Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

Idol- Worship. 1 6 7
The lion's face he regarded as " the symbolic imai^c of
Mithras, as used by the Gadetani (of Spain), for which I
will refer to the Saturnalia of Macrobius, when he quotes
a historical passage to show that the Hercules of Gadcs
(Cadiz) and of the sun were one and the same iiiinun,
represented by biform figures with heads of lions, radiating
like the sun." As Pownall found the sword, recovered
from the same bog, to be of Carthaginian work, he was
disposed, as he says, to refer the image " to this line of
later theology, rather than to the Celtic
Druid theology of
the more ancient Irish." He means that of the Cirthaginian
colony of Spain, which he thought held commerce
with Ireland. The idol might be that of the foreign
visitors. " I feel persuaded," he added, " to refer the idol,
and the various vessels and instruments of religious
ceremonies, found in the same part, to the ritual of this
later idolatry used in these particular settlements, but
never in general use amongst the people of Ireland at
large."
An image was found on Innis I\lura, Sligo, being called
after St. Molas,—know^n as the Bal fargha. a Phallic
emblem. It has a singular likeness to the Phallic Mahoody
of the Isle of Elephanta. It is an erect stone in a
sort of basin (masculine and feminine emblems), and being,
like the Mahoody, enclosed by a wall. The like symbol is
still an object of worship in India.
Two rude stones were discovered in Neale Park, Mayo
Co. One had the appearance of a goat, and the other of a
lion. There was the inscription of Die na fcilc.
Jean Reynaud held that the Gauls had no image of any
sort. Henri IMartin affirmed that "no idols recovered
upon our soil belong to the age of independence "—that
is, before the Roman Conquest. Herodotus bears testimony
to one ancient people free from idols. The Persians