The Celts were polytheistic, believing in a number of deities. some were localized gods, worshipped primarily by one tribe, or regional, worshipped by a series of tribes and sub-tribes. Others were pantheonic, seemingly worshipped by the majority of the Celtic world. Often, these gods and goddesses were seen as being as spiteful and flawed as the humans who worshiped them, other times superhuman, and at other times just purely divine. Many of the gods were worshipped as ancestors.
One of the gods that seemed to have universal devotion was the god Lugh. Best known for his exploits in Irish myth, Lugh was afforded places of worship throughout all of Celtic Europe. Lugh's name means light, similar to the Latin lux. Place names abound for him. Modern Lyons, France; Leiden, Germany, Leyden, Netherlands, Lincoln, England, and more. His date of worship was August 1, Lughnasa.. Lugh was also associated with Mercury. The Romans considered him a powerful deity. Augustus Caesar took a bath at his holy well in Lyons, and also took Lugh's feast day as his birthday.
Another god that had universal appeal was Belanos. Belanos was the sun god, and a healer. His feast day was May 1, still called Bealtinne in Ireland. Belanos was related to the Greek and Roman deity Apollo, the Babylonian Baal, and the Nordic Balder. The goddess of water was Dana, or Danu. The Danube river was named for this earth mother. Dana was the goddess that the Tuatha De Dannan, or the people of the goddess Dana, worshipped. Other rivers associated with her are the Dniester and Dnieper in eastern Europe, the Don Rivers that populate so much of Scotland and England, as well as the Russian river of the same name. The country of Denmark also takes it name from Dana.
A popular goddess throughout Europe and Britain was Epona, the horse goddess. She was often portrayed seated next to two horses. The Celts were horsemen, and chariots were both a way of transportation and of waging war. Epona's likenesses could be found throughout central Europe and in many parts of Britain. Such was her power and reputation, the Romans even adopted her as the goddess of the cavalry. One of the gods of fertility was Cernunos, the Horned One. Cernunos was portrayed as a man with horns of a stag atop his head, and wearing the ubiquitous Celtic torc on his neck. Although there have been many likenesses found of him in the old Celtic world, his name was only found written once, leading to speculation that he might have been known by different names among the varying tribes.
Taranis was the god of thunder, and of war. He was also the possessor of the Wheel. The wheel was very important to the Celts, especially because of the mobility of the chariot. The Celts worshipped a large variety of gods and goddesses. Some were worshipped throughout all of the Celtic world, such as Lugh and Danu. Others were local, regional, or provincial deities. Many of the gods were singular personalities. Others were grouped together in triad settings. There have been 374 names of Celtic gods recorded, but 305 of these are local or tribal gods, or teutates. The god The Dagda, or the Good God, is considered the father of the Celtic gods. He is also known as Aedh (fire) and Eochaid Ollathair (father of all) in Irish, making him a triune divinity. He is portrayed as carrying a large hammer on wheels. Sucellus, or the good striker, was known for the large hammer he carried. He was often partnered with Nantosuelta, whose sign was the raven, the bird most associated with death and battle. Taranis is almost always portrayed with a wheel, and was closely associated by the Romans and Greek with Zeus or Jupiter. He was often called Dis Pater by the Romans, (similar to Zeus Pater, or Jupiter).
Other gods and goddesses included the Morrigan, (Morgan Le Fay in the Arthurian legend), Brigit, Bran, Lir, Mann nnan, Ogmios, Nuada, Cumal, and Mider. The triune, or triple form deities, was part of the concept of threes and sevens that was part of Celtic religions. There were three craft gods, Gobhniu, Luchta, and Creidhne. Morrigan was a triple facetted deity, worshipped as Macha, Badb and Nemain, and is one of the cruelest of the Celtic goddesses. After the Roman conquest of Gaul, and later Britain, the Celtic gods were intertwined with the Greco-Roman deities. So, the god Lugh became associated with Mercury; the Taranis was twinned with Jupiter. Celtic goddesses were very matriarchal, and were considered to be of equal strength as their male counterparts. Goddesses such as Andraste, a war goddess, and the Morrigan, whose power could be brutal, were equally worshipped. With the arrival of the Romans, the goddesses lost much of their power to the male Celto-Roman hybrids.
The Roman war goddess Minerva was a singular bloodthirsty female. The freewheeling aspects of female life in the Celtic world were restrained, and it was reflected in the way the female deities were worshipped. The singular nature of the Celtic goddess, who never would keep a sexual partner for any length of time, began to lose out to the Roman idea of deified consorts. One goddess that was worshipped by both the Celts and the Romans was Epona, the horse goddess. She, however, was the exception.
As the Celto-Roman gods and goddesses began to be worshipped on a larger scale, the native deities of the Celts began to lose ground and significance. The suppression of the Druids by the Romans also helped to speed their decline. By the arrival of the Christian era, many of the Celtic gods were lost to the sands of time, often leaving only place names as a testament of their place in the Celtic world.
