be a cult one. The recent doubts cast over Holzhausen are thus significant, not least because, despite numerous excavations, Holzhausen remains the sole site with a strong claim to a cult function. The excavators of Viereckschanzen-comparables in France, for example, have suggested utilitarian roles for enclosures at  and St-Arnoult. In addition, the perceived morphological and topographical similarities between the Bavarian sites and a set of proposed Viereckschanzen-comparables in the Limousin, France, have recently been shown to be statistically non-significant. It is likely that some sites now placed in the Viereckschanzen class served a cult function, but it seems clear that the category subsumes a variety of monument groups. Without independent excavation criteria, as yet lacking, unexcavated sites, and the majority of excavated examples, cannot be seen as cult loci.

Last decade, a series of excavations in the territory of the Bellovaci and Ambiani (Picardy, France) has substantially increased our knowledge of sanctuaries and attitudes to sacred space in Belgic Gaul. Sanctuary sites with features similar to those of Picardy occur beyond Belgic territory, but given the extent of excavation in Belgic Gaul, it is proposed to concentrate on that area here. Belgic sanctuaries include Gournay-sur-Aronde), Estrees-St-Denis, St-Maur  and Vendeuil-Caply  in Dept Oise; Ribemont-sur-Ancre, Morviller-St-Saturnin  and Chilly  in Dept Somme; and Mouzon  in Dept Ardennes. One of the best-understood sequences is that for the sanctuary at the centre of the oppidum of Gournay-sur-Aronde (Oise). The sanctuary site forms a rectilinear enclosure which in its first (fourth century Bc) phase measured 45 x 38 m and was defined by a ditch and low bank. In the late fourth to mid-third century Bc a palisade was added on the external edge of the ditch and in the late third to early second century Be a second ditch was added beyond the first. From its construction in the fourth century Be until C.30 Bc, the primary ditch was used to deposit over 2,000 broken weapons and 3,000 animal bones. At the center of the enclosure a group of pits was dug in the mid-third century Be. Nine roughly circular pits 1.2 m deep, surrounded a tenth, oval, pit in which cattle remains were allowed to decompose.

Around the end of the third century Be these pits served as foundations for a wooden building, replaced by two subsequent first-century Be structures. The latter, constructed c.30 Be, was of [anum form. Ditches serving as repositories for weapons, tools, and animal and human bone, associated with a central arrangement of pits which later saw structural formalization, occur at other Oise sites. These include St-Maur  and Vendeuil-Caply. At St-Maur, ritual activity commenced later than at Gournay, in c.250 Be. Many variations on the Gournay pattern are known, even within Belgic Gaul. At some sites assemblages are characterized less by weapons than by jewellery; examples here are Estn!es-St-Denis, Vendeuil-Caply and Morviller-St-Saturnin. Equally, certain sites, such as Estrees-St-Denis and Montmartin, are less clearly demarcated from their associated settlements than are others in the Belgic group.

A number of sites produce a high proportion of human bone. Among these is Ribemont-sur-Ancre (Somme), 50 km from Gournay. An iron age cult area was discovered here, near the principal temple of a vast Gallo-Roman cult complex. Over 200 long bones (mainly human, but also of horses) had been used to form a box-like construction, r.65 m sq, surrounding a post-hole filled with human ashes. Originally standing 1 m high, this ossuary was surrounded by iron weapons. A second ossuary has recently been excavated. Both examples stood in corners of a ditch-and-bank quadrangular enclosure, itself set in a vast enclosure over 200 m in length. Weapons and bones had been placed along the edges of the former. Two distinct dating episodes are noted at Ribemont: the construction of the ossuaries C200 Be, and a phase of deposition within the ditch, centred on the period of the Gallic War. The specific function of the site is unclear. The bone constructions could represent the massacre of prisoners, the remains of enemies killed in battle, or a collective sepulchre for the 'friendly' dead.

A second site yielding a high proportion of human remains is Mceuvres, Cambrais. Although Belgic sanctuaries thus exhibit considerable variety, two broad shared characteristics emerge: a rich assemblage of deposited material - weapons, often 'sacrificed' by deliberate damage, animal and human bones, and jewellery - and a palisaded/ditched enclosure. Many of the more fully excavated sites have also produced internal structures, but these generally postdate the enclosing works. This point is reconsidered below. Finally, whilst we know almost nothing of deity worship within these loci (or even whether this occurred), it is clear that deposition was a key ritual activity at such sites. These depositional acts were the culmination of a series of ritual processes, including the dismemberment and exposure of human and animal bone and the ritual sacrifice of weapons, well documented at Gournay-sur-Aronde (Brunaux and Rapin 1988) and Ribemont-sur- Ancre.

Throughout the Celtic world, there are very numerous occurrences of preconquest horizons at Roman period lana. The structural associations of these levels are unfortunately often uncertain, obliterated by the subsequent buildings, but frequently comprise pits or pit groupings, similar to those of the Belgic area. A recently excavated example occurs at Vertault (Cote d'Or). Enclosures with affinities to those of Picardy include Mirebeau-sur-Beze (Cote d'Or), Tronoen (Finistere) and Lousonna-Vidy (Switzerland). Weapons assemblages recently reinterpreted as deriving from cult loci include Nanteuil-sur-Aisne and Roizy (Ardennes) in the territory of the Gallic Remi. In Britain, numerous enclosed loci are proposed as iron age sanctuaries. Among these are a square palisaded enclosure surrounding a circular structure at Hayling Island, and a square, multi-ditched later iron age enclosure, overlain by a circular temple of the first century AD, at Gosbecks. Other examples are Uley, Lancing Ring  and Harlow.

The Importance of Enclosure

Enclosure was the primary and indispensable feature of Celtic cult sites. Some general points may be offered on enclosures in Celtic religious contexts. Enclosure is an act of boundary. Prior to the Late Iron Age, this boundedness was often underlined by the physical isolation of cult loci from settlement sites. The early La Tene quadrangular enclosure at the summit of the oppidum of Zavist (Bohemia) is one of earliest proposed cult sites to exhibit close settlement links. By the later Iron Age, many cult loci occur within settlement contexts. Others, like Ribemont, comprise rural loci which under the Roman hegemony develop into major cult complexes.

As the Belgic examples show, the early phases at most cult enclosures, delimited by a ditch and sometimes a palisade, had no accompanying internal structures. Crucially, in many cases, enclosure ditches were themselves a focus of ritual activity, serving as depositional zones. In the Celtic world, an enclosure ditch was often not simply a delimiter of sacred space; it was itself a primary focus of cult activity.

Weaponry, in particular, tends to be associated with ditches rather than with formal structures. The weapons assemblages of both Gournay and St-Maur were associated with the enclosure ditches; those of Ribemont with the ossuaries and the ditch edge, and during the first century BC weapons were also placed in the ditch. Formal structures occur at late stages in the history of these sites. Others may have had no structural phase at all, for example Mceuvres and possibly also the poorly documented closed deposits of weapons and horse gear such as the Masse at Tiefenau and Naillers.

Ditches, as depositional loci, were thus often intimately associated with cult activity. The relative chronology of enclosed cult loci merits stressing in this context. The perimeter - ditch and or palisade - tends to predate internal features. Later structures, often formalizing pit groups (as at Gournay and Vendeuil-Caply) tend to be square or rectangular in plan, culminating in square-plan that relates the form of internal structures to the plan of the enclosure itself, again emphasizing the pre-eminence of the enclosing works. Whether the development of formal structures is due to Mediterranean influence, as some commentators maintain is open to debate. But it is clear that an essential feature of many Celtic cult loci is the act of enclosure, less as sacred delimiter than as itself sacred space.

Space and Symbolism

Our understanding of the beliefs which structured the organization of sacred space among Celtic peoples is very uncertain. But the characteristics of cult sites allow us to see some underlying principles at work, if not the reasons for them. For example, many Celtic cult sites have east-facing entrances. This feature is by no means confined to sacred sites, but the frequent occurrence of easterly orientation suggests it was a symbolic referent informing spatial delimitation in many contexts. Posidonius, who says the Keltoi revere the gods by turning to the right, also recognized the symbolic importance of orientation, and may be describing a rite of circumambulation. In the first century AD Pliny noted Gallic circumambulation, apparently in the opposite direction. Similar rites have tentatively been evoked to explain the presence of an annular space, delimited by two palisades, at the St-Maur sanctuary. Other astronomical considerations may have influenced the structuring of space within enclosures. The internal structures at Libenice (Prague) were arranged with reference to the position of the sun and the solstices, and at Gournay (Oise) four posts at the centre of the enclosure marked the cardinal points.  Caesar's comment  on the druidic meeting-place at the center of Gaul may suggest the symbolic importance of centrality to Celtic peoples. This may also be reflected in the widespread occurrence of the element medio- (center, middle) in Celtic place-names . The British Medionemeton  is particularly relevant in this context. It is less clear whether this concept informed the structuring of sacred spaces on a microcosmic level, although Brunaux comments that most temples are placed at the centre of enclosures. Brunaux has also argued for a geography in which every natural phenomenon was deemed sacred by the Celts. At present, however, ideas on Celtic sacred geography remain speculative, articulated mainly by appeals to the medieval literature.

(The Celtic World, 1995, Jane Webster)

Gaelic Folklore (33): The Druids

 

The Druids. 

Pliny thought that the name "Druid" was a Greek appellation derived from the Druidic cult of the oak.  (Pliny, HN xvi. 249.)The word, however, is purely Celtic, and its meaning probably implies that, like the sorcerer and medicine-man everywhere, the Druid was regarded as "the knowing one." It is composed of two parts--dru-, regarded by M. D'Arbois as an intensive, and vids, from vid, "to know," or "see."  Hence the Druid was "the very knowing or wise one." It is possible, however, that dru- is connected with the root which gives the word "oak" in Celtic. speech--Gaulish deruo, Irish dair, Welsh derw--and that the oak, occupying a place in the cult, was thus brought into relation with the name of the priesthood. The Gaulish form of the name was probably druis, the Old Irish was drai. The modern forms in Irish and Scots Gaelic, drui and draoi, mean "sorcerer."

M. D'Arbois and others, accepting Cæsar's dictum that "the system (of Druidism) is thought to have been devised in Britain, and brought thence into Gaul," maintain that the Druids were priests of the Goidels in Britain, who imposed themselves upon the Gaulish conquerors of the Goidels, and that Druidism then passed over into Gaul about 200 B.C.  But it is hardly likely that, even if the Druids were accepted as priests by conquering Gauls in Britain, they should have affected the Gauls of Gaul who were outside the reflex influence of the conquered Goidels, and should have there obtained that power which they possessed.

Goidels and Gauls were allied by race and language and religion, and it would be strange if they did not both possess a similar priesthood. Moreover, the Goidels had been a continental people, and Druidism was presumably flourishing among them then. Why did it not influence kindred Celtic tribes without Druids, according to the hypothesis proposed, at that time? Further, if we accept Professor Meyer's theory that no Goidel set foot in Britain until the second century A.D., the Gauls could not have received the Druidic priesthood from the Goidels.

Cæsar merely says, "it is thought (existimatur) that Druidism came to Gaul from Britain." (Cæsar, vi. 13.) It was a pious opinion, perhaps his own, or one based on the fact that those who wished to perfect themselves in Druidic art went to Britain. This may have been because Britain had been less open to foreign influences than Gaul, and its Druids, un-affected by these, were thought to be more powerful than those of Gaul. Pliny, on the other hand, seems to think that Druidism passed over into Britain from Gaul. (Pliny, HN xxx.1)

Other writers--Sir John Rhŷs, Sir G. L. Gomme, and M. Reinach-support on different grounds the theory that the Druids were a pre-Celtic priesthood, accepted by the Celtic conquerors. Sir John Rhŷs thinks that the Druidism of the aborigines of Gaul and Britain made terms with the Celtic conquerors. It was accepted by the Goidels, but not by the Brythons. Hence in Britain there were Brythons without Druids, aborigines under the sway of Druidism, and Goidels who combined Aryan polytheism with Druidism. Druidism was also the religion of the aborigines from the Baltic to Gibraltar, and was accepted by the Gauls.

But if so, it is difficult to see why the Brythons, akin to them, did not accept it. Our knowledge of Brythonic religion is too scanty for us to prove that the Druids had or had not sway over them, but the presumption is that they had. Nor is there any historical evidence to show that the Druids were originally a non-Celtic priesthood. Everywhere they appear as the supreme and dominant priesthood of the Celts, and the priests of a conquered people could hardly have obtained such power over the conquerors. The relation of the Celts to the Druids is quite different from that of conquerors, who occasionally resort to the medicine-men of the conquered folk because they have stronger magic or greater influence with the autochthonous gods. The Celts did not resort to the Druids occasionally; according to the hypothesis proposed they accepted them completely, were dominated by them in every department of life, while their own priests, if they had any, accepted this order of things without a murmur. All this is incredible.

The picture drawn by Cæsar, Strabo, and others of the Druids and their position among the Celts as judges, choosers of tribal chiefs and kings, teachers, as well as ministers of religion, suggests rather that they were a native Celtic priesthood, long established among the people. Sir G. L. Gomme supports the theory that the Druids were a pre-Celtic priesthood, because, in his opinion, much of their belief in magic as well as their use of human sacrifice and the redemption of one life by another, is opposed to "Aryan sentiment." Equally opposed to this are their functions of settling controversies, judging, settling the succession to property, and arranging boundaries.

These views are supported by a comparison of the position of the Druids relatively to the Celts with that of non-Aryan persons in India who render occasional priestly services to Hindu village communities.  Whether this comparison of occasional Hindu custom with Celtic usage two thousand years ago is just, may be questioned. As already seen, it was no mere occasional service which the Druids rendered to the Celts, and it is this which makes it difficult to credit this theory. Had the Celtic house-father been priest and judge in his own clan, would he so readily have surren-dered his rights to a foreign and conquered priesthood?

On the other hand, kings and chiefs among the Celts probably retained some priestly functions, derived from the time when the offices of the priest-king had not been differentiated. Cæsar's evidence certainly does not support the idea that "it is only among the rudest of the so-called Celtic tribes that we find this superimposing of an apparently official priesthood." According to him, the power of the Druids was universal in Gaul, and had their position really corresponded to that of the pariah priests of India, occasional priests of Hindu villages, the determined hostility of the Roman power to them because they wielded such an enormous influence over Celtic thought and life, is unexplainable. If, further, Aryan sentiment was so opposed to Druidic customs, why did Aryan Celts so readily accept the Druids? In this case the receiver is as bad as the thief.

Sir G. L. Gomme clings to the belief that the Aryans were people of a comparatively high civilisation, who had discarded, if they ever possessed, a savage "past." But old beliefs and customs still survive through growing civilization, and if the views of Professor Sergi and others are correct, the Aryans were even less civilised than the peoples whom they conquered.  Shape-shifting, magic, human sacrifice, priestly domination, were as much Aryan as non-Aryan, and if the Celts had a comparatively pure religion, why did they so soon allow it to be defiled by the puerile superstitions of the Druids?

M. Reinach then argues that the Celts accepted Druidism en bloc, as the Romans accepted Oriental cults and the Greeks the native Pelasgic cults. But neither Romans nor Greeks abandoned their own faith. Were the Celts a people without priests and without religion? We know that they must have accepted many local cults, but that they adopted the whole aboriginal faith and its priests en bloc is not credible. M. Reinach also holds that when the Celts appear in history Druidism was in its decline; the Celt, or at least the military caste among the Celts, was reasserting itself. But the Druids do not appear as a declining body in the pages of Cæsar, and their power was still supreme, to judge by the hostility of the Roman Government to them. If the military caste rebelled against them, this does not prove that they were a foreign body. Such a strife is seen wherever priest and soldier form separate castes, each desiring to rule, as in Egypt.

Other writers argue that we do not find Druids existing in the Danube region, in Cisalpine territory, nor in Transalpine Gaul, "outside the limits of the region occupied by the Celtæ." This could only have weight if any of the classical writers had composed a formal treatise on the Druids, showing exactly the regions where they existed. They merely describe Druidism as a general Celtic institution, or as they knew it in Gaul or Britain, and few of them have any personal knowledge of it. There is no reason to believe that Druids did not exist wherever there were Celts. The Druids and Semnotheoi of the Celts and Galatæ, referred to c. 200 B.C. were apparently priests of other Celts than those of Gaul, and Celtic groups of Cisalpine Gaul had priests, though these are not formally styled Druids. (Diog. Laert. i. I; Livy xxiii. 24.) The argument based on lack of contrary evidence is here of little value, since the references to the Druids are so brief, and it tells equally against their non-Celtic origin, since we do not hear of Druids in Aquitania, a non-Celtic region.

The theory of the non-Celtic origin of the Druids assumes that the Celts had no priests, or that these were effaced by the Druids. The Celts had priests called gutuatri attached to certain temples, their name perhaps meaning "the speakers," those who spoke to the gods. Gutuatros is perhaps from gutu-, "voice" The existence of the gutuatri is known from a few inscriptions, and from Hirtius, de Bell. Gall.viii. 38, who mentions a gutuatros put to death by Cæsar. The functions of the Druids were much more general, according to this theory, hence M. D'Arbois supposes that, before their intrusion, the Celts had no other priests than the gutuatri.  But the probability is that they were a Druidic class, ministers of local sanctuaries, and related to the Druids as the Levites were to the priests of Israel, since the Druids were a composite priesthood with a variety of functions. If the priests and servants of Belenos, described by Ausonius and called by him ædituus Beleni, were gutuatri, then the latter must have been connected with the Druids, since he says they were of Druidic stock. (Ausonius, Professor. v. 7, xi. 24.)

Lucan's "priest of the grove" may have been a gutuatros, and the priests (sacerdotes) and other ministers (antistites) of the Boii may have been Druids properly so called and gutuatri. (Lucan, iii. 424; Livy, xxiii. 24.) Another class of temple servants may have existed. Names beginning with the name of a god and ending in gnatos, "accustomed to," "beloved of," occur in inscriptions, and may denote persons consecrated from their youth to the service of a grove or temple. On the other hand, the names may mean no more than that those bearing them were devoted to the cult of one particular god.

Our supposition that the gutuatri were a class of Druids is supported by classical evidence, which tends to show that the Druids were a great inclusive priesthood with different classes possessing different functions--priestly, prophetic, magical, medical, legal, and poetical. Cæsar attributes these to the Druids as a whole, but in other writers they are in part at least in the hands of different classes. Diodorus refers to the Celtic philosophers and theologians (Druids), diviners, and bards, as do also Strabo and Timagenes, Strabo giving the Greek form of the native name for the diviners, οὐάτεις, the Celtic form being probably vâtis (Irish, fáith). (Diod. Sic. v. 31; Strabo, iv. 4. 4; Timagenes apud Amm. Marc. xv. 9.) These may have been also poets, since vâtis means both singer and poet; but in all three writers the bards are a fairly distinct class, who sing the deeds of famous men (so Timagenes).

Druid and diviner were also closely connected, since the Druids studied nature and moral philosophy, and the diviners were also students of nature, according to Strabo and Timagenes. No sacrifice was complete without a Druid, say Diodorus and Strabo, but both speak of the diviners as concerned with sacrifice. Druids also prophesied as well as diviners, according to Cicero and Tacitus. (Cicero, de Div. i. 41. 90; Tac. Hist. iv. 54.) Finally, Lucan mentions only Druids and bards. (Phars. i. 449 f.) Diviners were thus probably a Druidic sub-class, standing midway between the Druids proper and the bards, and partaking of some of the functions of both.

Pliny speaks of "Druids and this race of prophets and doctors," (Pliny, HN xxx. i.) and this suggests that some were priests, some diviners, while some practised an empiric medical science. On the whole this agrees with what is met with in Ireland, where the Druids, though appearing in the texts mainly as magicians, were also priests and teachers. Side by side with them were the Filid, "learned poets," composing according to strict rules of art, and higher than the third class, the Bards. Filid, sing. File, is from velo, "I see".

The Filid, who may also have been known as Fáthi, "prophets," were also diviners according to strict rules of augury, while some of these auguries implied a sacrifice. Fáthi is cognate with Vates. The Druids were also diviners and prophets. When the Druids were overthrown at the coming of Christianity, the Filid remained as a learned class, probably because they had abandoned all pagan practices, while the Bards were reduced to a comparatively low status. M. D'Arbois supposes that there was rivalry between the Druids and the Filid, who made common cause with the Christian missionaries, but this is not supported by evidence.

The three classes in Gaul--Druids, Vates, and Bards--thus correspond to the three classes in Ireland-- Druids, Fáthi or Filid, and Bards. In Wales there had been Druids as there were Bards, but all trace of the second class is lost. Long after the Druids had passed away, the fiction of the derwydd-vardd or Druid-bard was created, and the later bards were held to be depositories of a supposititious Druidic theosophy, while they practised the old rites in secret. The late word derwydd was probably invented from derw, "oak," by someone who knew Pliny's derivation.

We may thus conclude that the Druids were a purely Celtic priesthood, belonging both to the Goidelic and Gaulish branches of the Celts. The idea that they were not Celtic is sometimes connected with the supposition that Druidism was something superadded to Celtic religion from without, or that Celtic polytheism was not part of the creed of the Druids, but sanctioned by them, while they had a definite theological system with only a few gods.

These are the ideas of writers who see in the Druids an occult and esoteric priesthood. The Druids had grown up side by side with the growth of the native religion and magic. Where they had become more civilised, as in the south of Gaul, they may have given up many magical practices, but as a class they were addicted to magic, and must have taken part in local cults as well as in those of the greater gods. That they were a philosophic priesthood advocating a pure religion among polytheists is a baseless theory. Druidism was not a formal system outside Celtic religion. It covered the whole ground of Celtic religion; in other words, it was that religion itself.

The Druids are first referred to by pseudo-Aristotle and Sotion in the second century B.C., the reference being preserved by Diogenes Laertius: "There are among the Celtæ and Galatæ those called Druids and Semnotheoi." (Diog. Laert. i. proem, Cæsar, vi. 13, 14; Strabo, iv. 4. 4; Amm. Marc. xv. 9; Diod, Sic, v. 28; Lucan, i. 460; Mela, iii. 2.) The two words may be synonymous, or they may describe two classes of priests, or, again, the Druids may have been Celtic, and the Semnotheoi Galatic (? Galatian) priests.

Cæsar's account comes next in time. Later writers gives the Druids a lofty place and speak vaguely of the Druidic philosophy and science. Cæsar also refers to their science, but both he and Strabo speak of their human sacrifices. Suetonius describes their religion as cruel and savage, and Mela, who speaks of their learning, regards their human sacrifices as savagery. (Suet. Claud. 25; Mela, iii.) Pliny says nothing of the Druids as philosophers, but hints at their priestly functions, and connects them with magico-medical rites. (Pliny, xxx. 1.)

These divergent opinions are difficult to account for. But as the Romans gained closer acquaintance with the Druids, they found less philosophy and more superstition among them. For their cruel rites and hostility to Rome, they sought to suppress them, but this they never would have done had the Druids been esoteric philosophers. It has been thought that Pliny's phrase, "Druids and that race of prophets and doctors," signifies that, through Roman persecution, the Druids were reduced to a kind of medicine-men.  But the phrase rather describes the varied functions of the Druids, as has been seen, nor does it refer to the state to which the repressive edict reduced them, but to that in which it found them. Pliny's information was also limited.

The vague idea that the Druids were philosophers was repeated parrot-like by writer after writer, who regarded barbaric races as Rousseau and his school looked upon the "noble savage." Roman writers, skeptical of a future life, were fascinated by the idea of a barbaric priesthood teaching the doctrine of immortality in the wilds of Gaul. For this teaching the poet Lucan sang their praises. The Druids probably first impressed Greek and Latin observers by their magic, their organization, and the fact that, like many barbaric priesthoods, but unlike those of Greece and Rome, they taught certain doctrines. Their knowledge was divinely conveyed to them; "they speak the language of the gods;" (Diod. Sic. v. 31. 4.) hence it was easy to read anything into this teaching. Thus the Druidic legend rapidly grew.

On the other hand, modern writers have perhaps exaggerated the force of the classical evidence. When we read of Druidic associations we need not regard these as higher than the organized priesthoods of barbarians. Their doctrine of metem-psychosis, if it was really taught, involved no ethical content as in Pythagoreanism. Their astronomy was probably astrological (See Cicero, de Div. i. 41.); their knowledge of nature a series of cosmogonic myths and speculations. If a true Druidic philosophy and science had existed, it is strange that it is always mentioned vaguely and that it exerted no influence upon the thought of the time.

Classical sentiment also found a connection between the Druidic and Pythagorean systems, the Druids being regarded as conforming to the doctrines and rules of the Greek philosopher. (Diod. Sic. v. 28; Amm. Marc. xv. 9; Hippolytus, Refut. Hær. i. 22.) It is not improbable that some Pythagorean doctrines may have reached Gaul, but when we examine the point at which the two systems were supposed to meet, namely, the doctrine of metempsychosis and immortality, upon which the whole idea of this relationship was founded, there is no real resemblance. There are Celtic myths regarding the rebirth of gods and heroes, but the eschatological teaching was apparently this, that the soul was clothed with a body in the other-world. There was no doctrine of a series of rebirths on this earth as a punishment for sin. The Druidic teaching of a bodily immortality was mistakenly assumed to be the same as the Pythagorean doctrine of the soul reincarnated in body after body.

Other points of resemblance were then discovered. The organisation of the Druids was assumed by Ammianus to be a kind of corporate life--sodaliciis adstricti consortiis--while the Druidic mind was always searching into lofty things, (Amm. Marc. xv. 9.) but those who wrote most fully of the Druids knew nothing of this.

The Druids, like the priests of all religions, doubtless sought after such knowledge as was open to them, but this does not imply that they possessed a recondite philosophy or a secret theology. They were governed by the ideas current among all barbaric communities, and they were at once priests, magicians, doctors, and teachers. They would not allow their sacred hymns to be written down, but taught them in secret, (Cæsar, vi. 14.) as is usual wherever the success of hymn or prayer depends upon the right use of the words and the secrecy observed in imparting them to others. Their ritual, as far as is known to us, differs but little from that of other barbarian folk, and it included human sacrifice and divination with the victim's body. They excluded the guilty from a share in the cult--the usual punishment meted out to the tabu-breaker in all primitive societies.

The idea that -the Druids taught a secret doctrine--monotheism, pantheism, or the like--is unsupported by evidence. Doubtless they communicated secrets to the initiated, as is done in barbaric mysteries everywhere, but these secrets consist of magic and mythic formulæ, the exhibition of Sacra, and some teaching about the gods or about moral duties. These are kept secret, not because they are abstract doctrines, but because they would lose their value and because the gods would be angry if they were made too common. If the Druids taught religious and moral matters secretly, these were probably no more than an extension of the threefold maxim inculcated by them according to Diogenes Laertius: "To worship the gods, to do no evil, and to exercise courage." (Diog. Laert. 6. Celtic enthusiasts see in this triple maxim something akin to the Welsh triads, which they claim to be Druidic!) To this would be added cosmogonic myths and speculations, and magic and religious formulæ. This will become more evident as we examine the position and power of the Druids.

In Gaul, and to some extent in Ireland, the Druids formed a priestly corporation--a fact which helped classical observers to suppose that they lived together like the Pythagorean communities. While the words of Ammianus--sodaliciis adstricti consortiis--may imply no more than some kind of priestly organization, M. Bertrand founds on them a theory that the Druids were a kind of monks living a community life, and that Irish monasticism was a transformation of this system.  This is purely imaginative. Irish Druids had wives and children, and the Druid Diviciacus was a family man, while Cæsar says not a word of community life among the Druids. The hostility of Christianity to the Druids would have prevented any copying of their system, and Irish monasticism was modelled on that of the Continent. Druidic organisation probably denoted no more than that the Druids were bound by certain ties, that they were graded in different ranks or according to their functions, and that they practised a series of common cults. In Gaul one chief Druid had authority over the others, the position being an elective one. (Cæsar, vi. 13.)

The insular Druids may have been similarly organised, since we hear of a chief Druid, primus magus, while the Filid had an Ard-file, or chief, elected to his office. (Trip. Life, ii. 325, i. 52, ii. 402; IT i. 373; RC xxvi. 33. The title rig-file, "king poet," sometimes occurs.) The priesthood was not a caste, but was open to those who showed aptitude for it. There was a long novitiate, extending even to twenty years, just as, in Ireland, the novitiate of the File lasted from seven to twelve years. (Cæsar, vi. 14.)

The Druids of Gaul assembled annually in a central spot, and there settled disputes, because they were regarded as the most just of men. (Cæsar, vi. 13; Strabo, iv. 4. 4.) Individual Druids also decided disputes or sat as judges in cases of murder. How far it was obligatory to bring causes before them is unknown, but those who did not submit to a decision were interdicted from the sacrifices, and all shunned them. In other words, they were tabued. A magico-religious sanction thus enforced the judgments of the Druids.

In Galatia the twelve tetrarchs had a council of three hundred men, and met in a place called Drunemeton to try cases of murder. (Strabo, xii. 5. 2.) Whether it is philologically permissible to connect Dru- with the corresponding syllable in "Druid" or not, the likeness to the Gaulish assembly at a "consecrated place," perhaps a grove (nemeton), is obvious. We do not know that Irish Druids were judges, but the Filid exercised judgments, and this may be a relic of their con-nection with the Druids. (Their judicial powers were taken from them because their speech had become obscure. Perhaps they gave their judgments in archaic language.)

Diodorus describes the Druids exhorting combatants to peace, and taming them like wild beasts by enchantment. (Diod. Sic. v. 31.) This suggests interference to prevent the devastating power of the blood-feud or of tribal wars. They also appear to have exercised authority in the election of rulers. Convictolitanis was elected to the magistracy by the priests in Gaul, "according to the custom of the State." (1 Cæsar, vii. 83.) In Ireland, after partaking of the flesh of a white bull, probably a sacrificial animal, a man lay down to sleep, while four Druids chanted over him "to render his witness truthful." He then saw in a vision the person who should be elected king, and what he was doing at the moment.  Possibly the Druids used hypnotic suggestion; the medium was apparently clairvoyant. Dio Chrysostom alleges that kings were ministers of the Druids, and could do nothing without them. (Dio, Orat. xlix.)

This agrees on the whole with the witness of Irish texts. Druids always accompany the king, and have great influence over him. According to a passage in the Táin, "the men of Ulster must not speak before the king, the king must not speak before his Druid," and even Conchobar was silent until the Druid Cathbad had spoken. This power, resembling that of many other priesthoods, must have helped to balance that of the warrior class, and it is the more credible when we recall the fact that the Druids claimed to have made the universe. 

The priest-kingship may have been an old Celtic institution, and this would explain why, once the offices were separated, priests had or claimed so much political power. That political power must have been enhanced by their position as teachers, and it is safe to say that submission to their powers was inculcated by them. Both in Gaul and in Ireland they taught others than those who intended to become Druids. (Cæsar, vi. 13, 14)

As has been seen, their teachings were not written down, but transmitted orally. They taught immortality, believing that thus men would be roused to valour, buttressing patriotism with dogma. They also imparted "many things regarding the stars and their motions, the extent of the universe and the earth, the nature of things, and the power and might of the immortal gods." Strabo also speaks of their teaching in moral science. (Cæsar, vi. 14; Strabo, iv. 4. 4.)

As has been seen, it is easy to exaggerate all this. Their astronomy was probably of a humble kind and mingled with astrology; their natural philosophy a mass of cosmogonic myths and speculations; their theology was rather mythology; their moral philosophy a series of maxims such as are found in all barbaric communities. Their medical lore, to judge from what Pliny says, was largely magical. Some Druids, e.g. in the south of Gaul, may have had access to classical learning, and Cæsar speaks of the use of Greek characters among them. This could hardly have been general, and in any case must have superseded the use of a native script, to which the use of ogams in Ireland, and perhaps also in Gaul,was supple-mentary. The Irish Druids may have had written books, for King Loegaire desired that S.Patrick's books and those of the Druids should be submitted to the ordeal by water as a test of their owners' claims. (Trip. Life, 284.)

In religious affairs the Druids were supreme, since they alone "knew the gods and divinities of heaven." (Lucan, i. 451.) They superintended and arranged all rites and attended to "public and private sacrifices," and " no sacrifice was complete without the intervention of a Druid." (Diod. v. 31. 4; cf. Cæsar, vi. 13, 16; Strabo, iv. 4. 5.) The dark and cruel rites of the Druids struck the Romans with horror, and they form a curious contrast to their alleged "philosophy."

They used divination and had regular formulæ of incantation as well as ritual acts by which they looked into the future.  Before all matters of importance, especially before warlike expeditions, their advice was sought because they could scan the future.

Name-giving and a species of baptism were performed by the Druids or on their initiative. Many examples of this occur in Irish texts, thus of Conall Cernach it is said, "Druids came to baptize the child into heathenism, and they sang the heathen baptism (baithis geintlídhe) over the little child," and of Ailill that he was "baptized in Druidic streams."  In a Welsh story we read that Gwri was "baptized with the baptism which was usual at that time." Similar illustrations are common at name-giving among many races, and it is probable that the custom in the Hebrides of the midwife dropping three drops of water on the child in Nomine and giving it a temporary name, is a survival of this practice. The regular baptism takes place later, but this preliminary rite keeps off fairies and ensures burial in consecrated ground, just as the pagan rite was protective and admitted to the tribal privileges.

In the burial rites, which in Ireland consisted of a lament, sacrifices, and raising a stone inscribed with ogams over the grave, Druids took part. The Druid Dergdamsa pronounced a discourse over the Ossianic hero Mag-neid, buried him with his arms, and chanted a rune. The ogam inscription would also be of Druidic composition, and as no sacrifice was complete without the intervention of Druids, they must also have assisted at the lavish sacrifices which occurred at Celtic funerals.

Pliny's words, "the Druids and that race of prophets and doctors," suggest that the medical art may have been in the hands of a special class of Druids, though all may have had a smattering of it. It was mainly concerned with the use of herbs, and was mixed up with magical rites, which may have been regarded as of more importance than the actual medicines used.  In Ireland Druids also practiced the healing art. Thus when Cúchulainn was ill, Emer said, "If it had been Fergus, Cúchulainn would have taken no rest till he had found a Druid able to discover the cause of that illness."  But other persons, not referred to as Druids, are mentioned as healers, one of them a woman, perhaps a reminiscence of the time when the art was practiced by women.  These healers may, however, have been attached to the Druidic corporation in much the same way as were the bards.

The Religion of the Ancient Celts, John Arnott MacCulloch, Chapter XX. [1911]

Thanks to Ellen Evert Hopman, for the pictures of the female druids, more on female druids: HERE