The Encyclopedia of World Religions

Celtic religion S 79

God or the spiritual quest, and can reach enlight enment or serve God without hindrance. Yet celibacy is not easy and is not desirable for all. Controversies have arisen over the extent to which it should be required in such institutions as the Roman Catholic Church. Some forms of B UD DHISM , especially among the Japanese, now per mit priests and monks to be married. The ideals of celibacy and modern attitudes toward sexuality and marriage find themselves deeply challenging to each other. Celtic religion The religion of the people who lived in France and Britain at the time of the Roman conquest. The Romans called the Celts Galli, in English, Gauls. The Celts spoke a language related to German, Latin, Greek, Persian, and even Sanskrit, the clas sical language of India. Many people have noticed intriguing similarities between Celtic and ancient Indian culture. These include similarities in reli gion and mythology. At first the Celts lived east of the Rhine River. About 1000 B . C . E . they crossed the Rhine into the area of modern France. By 300 B . C . E . they also lived across the English Channel. Their descen dants include the Scots, Irish, and Welsh. In 279 B . C . E . some Celts sacked the Greek oracle at Del phi. Then they crossed into modern Turkey and founded a state called Galatia (cf. the N EW T ESTA MENT book of Galatians). Celtic religion is difficult to reconstruct. Ancient writers, especially Julius Caesar, described it, but they described it in terms of their own reli gions. They also emphasized Celtic brutality. That emphasis is often not reliable. Later Christians, especially in Ireland, preserved Celtic stories and other elements of Celtic culture. But it is often diffi cult to tell what is ancient Celtic and what is more recent and Christian. Archaeology and ancient inscriptions provide some help. According to Julius Caesar the Celts wor shipped several gods that the more savage Ger manic peoples did not; these corresponded to the Roman Mercury (the most important Celtic god),

Associated with horses, Epona was an important Celtic goddess. She is shown here in a limestone relief from Gannat, France. (Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, N.Y.)

A POLLO , M ARS , J UPITER , and Minerva. It is not clear what were the Celtic names of the gods Caesar had in mind. The most important Celtic god seems to have been Lugh, also spelled Lugus, a god of tech nology and invention. The names of several Euro pean cities preserve his memory: Lyon and Laon in France and Leiden in the Netherlands. A fascinat ing image of the Celtic god Cernunnos resembles the Hindu god S IVA . It also resembles a seated fig ure from a seal of the Indus Valley Civilization ( see I NDUS V ALLEY RELIGION ). An important Celtic GOD DESS was Epona. She was associated with horses. Other Celtic goddesses gave their names to rivers in Europe. One example is the Rhine. Much Celtic religious activity centered on places in nature, such as groves of trees, high places, and bodies of water. Later folklore recalls these sacred places in stories of fairies. Archaeologists have recovered Celtic offerings from bodies of water.