Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

70 Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race[88]testimony to the existence in Gaul of a host of minor and localdeities who are mostly mere names, or not even names, to us now.In the form in which we have them these conceptions bear cleartraces of Roman influence. The sculptures are rude copies of theRoman style of religious art. But we meet among them figuresof much wilder and stranger aspect—gods with triple faces, godswith branching antlers on their brows, ram-headed serpents, andother now unintelligible symbols of the older faith. Very notableis the frequent occurrence of the cross-legged “Buddha” attitudeso prevalent in the religious art of the East and of Mexico, andalso the tendency, so well known in Egypt, to group the gods intriads.Caesar on the Celtic DeitiesCaesar, who tries to fit the Gallic religion into the frameworkof Roman mythology—which was exactly what the Gaulsthemselves did after the conquest—says they held Mercury to bethe chief of the gods, and looked upon him as the inventor of allthe arts, as the presiding deity of commerce, and as the guardianof roads and guide of travellers. One may conjecture that he wasparticularly, to the Gauls as to the Romans, the guide of the dead,of travellers to the Other-world, Many bronze statues to Mercury,of Gaulish origin, still remain, the name being adopted by theGauls, as many place-names still testify 70 . Apollo was regardedas the deity of medicine and healing, Minerva was the initiatorof arts and crafts, Jupiter governed the sky, and Mars presidedover war. Cæsar is here, no doubt, classifying under five typesand by Roman names a large number of Gallic divinities.The God of the UnderworldAccording to Cæsar, a most notable deity of the Gauls was (inRoman nomenclature) Dis, or Pluto, the god of the Underworldinhabited by the dead. From him all the Gauls claimed to bedescended, and on this account, says Cæsar, they began their70 Mont Mercure, Mercœur, Mercoirey, Montmartre (Mons Mercurii), &c.