Celtic Mythology: History of Celts, Religion, Archeological Finds, Legends & Myths. T. W. Rolleston
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the signal of the end of all things. On Irish ground the words of Conchobar may refer to this. He announced that he would rescue the captives and spoil taken by Medb, unless the heavens fell, and the earth burst open, and the sea engulphed all things.735 Such a myth mingled with Christian beliefs may underlie the prophecy of Badb after Mag-tured regarding the evils to come and the end of the world, and that of Fercertne in the Colloquy of the Two Sages.736 Both have a curious resemblance to the Sybil's prophecy of doom in the Voluspa. If the gods themselves were involved in such a catastrophe, it would not be surprising, since in some aspects their immortality depended on their eating and drinking immortal food and drink.737
714. Avienus, Ora Maritima, 644 f.
715. IT i. 25; Gaidoz, ZCP i. 27.
716. Annales de Bretagne, x. 414.
717. IT i. 50, cf. 184; Folk-Lore, vi. 170.
718. Cæsar, vi. 18.
719. See p. 341, infra.
720. Diod. Sic. v. 24; Appian, Illyrica, 2.
721. Amm. Marcel, xv. 9.
722. D'Arbois, ii. 262, xii. 220.
723. Antient Laws of Ireland, i. 23. In one MS. Adam is said to have been created thus—his body of earth, his blood of the sea, his face of the sun, his breath of the wind, etc. This is also found in a Frisian tale (Vigfusson-Powell, Corpus Poet. Bor. i. 479), and both stories present an inversion of well-known myths about the creation of the universe from the members of a giant.
724. Sébillot, i. 213 f., ii. 6, 7, 72, 97, 176, 327-328. Cf. RC xv. 482, xvi. 152.
725. Sébillot, ii. 6.
726. LL 56; Keating, 117, 123.
727. RC xv. 429, xvi. 277.
728. See p. 191, supra.
729. Sébillot, ii. 41 f., 391, 397; see p. 372, infra.
730. Triads in Loth, ii. 280, 299; Rh^ys, HL 583, 663.
731. RC xvi. 50, 146.
732. Apoll. iv. 609 f.
733. Strabo, iv. 4. 4.
734. Arrian, Anab. i. 4. 7; Strabo, vii. 3. 8. Cf. Jullian, 85.
735. LL 94; Miss Hull, 205.
736. RC xii. 111, xxvi. 33.
737. A possible survival of a world-serpent myth may be found in "Da Derga's Hostel" (RC xxii. 54), where we hear of Leviathan that surrounds the globe and strikes with his tail to overwhelm the world. But this may be a reflection of Norse myths of the Midgard serpent, sometimes equated with Leviathan.
Sacrifice, Prayer, and Divination
The Semites are often considered the worst offenders in the matter of human sacrifice, but in this, according to classical evidence, they were closely rivalled by the Celts of Gaul. They offered human victims on the principle of a life for a life, or to propitiate the gods, or in order to divine the future from the entrails of the victim. We shall examine the Celtic custom of human sacrifice from these points of view first.
Cæsar says that those afflicted with disease or engaged in battle or danger offer human victims or vow to do so, because unless man's life be given for man's life, the divinity of the gods cannot be appeased.738 The theory appears to have been that the gods sent disease or ills when they desired a human life, but that any life would do; hence one in danger might escape by offering another in his stead. In some cases the victims may have been offered to disease demons or diseases personified, such as Celtic imagination still believes in,739 rather than to gods, or, again, they may have been offered to native gods of healing. Coming danger could also be averted on the same principle, and though the victims were usually slaves, in times of great peril wives and children were sacrificed.740 After a defeat, which showed that the gods were still implacable, the wounded and feeble were slain, or a great leader would offer himself.741 Or in such a case the Celts would turn their weapons against themselves, making of suicide a kind of sacrifice, hoping to bring victory to the survivors.742
The idea of the victim being offered on the principle of a life for a life is illustrated by a custom at Marseilles in time of pestilence. One of the poorer classes offered himself to be kept at the public expense for some time. He was then led in procession, clad in sacred boughs, and solemnly cursed, and prayer was made that on him might fall the evils of the community. Then he was cast headlong down. Here the victim stood for the lives of the city and was a kind of scape-victim, like those at the Thargelia.743
Human victims were also offered by way of thanksgiving after victory, and vows were often made before a battle, promising these as well as part of the spoil. For this reason the Celts would never ransom their captives, but offered them in sacrifice, animals captured being immolated along with them.744 The method of sacrifice was slaughter by sword or spear, hanging, impaling, dismembering, and drowning. Some gods were propitiated by one particular mode of sacrifice—Taranis by burning, Teutates by suffocation, Esus (perhaps