The Religion of the Ancient Celts Part 33

Evidence of the cult itself is found in the fact that on Gaulish coins a sword is figured, stuck in the ground, or driving a chariot, or with a warrior dancing before it, or held in the hand of a dancing warrior.[997] The latter are ritual acts, and resemble that described by Spenser as performed by Irish warriors in his day, who said prayers or incantations before a sword stuck in the earth.[998] Swords were also addressed in songs composed by Irish bards, and traditional remains of such songs are found in Brittany.[999] They represent the chants of the ancient cult. Oaths were taken by weapons, and the weapons were believed to turn against those who lied.[1000] The magical power of weapons, especially of those over which incantations had been said, is frequently referred to in traditional tales and Irish texts.[1001] A reminiscence of the cult or of the magical power of weapons may be found in the wonderful "glaives of light" of Celtic folk-tales, and the similar mystical weapon of the Arthurian romances.

FOOTNOTES:

[953] Lucan, _Pharsalia_, iii. 399 f.

[954] Dio Ca.s.s. lxii. 7; Tac. _Ann._ xiv. 30.

[955] Strabo, xii. 51. _Drunemeton_ may mean "great temple" (D'Arbois, _Les Celtes_, 203).

[956] _Antient Laws of Ireland_, i. 164.

[957] Holder, ii. 712. Cf. "Indiculus" in Grimm, _Teut. Myth._ 1739, "de sacris silvarum, quas nimidas (= nemeta) vocant."

[958] Livy, xxiii. 24; Polyb. ii. 32.

[959] Caesar, vi. 13, 17; Diod. Sic. v. 27; Plutarch, _Caesar_, 26.

[960] See examples in Dom Martin, i. 134 f.; cf. Greg. Tours, _Hist.

Franc._ i. 30.

[961] See Reinach, "Les monuments de pierre brute dans le langage et les croyances populaires," _Rev. Arch._ 1893, i. 339; Evans, "The Roll-Right Stones," _Folk-Lore_, vi. 20 f.

[962] Rh[^y]s, _HL_ 194; Diod. Sic. ii. 47.

[963] Rh[^y]s, 197.

[964] Joyce, _OCR_ 246; Kennedy, 271.

[965] Lucan, i. 443, iii. 399f.

[966] Cicero, _pro Fonteio_, x. 21; Tac. _Ann._ xiv. 30. Cf. Pomp. Mela, iii. 2. 18.

[967] O'Curry, _MS. Mat._ 284; Cormac, 94. Cf. _IT_ iii. 211, for the practice of circ.u.mambulating altars.

[968] Max. Tyr. _Dissert._ viii. 8; Lucan, iii. 412f.

[969] _Antient Laws of Ireland_, iv. 142.

[970] _Rev. Arch._ i. pl. iii-v.; Reinach, _RC_ xi. 224, xiii. 190.

[971] Stokes, _Martyr. of Oengus_, 186-187.

[972] See the Twenty-third Canon of Council of Arles, the Twenty-third of the Council of Tours, 567, and ch. 65 of the _Capitularia_, 789.

[973] Mabillon, _Acta_, i. 177.

[974] Reinach, _Rev. Arch._ 1893, xxi. 335.

[975] Blanchet, i. 152-153, 386.

[976] Justin, xliii. 5; Strabo, xii. 5. 2; Plutarch, _de Virt. Mul._ xx.; Livy, v. 41.

[977] Cormac, 94.

[978] Keating, 356. See also Stokes, _Martyr. of Oengus_, 186; _RC_ xii.

427, -- 15; Joyce, _SH_ 274 f.

[979] _LL_ 213_b_; _Trip. Life_, i. 90, 93.

[980] O'Curry, _MS. Mat._ 284.

[981] Keating, 49.

[982] Jocelyn, _Vita S. Kentig._ 27, 32, 34; Ailred, _Vita S. Ninian._ 6.

[983] Gildas, -- 4.

[984] For the whole argument see Reinach, _RC_ xiii. 189 f. Bertrand, _Rev. Arch._ xv. 345, supports a similar theory, and, according to both writers, Gallo-Roman art was the result of the weakening of Druidic power by the Romans.

[985] L'Abbe Hermet, a.s.soc. pour l'avancement des Sciences, _Compte Rendu_, 1900, ii. 747; _L'Anthropologie_, v. 147.

[986] _Corp. Scrip. Eccl. Lat._ i. 122.

[987] Monnier, 362. The image bears part of an inscription ... LIT...

and it has been thought that this read ILITHYIA originally. The name is in keeping with the rites still in use before the image. This would make it date from Roman times. If so, it is a poor specimen of the art of the period. But it may be an old native image to which later the name of the Roman G.o.ddess was given.

[988] Roden, _Progress of the Reformation in Ireland_, 51. The image was still existing in 1851.

[989] For figures of most of these, see _Rev. Arch._ vols. xvi., xviii., xix., x.x.xvi.; _RC_ xvii. 45, xviii. 254, xx. 309, xxii. 159, xxiv. 221; Bertrand, _pa.s.sim_; Courcelle-Seneuil, _Les Dieux Gaulois d'apres les Monuments Figures_, Paris, 1910.

[990] See Courcelle-Seneuil, _op. cit._; Reinach, _BF pa.s.sim_, _Catalogue Sommaire du Musee des Ant. nat._{4} 115-116.

[991] Reinach, _Catal._ 29, 87; _Rev. Arch._ xvi. 17; Blanchet, i. 169, 316; Huchet, _L'art gaulois_, ii. 8.

[992] Blanchet, i. 158; Reinach, _BF_ 143, 150, 152.

[993] Blanchet, i. 17; Flouest, _Deux Steles_ (Append.), Paris, 1885; Reinach, _BF_ 33.

[994] P. 30, _supra_.

[995] Hirschfeld in _CIL_ xiii. 256.

[996] _RC_ xii. 107; Joyce, _SH_ i. 131.

[997] Blanchet, i. 160 f.; Muret de la Tour, _Catalogue_, 6922, 6941, etc.

[998] _View of the State of Ireland_, 57.

[999] _RC_ xx. 7; Martin, _etudes de la Myth. Celt._ 164.