Celtic Mythology and Religion

36 CELTIC MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGION.
sky, and Jupiter, the " sky-father," is the Roman
version of " Father in Heaven." Fire, in all its
manifestations, was an especial object of worship
Agni is the Vedic name of this deity, which appears
in Latin ignis, and Gaelic ain (heat). The sun and
moon were prominent among the deities, the sun
the gods.
being the most in favour, perhaps, of all
The epithets applied to him are innumerable, and,
as a consequence, scarcely two nations have the
same name for the sun-god, and nearly all have one
or two deities that are phases of solar worship.
The
Sanscrit, surya ; Latin, sol ; English, sun ; and
Gaelic, solus, present the chief root, the first four
actually meaning the " sun," and being used as the
name of the sun-deity often.
And there were other gods hardly inferior to these
gods ;
such were what we may call the " meteorological
" deities—the regulators of weather and
seasons.
Prominent among these was the thunder
god, who brings thunder and rain ; in the Vedic
hymns his place is filled by the chief god Indra ; in
Latin he is the Jupiter Tonans ; in the Norse
Mythology, he appears as Thor who is
next in importance
to Odin himself ; and in the Celtic Mythology,
he is known as Taranis. The storm god was
worshipped under the title of Maruts, the Latin
Mars, and Greek Ares. The wind had a high position
among the deities, but among the descendant nations
its position is not quite so high, unless we connect
with it the god Hermes, who in Greek Mythology