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2014届高考英语一轮复习单元阶段通关训练5
第一部分　听力(共两节，满分30分)
第一节(共5小题；每小题1.5分，满分7.5分)
听下面5段对话。每段对话后有一个小题，从题中所给的A、B、C三个选项中选出最佳选项，并标在试卷的相应位置。听完每段对话后，你都有10秒钟的时间来回答有关小题和阅读下一小题。每段对话仅读一遍。1．What’s the probable relationship between the speakers?
A．Host and guest.
B．Waiter and customer.
C．Husband and wife.
2．Where does the conversation probably take place?
A．At a hospital.
B．At an airport.
C．At a post office.
3．Why will the woman go to London?
A．To have a holiday.
B．To study.
C．To visit her friend.
4．What will the robot do while Daniel is at school?
A．It’ll do the homework.
B．It’ll do the housework.
C．It’ll go shopping.
5．Why do people buy robots?
A．They can have more free time.
B．Robots can talk to people.
C．Robots never go wrong.
第二节(共15小题；每小题1.5分，满分22.5分)
听下面5段对话或独白。每段对话或独白后有几个小题，从题中所给的A、B、C三个选项中选出最佳选项，并标在试卷的相应位置。听每段对话或独白前，你将有时间阅读各个小题，每小题5秒钟；听完后，各小题将给出5秒钟的作答时间。每段对话或独白读两遍。
听第6段材料，回答第6至7题。
6．What is the man reading?
A．A magazine.
B．A novel.
C．A newspaper.
7．What are the speakers going to Beihai Park for?
A．For a visit.
B．To see Beijing Opera.
C．To practice spoken English.
听第7段材料，回答第8至10题。
8．Why does the man make the call?
A．To book a ticket for a folk concert.
B．To ask Alice to buy him a ticket.
C．To invite Alice to a folk concert.
9．Which of the following words can best describe thewoman’s feeling?
A．Pleased.
10．When will the speakers meet on Saturday?
A．At 600 a．m..
B．At 300 p．m..
C．At 600 p．m..
听第8段材料，回答第11至13题。
11．Why didn’t the man take an examination yesterday?
A．He got sick.
B．He didn’t want to do so.
C．He got the examination date wrong.
12．What did the professor permit the man to do?
A．Have the exam at home.
B．Have an exam sometime later.
C．Give up the exam.
13．Why didn’t the man drive his car?
A．The doctor told him not to.
B．His car broke down.
C．He didn’t think he was able to.
听第9段材料，回答第14至17题。
14．What is one of the causes of the girl’s poor reading?
A．Too much play.
B．Health problem.
C．Lack of help. 15．How did the woman help the girl?
A．She sent her to hospital.
正在加载中，请稍后...Celtic Myth and Moonlight || Celtic Deities
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Please click on the following names or images to learn more about these deities:
Celtic & British Deities
Germanic & Nordic Deities
Ēostre or &Ostara
New World Deities
[not all links are active yet - please check back soon]
Greco-Roman Deities
Egyptian Deities
CELTIC DEITIES
The gods and goddesses, or deities of the Celts are known from a variety of sources, these include written Celtic mythology, ancient places of worship, statues, engravings, cult objects and place or personal names. The locus classicus for the Celtic gods of Gaul is the passage in Julius Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico (The Gallic War, 52&51 BC) in which he names six of them, together with their functions. He says that Mercury was the most honoured of all the gods and many images of him were to be
found. Mercury was regarded as the inventor of all the arts, the patron
of travellers and of merchants, and the most powerful god in matters of
commerce and gain. After him the Gauls honoured Apollo, who drove away diseases, Mars, who controlled war, Jupiter, who ruled the heavens, and Minerva, who promoted handicrafts. He adds that the Gauls regarded Dis Pater as their ancestor.
In characteristic Roman fashion,
Caesar does not refer to these figures by their native names but by the
names of the Roman gods with which he equated them, a procedure that
greatly complicates the task of identifying his Gaulish deities with
their counterparts in the insular literatures. He also presents a neat
schematic equation of god and function that is quite foreign to the
vernacular literary testimony. Yet, given its limitations, his brief
catalog is a valuable witness. The gods named by Caesar are well-attested in the later epigraphic
record of Gaul and Britain. Not infrequently, their names are coupled
with native Celtic theonyms and epithets, such as Mercury Visucius, Lenus Mars, Jupiter Poeninus, or Sulis Minerva. Unsyncretised theonyms are also widespread, particularly among goddesses such as Sulevia, Sirona, Rosmerta, and Epona.
In all, several hundred names containing a Celtic element are attested
in Gaul. The majority occur only once, which has led some scholars to
conclude that the Celtic gods and their cults were local and tribal
rather than national. Supporters of this view cite Lucan's mention of a god called Teutates, which they interpret as "god of the tribe" (it is thought that teuta- meant "tribe" in Celtic). The multiplicity of deity names may also be explained otherwise & many,
for example, may be simply epithets applied to major deities by widely
extended cults.
General Characteristics
Evidence from the Roman period presents a wide array of gods and
goddesses who are represented by images or inscribed dedications. Certain deities were venerated widely across the Celtic world, while
others were limited only to a single religion or even to a specific
locality. Certain local or regional deities might have greater popularity within
their spheres than supra-regional deities. For example, in east-central Gaul, the local Burgundian healing goddess Sequana was probably more influential in the minds of her local devotees than the Matres, who were worshipped all over Britain, Gaul and the Rhineland.
Supra-Regional Cults
Among the divinities transcending tribal boundaries were the Matres, the sky-god and Epona, the horse-goddess, who was invoked by devotees living as far apart as Britain, Rome and Bulgaria.
A distinctive feature of the mother-goddesses was their frequent
depiction as a triad in many parts of Britain, in Gaul and on the Rhine, although it is possible to identify strong regional differences within this group. The Celtic sky-god too had variations in the way he was perceived
and his cult expressed. Yet the link between the Celtic Jupiter and the solar wheel is maintained over a wide area, from Hadrian's Wall to Cologne and N&mes.
Local Cults
It is sometimes possible to identify regional, tribal, or sub-tribal divinities. Specific to the Remi of northwest Gaul is a distinctive group of stone carvings depicting a triple-faced god with shared facial features and luxuriant beards. In the Iron Age, this same tribe issued coins with three faces, a motif found elsewhere is Gaul. Another tribal god was Lenus, venerated by the Treveri. He was worshipped at a number of Treveran sanctuaries, the most splendid of which was at the tribal capital of Trier itself. Yet he was also exported to other areas: Lenus has altars set up to him in Chedworth in Gloucestershire and Caerwent in Wales.
Many Celtic divinities were extremely localised, sometimes occurring in just one shrine, perhaps because the spirit concerned was a genius loci, the governing spirit of a particular place. In Gaul, over four hundred different Celtic god-names are recorded, of which at least 300 occur just once. Sequana was confined to her spring shrine near Dijon, Sulis belonged to Bath. The divine couple Ucuetis and Bergusia were worshipped solely at Alesia in Burgundy. The British god Nodens is associated above all with the great sanctuary at Lydney (though he also appears at Cockersand Moss in Cumbria). Two other British deities, Cocidius and Belatucadrus, were both Martial gods and were each worshipped in a clearly defined territories in the area of Hadrian&s Wall. There are many other gods whose names may betray origins as topographical spirits. Vosegus presided over the mountains of the Vosges, Luxovius over the spa-settlement of Luxeuil and Vasio over the town of Vaison in the Lower Rh&ne Valley.
Divine Couples
One notable feature of Gaulish and Romano-Celtic sculpture is the
frequent appearance of male and female deities in pairs, such as Rosmerta and &Mercury&, Nantosuelta and Sucellos, Sirona and Apollo Grannus, Borvo and Damona, or Mars Loucetius and Nemetona.
Notable Deity Types
Antlered Gods
A recurrent figure in Gaulish iconography is a cross-legged deity
with antlers, sometimes surrounded by animals, often wearing or holding
a torc. The name usually applied to him, Cernunnos, is attested only a few times, on a relief at Notre Dame de Paris (currently reading ERNUNNOS, but an early sketch shows it as having read CERNUNNOS in the 18th century), an inscription from Montagnac (&&&&&[&&]&&& &&&&&&&& &&[&]&&[&&]&&&, "Alleteinos [dedicated this] to Karnonos of Alisontia"), and a pair of identical inscriptions from Seinsel-R&lent ("Deo Ceruninco"). Figured representations of this sort of deity, however, the earliest known was found at Val Camonica in northern Italy, while the most famous is plate A of the Gundestrup Cauldron,
a 1st-century-BC vessel found in Denmark. On the Gundestrup Cauldron
and sometimes elsewhere, Cernunnos, or similar figure, is accompanied
by a ram-headed serpent. At Reims, the figure is depicted with a cornucopia overflowing with grains or coins.
Healing Deities
Healing deities are known from many parts of the C they frequently have associations with thermal springs, healing wells, herbalism and light. Brighid, the triple goddess of healing, poetry and smithcraft is
perhaps the most well-known of the Insular Celtic deities of healing.
She is associated with many healing springs and wells. A lesser-known Irish healing goddess is Airmed, also associated with a healing well and with the healing art of herbalism.
In Romano-Celtic tradition Belenus (possibly from Celtic: *belen- &bright&, though other etymologies have been convincingly proposed) is found chiefly in southern France and northern Italy. Apollo Grannus,
though concentrated in central and eastern Gaul, also &occurs
associated with medicinal waters in Brittany
and far away in the
Danube Basin&. Grannus's companion is frequently the goddess Sirona. Another important Celtic deity of healing is Bormo/Borvo, particularly associated with thermal springs such as Bourbonne-les-Bains and Bourbon-Lancy.
Such hot springs were (and often still are) believed to have
therapeutic value. Green interprets the name Borvo to mean &seething,
bubbling or boiling spring water&.
Goddesses of Sacred Waters
In Ireland, there are numerous holy wells dedicated to the goddess Brighid. There are dedications to &Minerva& in Britain and throughout the Celtic areas of the Continent. At Bath Minerva was identified with the goddess Sulis, whose cult there centred on the thermal springs. Other goddesses were also associated with sacred springs, such as Icovellauna among the Treveri and Coventina at Carrawburgh. Damona and Bormana also serve this function in companionship with the spring-god Borvo (see above).
A number of goddesses were deified rivers, notably Boann (of the River Boyne), Sinann (the River Shannon), Sequana (the deified Seine), Matrona (the Marne), Souconna (the deified Sa&ne) and perhaps Belisama (the Ribble). While the most well-known deity of the sea is the god Manann&n, possible early Irish sea goddesses include Fand, her sister L& Ban, and the mother-goddess of the Fomorians, Domnu.
Goddesses of Horses
The horse, an instrument of Indo-European expansion, plays a part in all the mythologies of the various Celtic cultures. The cult of the Gaulish horse goddess Epona was widespread. Adopted by the Roman cavalry, it spread throughout much
of Europe, even to Rome itself. She seems to be the embodiment of
"horse power" or horsemanship, which was likely perceived as a power
vital for the success and protection of the tribe. She has insular
analogues in the Welsh Rhiannon and in the Irish &Eda&n Echraidhe (echraidhe, "horse riding") and Macha, who outran the fastest steeds.
The Welsh horse goddess Rhiannon is best known from The Mabinogion, a collection of medieval Welsh tales, in which she makes her first appearance on a pale, mysterious steed and meets King Pwyll,
whom she later marries. She was accused of killing and devouring her
infant son, and in punishment she was forced to act as a horse and to
carry visitors to the royal court. According to another story, she was made to wear the collars of asses about her neck in the manner of a beast. The Irish horse goddess Macha,
perhaps a threefold goddess herself, is associated with battle and
sovereignty. Though a goddess in her own right, she is also considered
to be part of the triple goddess of battle and slaughter, the Morr&gan. Other faces of the Morr&gan were Badhbh Catha and Nemain.
Mother Goddesses
Mother goddesses are a recurrent feature in Celtic religions. The epigraphic record
reveals many dedications to the Matres or Matronae, which are
particularly prolific around Cologne in the Rhineland. Iconographically, Celtic mothers may appear singly or, quite often, they usually hold fruit or co they may also be full-breasted (or many-breasted) figures nursing infants.
Welsh and Irish tradition preserve a number of mother figures such as the Welsh D&n, Rhiannon (&great queen&) and Modron (from Matrona, &great mother&), and the Irish Danu, Boand, Macha and Ernmas.
However, all of these goddesses fulfill many roles in the mythology and
symbolism of the Celts, and cannot be limited only to motherhood. In
many of their tales, their having children is only mentioned in
passing, and is not a central facet of their identity. "Mother"
Goddesses may also be Goddesses of warfare and slaughter, or of healing
and smithcraft.
Mother goddesses were at times symbols of sovereignty, creativity,
birth, fertility, sexual union and nurturing. At other times they could
be seen as punishers and destroyers: their offspring may be helpful or
dangerous to the community, and the circumstances of their birth may
lead to curses, geasa or hardship, such as in the case of Macha's curse of the Ulstermen or
Rhiannon's possible devouring of her child and subsequent punishment.
Cult of Lugh
According to Caesar the god most honoured by the Gauls was &Mercury&,
and this is confirmed by numerous images and inscriptions. Mercury's
name is often coupled with Celtic epithets, particularly in eastern and
central G the commonest such names include Visucius, Cissonius, and Gebrinius. Another name, Lugus, is inferred from the recurrent place-name Lugdunon ('the fort of Lugus') from which the modern Lyon, Laon, and Loudun in France and Leiden in The Netherland a similar element can be found in Carlisle (formerly Castra Luguvallium), Legnica in Poland and the county Louth in Ireland, derived from the Irish "L&", itself coming from "Lugh". The Irish and Welsh cognates of Lugus are Lugh and Lleu,
respectively, and certain traditions concerning these figures mesh
neatly with those of the Gaulish god. Caesar's description of the
latter as "the inventor of all the arts" might almost have been a
paraphrase of Lugh's conventional epithet samild&nach ("possessed of many talents"), while Lleu is addressed as "master of the twenty crafts" in the Mabinogi. An episode in the Irish tale of the Battle of Magh Tuireadh is a dramatic exposition of Lugh's claim to be master of all the arts and crafts. Inscriptions in Spain and Switzerland, one of them from a guild of shoemakers, are dedicated to Lugoves, widely interpreted as a plural of Lugus perhaps referring to the god conceived in triple form.
The Gaulish Mercury often seems to function as a god of sovereignty.
Gaulish depictions of Mercury sometimes show him bearded and/or with
wings or horns emerging directly from his head, rather than from a
winged hat. Both these characteristics are unusual for the classical
god. More conventionally, the Gaulish Mercury is usually shown
accompanied by a ram and/or a rooster, and his depiction at times is very classical. Lugh is said to have instituted the festival of Lughnasadh, celebrated on 1 August, in commemoration of his foster-mother Tailtiu. In Gaulish monuments and inscriptions, Mercury is very often accompanied by Rosmerta, whom Miranda Green interprets to be a goddess of fertility and prosperity. Green also notices that the Celtic Mercury frequently accompanies the Deae Matres (see below).
Cult of Taranis
The Gaulish Jupiter is often depicted with a thunderbolt in one hand and a distinctive
wheel in the other. Scholars frequently identify this wheel/sky god
with Taranis, who is mentioned by Lucan. The name Taranis may be cognate with those of Taran, a minor figure in Welsh mythology, and Turenn, the father of the 'three gods of Dana' in Irish mythology.
Cult of Toutatis
Teutates, also spelled Toutatis (Celtic: "god of the tribe"), was one of three Celtic gods mentioned by the Roman poet Lucan in the 1st century, the other two being Esus ("lord") and Taranis ("thunderer"). According to later commentators, victims sacrificed to
Teutates were killed by being plunged headfirst into a vat filled with
an unspecified liquid. Present-day scholars frequently speak of &the toutates& as plural, referring respectively to the patrons of the several tribes. Of two later commentators on Lucan's text, one identifies Teutates with Mercury, the other with Mars. He is also known from dedications in Britain, where his name was written Toutatis. Paul-Marie Duval, who considers the Gaulish Mars a syncretism with the Celtic toutates, notes that:
&Les repr&sentations de
Mars, beaucoup plus rares [que celles de Mercure] (une trentaine de
bas-reliefs), plus monotones dans leur acad&misme classique, et ses
surnoms plus de deux fois plus nombreux (une cinquantaine)
s'&quilibrent pour mettre son importance & peu pr&s sur le m&me plan
que celle de Mercure mais sa domination n'est pas de m&me nature.
(&Mars' representations, much rarer [than Mercury's] (thirty-odd bas
reliefs) and more monotone in their studied classicism, and his
epithets which are more than twice as numerous (about fifty), balance
each other to place his importance roughly on the same level as
Mercury, but his domination is not of the same kind.& Duval 1993:71)
Gods with Hammers
Sucellos, the 'good striker' is usually portrayed as a middle-aged bearded man, with a long-handled hammer, or perhaps a beer barrel suspended from a pole. His companion, Nantosuelta,
is sometimes depicted alongside him. When together, they are
accompanied by symbols associated with prosperity and domesticity. This
figure is often identified with Silvanus, worshipped in southern Gaul unde Dis Pater, from whom, according to Caesar, all the Gauls believed themse and the Irish Dagda, the 'good god', who possessed a caldron that was never empty and a huge club.
Gods of Strength and Eloquence
A club-wielding god identified as Ogmios is readily observed in Gaulish iconography. In Gaul, he was identified
with the Roman Hercules. He was portrayed as an old man with swarthy
skin and armed with a bow and club. He was also a god of eloquence, and
in that aspect he was represented as drawing along a company of men
whose ears were chained to his tongue.
Ogmios' Irish equivalent was Ogma,
who was impressively portrayed as a swarthy man whose battle ardour was
so great that he had to be controlled by chains held by other warriors
until the right moment. Ogham script, an Irish writing system dating from the 4th century AD, was said to have been invented by him.
The Divine Bull
Another prominent zoomorphic deity type is the divine bull. Tarvos Trigaranus ("bull with three cranes") is pictured on reliefs from the cathedral at Trier, Germany, and at Notre-Dame de Paris. In Irish literature, the Donn Cuailnge ("Brown Bull of Cooley") plays a central role in the epic T&in B& Cuailnge ("The Cattle-Raid of Cooley").
The Ram-Headed Snake
A distinctive ram-headed snake accompanies Gaulish gods in a number of representations, including the horned god from the Gundestrup cauldron, Mercury, and Mars.
This table shows some of the Celtic and Romano-Celtic gods and goddesses mentioned above, in Romanized form as well as ancient Gaulish, British or Iberian names as well as those of the Tuatha D& Danann and characters from the Mabinogion.
They are arranged so as to suggest some linguistic or functional
associations among the ancient gods
needless to
say, all such associations are subject to continual scholarly revision
and disagreement. In particular, it has been noted by scholars such as
Sjoestedt that it is inappropriate to try to fit Insular Celtic deities
into a Roman format as such attempts seriously distort the Insular
Interpretatio
Gaulish/British
Mercury Uiducus
Lludd/Nudd
Icovellauna
Nemedus (Celtiberian)
Crouga (Celtiberian)
Crom Cruach
Neton (Celtiberian)
Aphrodite (Latin: Venus) is the Greek goddess of love, beauty and sexuality. According to Greek poet Hesiod, she was born when Cronus cut off Ouranos' genitals and threw them into the sea, and from the aphros (sea foam) arose Aphrodite. Because of her beauty other gods feared that jealousy would interrupt the peace among them and lead to war, and so Zeus married her to Hephaestus, who was not viewed as a threat. Her unhappiness in marriage caused her to frequently seek out the companionship of her lover Ares. Aphrodite also became instrumental in the Eros and Psyche legend, and later was both Adonis' lover and his surrogate mother. Aphrodite is also known as Cytherea (Lady of Cythera) and Cypris (Lady of Cyprus) after the two places, Cythera and Cyprus, which claim her birth. Her Roman equivalent is the goddess Venus. Myrtles, doves, sparrows, and swans are sacred to her. The Greeks identified the Ancient Egyptian goddess Hathor with Aphrodite.
Aphrodite has numerous equivalents: Inanna (Sumerian counterpart), Astarte (Phoenician), Astghik (Armenian), Turan (Etruscan), and Venus (Roman). She has parallels with Indo-European dawn goddesses such as Ushas or Aurora. The Hellenes were well aware that her origins lay in the East: according to Pausanias, the first to establish her cult were the Assyrians, after the Assyrians the Paphians of Cyprus and the Phoenicians who live at Ascalon in P the Phoenicians taught her worship to the people of Cythera. It was said Aphrodite could make any man fall in love with her at his first sight of her. Aphrodite also has many other names, such as Acidalia, Cytherea,
Pandemos and Cerigo. These names were used in specific areas of Greece.
When the Greek cities combined, these lesser names were abandoned and a
single name, Aphrodite, was adopted. Each goddess represented a
slightly different religion but with overall similarities.
Aphrodite Ourania and Aphrodite Pandemos
By the late 5th century BC, philosophers might separate Aphrodite into two separate goddesses, not individuated in cult: Aphrodite Ourania, born from the sea foam after Cronus castrated Ouranos, and Aphrodite Pandemos, the common Aphrodite "of all the folk," born from Zeus and Dione. Among the neo-Platonists and eventually their Christian interpreters, Aphrodite Ourania figures
as the celestial Aphrodite, representing the love of body and soul,
while Aphrodite Pandemos is associated with mere physical love. The
representation of Aphrodite Ouranos, with a foot resting on a tortoise,
was read later as emblematic of discret the image
is credited to Phidias, in a chryselephantine sculpture made for Elis, of which we have only a passing remark by Pausanias.
Thus, according to the character Pausanias in Plato's Symposium, Aphrodite is two goddesses, one older the other younger. The older,
Urania, is the "heavenly" daughter of Ouranos, and inspires homosexual
male (and more specifically, ephebic) love/ the younger is named
Pandemos, the daughter of Zeus and Dione, and all love for women comes
from her. Pandemos is the common Aphrodite. The speech of Pausanias distinguishes two manifestations of Aphrodite, represented by the two
stories: Aphrodite Ourania ("heavenly" Aphrodite), and Aphrodite
Pandemos ("Common" Aphrodite).
"Foam-arisen" Aphrodite was born of the sea foam near Paphos, Cyprus after Cronus cut off Ouranos' genitals and threw them behind him into the sea, while the Erinyes emerged from the drops of blood. Hesiod's Theogony described that the genitals "were carried over the sea a long time, and
white foam arose fro with it a girl grew" to
become Aphrodite. Aphrodite floated in on a scallop shell. When she
arose, she was hailed as "Cyprian," and is referred to as such often,
especially in the poetic works of Sappho. This myth of a fully mature
Venus (the Roman name for Aphrodite), Venus Anadyomene ("Venus Rising From the Sea") was one of the iconic representations of Aphrodite, made famous in a much-admired painting by Apelles, now lost, but described in the Natural History of Pliny the Elder. Thus Aphrodite is of an older generation than Zeus. Iliad (Book V) expresses another version of her origin, by which she was
considered a daughter of Dione, who was the original oracular goddess
("Dione" being simply "the goddess, the feminine form of &D&&&, "Dios,"
the genitive of Zeus) at Dodona.
Aphrodite herself was sometimes referred to as "Dione." Once the
worship of Zeus had usurped the oak-grove oracle at Dodona, some poets
made him out to be the father of Aphrodite.
In Homer, Aphrodite, venturing into battle to protect her son, Aeneas, is wounded by Diomedes and returns to her mother, to sink down at her knee and be comforted. "Dione" seems to be an equivalent of Rhea, the Earth Mother, whom Homer has relocated to Olympus, and refers to a hypothesized original Proto-Indo-European pantheon, with the chief male god (Di-) represented by the sky and
thunder, and the chief female god (feminine form of Di-) represented as
the earth or fertile soil. Aphrodite's chief center of worship remained at Paphos, on the south-western coast of Cyprus, where the goddess of desire had been worshipped from the early Iron Age as Ishtar and Ashtaroth. It was said that, as Kythereia, she first tentatively came ashore at Cythera, a stopping place for trade and culture between Crete and the Peloponesus. Thus perhaps we have hints of the track of Aphrodite's original cult from the Levant to mainland Greece. In other tales, Aphrodite was a daughter of Thalassa and Zeus.
Aphrodite had no childhood: in every image and each reference she is
born adult, nubile, and infinitely desirable. Aphrodite, in many of the
late anecdotal myths involving her, is characterized as vain,
ill-tempered and easily offended. Though she is one of the few gods of
the Greek Pantheon to be actually married, she is frequently unfaithful to her husband. Hephaestus is one of the most even-tempered of the H in the narrative embedded in the Odyssey Aphrodite seems to prefer Ares, the volatile god of war. She is one of a few characters who played a major part in the original cause of the Trojan War itself: not only did she offer Helen of Sparta to Paris,
but the abduction was accomplished when Paris, seeing Helen for the
first time, was inflamed with desire to have her&which is Aphrodite's
Due to her immense beauty, Zeus was frightened that she would be the
cause of violence between the other gods. He married her off to Hephaestus, the dour, humorless god of smithing. In another version of this story, Hera,
Hephaestus' mother, had cast him off O deeming him ugly and
deformed. His revenge was to trap her in a magic throne, and then to
demand Aphrodite's hand in return for Hera's release. Hephaestus was
overjoyed at being married to the goddess of beauty and forged her
beautiful jewelry, including the cestus, a girdle that made her even more irresistible to men. Her unhappiness with her
marriage caused Aphrodite to seek out companionship from others, most
frequently Ares, but also Adonis.
The epithet Aphrodite Acidalia was occasionally added to her name, after the spring she used to bathe in, located in Boeotia (Virgil I, 720). She was also called Kypris or Cytherea after her birth-places in Cyprus and Cythera, respectively, both centers of her cult. She was associated with Hesperia and frequently accompanied by the Oreads, nymphs of the mountains. Her festival, Aphrodisia, was celebrated across Greece but particularly in Athens and Corinth. At the temple of Aphrodite on the summit of Acrocorinth (before the Roman destruction of the city in 146 BC) intercourse with
her priestesses was considered a method of worshiping Aphrodite. This
temple was not rebuilt when the city was reestablished under Roman rule
in 44 BC, but it is likely that the fertility rituals continued in the
main city near the agora. Aphrodite was associated with, and often depicted with, the sea, dolphins, doves, swans, pomegranates, apples, myrtle, rose trees, lime trees, clams, scallop shells, and pearls.
Cult of Aphrodite
One aspect of the cult of Aphrodite and her precedents that Thomas Bulfinch's much-reprinted The Age of F or Stories of Gods and Heroes (1855 etc.) elided was the practice of ritual prostitution in her shrines and temples. The euphemism in Greek is hierodule, "sacred servant." The practice was an inherent part of the rituals owed to Aphrodite's Near Eastern forebears, Sumerian Inanna and Akkadian Ishtar, whose temple priestesses were the "women of Ishtar," ishtaritum. The practice has been documented in Babylon, Syria and Palestine, in Phoenician cities and the Tyrian colony Carthage, and for Hellenic Aphrodite in Cyprus, the center of her cult, Cythera, Corinth and in Sicily. Aphrodite is everywhere the patroness of the hetaira and courtesan. In Ionia on the coast of Asia Minor, hierodules served in the temple of Artemis. The practice however is not attested in Athens and can be considered a foreign import.
Aphrodite and Psyche
Aphrodite figures as a secondary character in the Tale of Eros and
Psyche, which first appeared as a digressive story told by an old woman
in Lucius Apuleius' novel, The Golden Ass, written in the second century A.D.. In it Aphrodite was jealous of the beauty of a mortal woman named Psyche. She asked Eros to use his golden arrows to cause Psyche to fall in love with the
ugliest man on earth. Eros agreed, but then fell in love with Psyche on
his own, by accidentally pricking himself with a golden arrow.
Meanwhile, Psyche's parents were anxious that their daughter remained unmarried. They consulted an oracle who told them she was destined for no mortal lover, but a creature that
lived on top of a particular mountain, that even the gods themselves
feared. Eros had arranged for the oracle to say this. Psyche was resigned to her fate and climbed to the top of
the mountain. She told the townsfolk that followed her to leave and let
her face her fate on her own. There, Zephyrus,
the west wind, gently floated her downwards. She entered a cave on the
appointed mountain, surprised to find it full of jewelry and finery.
Eros visited her every night in the cave and they
he demanded only that she never light any lamps because he did not want
her to know who he was (having wings made him distinctive). Her two
sisters, jealous of Psyche, convinced her that her husband was a
monster, and she should strike him with a dagger. So one night she lit
a lamp, but recognizing Eros instantly, she dropped her dagger. Oil
spilled from the lamp onto his shoulder, awaking him, and he fled,
saying "Love cannot live where there is no trust!"
When Psyche told her two jealous elder sisters what had happened,
they rejoiced secretly and each separately walked to the top of the
mountain and did as Psyche described her entry to the cave, hoping Eros
would pick them instead. Eros was still heart broken and did not pick
them and they fell to their deaths at the base of the mountain.
Psyche searched for her love across much of Greece, finally stumbling into a temple to Demeter,
where the floor was covered with piles of mixed grains. She started
sorting the grains into organized piles and, when she finished, Demeter
spoke to her, telling her that the best way to find Eros was to find
his mother, Aphrodite, and earn her blessing. Psyche found a temple to
Aphrodite and entered it. Aphrodite assigned her a similar task to
Demeter's temple, but gave her an impossible deadline to finish it by.
Eros intervened, for he still loved her, and caused some ants to
organize the grains for her. Aphrodite was outraged at her success and
told her to go to a field where deadly golden sheep grazed and get some
golden wool. Psyche went to the field and saw the sheep but was stopped
by a river-god, whose river she had to cross to enter the field. He
told her the sheep were mean and vicious and would kill her, but if she
waited until noontime, the sheep would go into the shade on the other
side of she could pick the wool that stuck to the
branches and bark of the trees. Psyche did so and Aphrodite was even
more outraged at her survival and success.
Finally, Aphrodite claimed that the stress of caring for her son,
depressed and ill as a result of Psyche's unfaithfulness, had caused
her to lose some of her beauty. Psyche was to go to Hades and ask Persephone,
the queen of the underworld, for a bit of her beauty in a black box
that Aphrodite gave to Psyche. Psyche walked to a tower, deciding that
the quickest way to the underworld would be to die. A voice stopped her
at the last moment and told her a route that would allow her to enter
and return still living, as well as telling her how to pass the
three-headed dog Cerberus, Charon and the other dangers of the route. She was to not lend a hand to
anyone in need. She baked two barley cakes for Cerberus, and took two
coins for Charon. She pacified Cerberus with the barley cake and paid
Charon to take her to Hades. On the way there, she saw hands reaching
out of the water. A voice told her to toss a barley cake to them. She
refused. Once there, Persephone said she would be glad to do Aphrodite
a favor. She once more paid Charon, and gave the other barley cake to
Psyche left the underworld and decided to open the box and take a
little bit of the beauty for herself, thinking that if she did so Eros
would surely love her. Inside was a "Stygian sleep" which overtook her. Eros, who had forgiven her, flew to her body
and wiped the sleep from her eyes, then begged Zeus and Aphrodite for
their consent to his wedding of Psyche. They agreed and Zeus made her
immortal. Aphrodite danced at the wedding of Eros and Psyche, and their
subsequent child was named Pleasure, or (in the Roman mythology) Voluptas.
Aphrodite was Adonis' lover and a surrogate mother to him. Cinyras, the King of Cyprus, had an intoxicatingly beautiful daughter named Myrrha. When Myrrha's mother commits Hubris against Aphrodite by claiming her daughter is more beautiful than the
famed goddess, Myrrha is punished with a never ending lust for her own
father. Cinyras is repulsed by this, but Myrrha disguises herself as a
prostitute, and secretly sleeps with her father at night. Eventually,
Myrrha becomes pregnant and is discovered by Cinyras. In a rage, he
chases her out of the house with a knife. Myrrha flees from him,
praying to the gods for mercy as she runs. The gods hear her plea, and
change her into a Myrrh tree so her father cannot kill her. Eventually,
Cinyras takes his own life in an attempt to restore the family's honor. Myrrha gives birth to a baby boy named Adonis. Aphrodite happens by
the Myrrh tree and, seeing him, takes pity on the infant. She places
Adonis in a box, and takes him down to Hades so that Persephone can care for him. Adonis grows into a strikingly handsome young man,
and Aphrodite eventually returns for him. Persephone, however, is loath
to give him up, and wishes Adonis would stay with her in the
underworld. The two goddesses begin such a quarrel that Zeus is forced
to intercede. He decrees that Adonis will spend a third of the year
with Aphrodite, a third of the year with Persephone, and a third of the
year with whomever he wishes. Adonis, of course, chooses Aphrodite.
Adonis begins his year on the earth with Aphrodite. One of his
greatest passions is hunting, and although Aphrodite is not naturally a
hunter, she takes up the sport just so she can be with Adonis. They
spend every waking hour with one another, and Aphrodite is enraptured
with him. However, her anxiety begins to grow over her neglected
duties, and she is forced to leave him for a short time. Before she
leaves, she gives Adonis one warning: do not attack an animal who shows
no fear. Adonis agrees to her advice, but, secretly doubting her skills
as a huntress, quickly forgets her warning. Not long after Aphrodite leaves, Adonis comes across an enormous
wild boar, much larger than any he has ever seen. It is suggested that
the boar is the god Ares, one of Aphrodite's lovers made jealous
through her constant doting on Adonis. Although boars are dangerous and
will charge a hunter if provoked, Adonis disregards Aphrodite's warning
and pursues the giant creature. Soon, however, Adonis is th he is no match for the giant boar. In the attack, Adonis is castrated by the boar, and dies from a loss of blood. Aphrodite rushes back to
his side, but she is too late to save him and can only mourn over his
body. Wherever Adonis' blood falls, Aphrodite causes anemones to grow in his memory. She vows that on the anniversary of his death, every year there will be a festival held in his honor.
On his death, Adonis goes back to the underworld, and Persephone is
delighted to see him again. Eventually, Aphrodite realizes that he is
there, and rushes back to retrieve him. Again, she and Persephone
bicker over who is allowed to keep Adonis until Zeus intervenes. This
time, he says that Adonis must spend six months with Aphrodite and six
months with Persephone, the way it should have been in the first place. Adonis, as a dying god archetype, represents the cycle of
vegetation. His birth is like the his maturation
like the ripening of the plant. Once the crop is harvested, it
dies&like Adonis returning to the underworld. The new seeds are then
placed again in the ground, where they grow into new life, like Adonis
returning to the earth to be with Aphrodite.
The Judgement of Paris
The gods and goddesses as well as various mortals were invited to the marriage of Peleus and Thetis (the eventual parents of Achilles). Only the goddess Eris (Discord) was not invited, but she arrived with a golden apple inscribed with the word kallistēi ("to the fairest one") which she threw among the goddesses. Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena all claimed to be the fairest, and thus the rightful owner of the apple. The goddesses chose to place the matter before Zeus, who, not wanting to favor one of the goddesses, put the choice into the hands of Paris. Hera tried to bribe Paris with Asia Minor,
while Athena offered wisdom, fame and glory in battle, but Aphrodite
whispered to Paris that if he were to choose her as the fairest he
would have the most beautiful mortal woman in the world as a wife, and
he accordingly chose her. This woman was Helen. The other goddesses were enraged by this and through Helen's abduction by Paris they brought about the Trojan War.
Pygmalion and Galatea
Pygmalion was a sculptor who had never found a woman worthy of his love.
Aphrodite took pity on him and decided to show him the wonders of love.
One day, Pygmalion was inspired by a dream of Aphrodite to make a woman
out of ivory resembling her image, and he called her Galatea.
He fell in love with the statue and decided he could not live without
her. He prayed to Aphrodite, who carried out the final phase of her
plan and brought the exquisite sculpture to life. Pygmalion loved
Galatea and they were soon married. Another version of this myth tells that the women of the village in
which Pygmalion lived grew angry that he had not married. They all
asked Aphrodite to force him to marry. Aphrodite accepted and went that
very night to Pygmalion, and asked him to pick a woman to marry. She
told him that if he did not pick one, she would do so for him. Not
wanting to be married, he begged her for more time, asking that he be
allowed to make a sculpture of Aphrodite before he had to choose his
bride. Flattered, she accepted.
Pygmalion spent a lot of time making small clay sculptures of the
Goddess, claiming it was needed so he could pick the right pose. As he
started making the actual sculpture he was shocked to discover he
actually wanted to finish, even though he knew he would have to marry
someone when he finished. The reason he wanted to finish it was that he
had fallen in love with the sculpture. The more he worked on it, the
more it changed, until it no longer resembled Aphrodite at all. At the very moment Pygmalion stepped away from the finished
sculpture Aphrodite appeared and told him to choose his bride.
Pygmalion chose the statue. Aphrodite told him that could not be, and
asked him again to choose a bride. Pygmalion put his arms around the
statue, and asked Aphrodite to turn him into a statue so he could be
with her. Aphrodite took pity on him and brought the statue to life
Other Tales
In one version of the story of Hippolytus, she was the catalyst for his death. He scorned the worship of Aphrodite for Artemis and, in revenge, Aphrodite caused his stepmother, Phaedra, to fall in love with him, knowing Hippolytus would reject her. In the most popular version of the story, as told in the play Hippolytus by Euripides, Phaedra seeks revenge against Hippolytus by killing herself and, in her suicide note, telling Theseus,
her husband and Hippolytus' father, that Hippolytus had raped her.
Hippolytus was oath-bound not to mention Phaedra's love for him and
nobly refused to defend himself despite the consequences. Theseus then
cursed his son, a curse that Poseidon was bound to fulfill and so Hippolytus was laid low by a bull from the
sea that caused his chariot-team to panic and wreck his vehicle. This
is, interestingly enough not quite how Aphrodite envisaged his
death in the play, as in the prologue she says she expects Hippolytus
to submit to lust with Phaedra and for Theseus to catch the pair in the
act. Hippolytus forgives his father before he dies and Artemis reveals the truth to Theseus before vowing to kill the one Aphrodite loves (Adonis) for revenge. Glaucus of Corinth angered Aphrodite and she made her horses angry during the funeral games of King Pelias. They tore him apart. His ghost supposedly frightened horses during the Isthmian Games.
Aphrodite and Foreign Goddesses
The Ancient Greeks and Romans often equated their deities with foreign ones. Aphrodite was equated by the Greeks to Egyptian Hathor, Assyrian Mylitta, Canaanite/Phoenician Astarte, Arabian Alilat, and Roman Venus.
In Irish mythology, Brigit or Brighid ("exalted one") was the daughter of the Dagda and one of the Tuatha D& Danann. She was the wife of Bres of the Fomorians, with whom she had a son, Ruad&n. She had two sisters, also named Brighid, and is considered a classic Celtic Triple Goddess.
Familial Relations
She is identified in Lebor Gab&la &Erenn as a daughter of the Dagda and a poet. The same passage mentions that she has two oxen, Fe and
Men, that graze on a plain named after them, Femen. She also possessed
the "king of boars", Torc Triath, and Cirb, king of wethers (sheep), from whom Mag Cirb is named. As the daughter of Dagda, she is also the half sister of Cermait, Aengus, Midir and Bodb Derg.
Associations
In Cath Maige Tuireadh, Br&g (sic) invents keening while mourning for her son Ruad&n, after he is slain while fighting for the Fomorians. She is credited in the same passage with inventing a whistle used for night travel.
Divine Responsibilities
In her English translation of Irish myth, Lady Augusta Gregory (Gods
and Fighting Men, 1904), describes Brigit as "a woman of poetry, and
poets worshiped her, for her sway was very great and very noble. And
she was a woman of healing along with that, and a woman of smith's
work, and it was she first made the whistle for calling one to another
through the night. And the one side of her face was ugly, but the other
side was very comely. And the meaning of her name was Breo-saighit, a
fiery arrow." Brighid was associated with perpetual, sacred flames, such as the one maintained by 19 nuns at her sanctuary in Kildare,
Ireland. The tradition of female priestesses tending sacred,
naturally-occurring "eternal flames" is a feature of ancient
Indo-European pre-Christian spirituality. Other examples include the
Roman goddess Vesta, and other hearth-goddesses, such as Hestia. Her
sacred flame at Kildare was said by Giraldus Cambrensis and other chroniclers to have been surrounded by a hedge, which no man
could cross. Men who attempted to cross the hedge were said to have
been cursed to go insane, die, and/or to have had their "lower leg" wither.
Brighid was also connected to holy wells, at Kildare and many other sites in the Celtic lands. Well dressing, the tying of clooties to the trees next to healing wells, and other methods of petitioning or honoring Brighid still take place in some of the Celtic lands and the diaspora. As one of the most popular goddesses worshipped by the Celtic peoples, including the druids, many of her stories and symbology survive in the persona of Saint Brigid.
She is the goddess of all things perceived to be of relatively high
dimensions such as high-rising flames, highlands, hill-for and of activities and states conceived as psychologically lofty
and elevated, such as wisdom, excellence, perfection, high
intelligence, poetic eloquence, craftsmanship (especially
blacksmithing), healing ability, druidic knowledge and skill in
warfare. In the living traditions, whether seen as goddess or saint,
she is largely associated with the home and hearth and is a favorite of
both Pagans and Christians A number of these associations are attested in Cormac's Glossary. Her British and continental counterpart Brigantia seems to have been the Celtic equivalent of the Roman Minerva and the Greek Athena (Encyclopedia Britannica: Celtic Religion),
goddesses with very similar functions and apparently embodying the same
concept of 'elevated state', whether physical or psychological.
Maman Brigitte, one of the Lwa of Haitian Voodoo, may be a form of Brigid. It is likely that the concept came to the New World through the Irish who were kidnapped, enslaved and forced to labor in the Caribbean alongside the enslaved Africans. Because of the intermarriage and cultural blending between the Irish
and Africans, it is possible that Haitian Voodo is partially influenced
by survivals of Celtic polytheism. Maman Brigitte is worshipped as the Lady of the C her colors are purple, violet and black. She is the wife of Baron Samedi,
and characterised as a hard working, hard cursing woman who can swear a
blue streak and enjoys a special drink made of rum laced with 21 hot
peppers. People suspected of faking a possession by her may be asked to
drink her special rum or rub hot peppers on their genitals, which she
occasionally does. Those who are not truly possessed are soon
identified.
On February 1 or February 2, Brigid is celebrated at the Gaelic festival of Imbolc, when she brings the first stirrings of spring to the land. Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, and some Anglicans mark the day as the Feast of Saint B the festival is also known as Candlemas and Purification of the Virgin - and also as Imbolc by many.
Other Names and Etymology
Old Irish Brigit came to be spelled Brighid by the modern Irish period. Since the spelling reform of 1948, this has been spelled Br&d . The earlier form gave rise to the Anglicization Bridget, now commonly seen as Brigid.
Br&ghde/Br&de (Scotland)
Fraid (Wales) Because of Welsh pronunciation mutations, her name changes to 'Ffraid' when following an [s] sound, such as in the name 'Llansanffraid' = 'Saint Bride's Village'
Breo Saighead ("the fiery arrow" & a folk etymology found in Sanas Cormaic, but considered very unlikely by etymologists)
Brigandu (Gaul)
Brigantia (Great Britain)
Brigantis (Great Britain)
Brigindo (Switzerland)
Bidang (Philippines)
Cernunnos (also Cernenus and Cern) is a pagan Celtic god whose representations were widespread in the ancient Celtic lands of western Europe. As a horned god, Cernunnos is associated with horned male animals, especially stags and the ram- this and other attributes associate him with produce and fertility. Cernunnos is also associated mainly as the God of the Underworld. Everything that we know about this deity comes from two inscriptions from France, one from Germany.
Archaeological sources such as inscriptions and depictions from Gaul and Northern Italy (Gallia Cisalpina) have been used to define Cernunnos. The first artifact found to identify Cernunnos was the "Pillar of the Boatmen" (Pilier des nautes), a monument now displayed in the Mus&e National du Moyen Age in Paris.
It was constructed by Gaulish sailors in the early first century CE,
from the inscription (CIL XIII number 03026) probably in the year 14,
on the accession of the emperor Tiberius. It was found in 1710 in the foundations of the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris on the site of Lutetia, the civitas capital of the Celtic Parisii tribe. It depicts Cernunnos and other Celtic deities alongside Roman divinities such as Jupiter, Vulcan, Castor, and Pollux, a combination suggestive of a Gallo-Roman religion.
On the Parisii inscription [_]ernunnos,
the first letter of the name has been scraped off at some point, but
can safely be restituted to "Cernunnos" because of the depiction of an
antlers in the image below the name and that in Gaulish, carnon or cernon means "antler" or "horn". Additional evidence is given by two identical inscriptions on metal plaques from Steinsel-R&lent in Luxembourg, in the territory of the Celtic Treveri tribe. These inscriptions (AE ) read Deo Ceruninco, "to the God Cerunincos". Lastly, a Gaulish inscription (RIG 1, number G-224) written in Greek letters from Montagnac (H&rault, Languedoc-Roussilion, France) reads &&&&&[&&]&&& &&&&&&&& &&[&]&&[&&]&&& thus giving the name "Carnonos".
Several images without inscriptions are thought to represent
Cernunnos. The earliest known probable depiction of Cernunnos was found
at Val Camonica in Italy, dating from the 4th century BC, while the best known depiction is on the Gundestrup cauldron found on Jutland, dating to the 1st century BC. The Cauldron was likely to have been stolen by the Germanic Cimbri tribe or another tribe that inhabited Jutland as it originated from south east Europe.
Etymological Derivations
Cern means "horn" or "bumb, boss" in Old Irish and is etymologically related to similar words carn in Welsh and Breton, and is the probable derivation of "Kernow" (Cornwall), meaning horn'[of land]'. These are thought by some linguists to derive from a Proto-Indo-European root *krno- which also gave the Latin cornu and Germanic *hurnaz (from which English "horn") (Nussbaum 1986) (Porkorny 1959 pp.574-576). The same Gaulish root is found in the names of tribes such as the Carnutes, Carni, and Carnonacae and in the name of the Gaulish war trumpet, the carnyx. The Proto-Celtic form of this theonym is reconstructed as either *Cerno-on-os or *Carno-on-os, both meaning "great horned one". (The augmentative -on- is frequently, but not exclusively, found in theonyms, for example: Map-on-os, Ep-on-a, Matr-on-ae, Sir-on-a.)
Iconography
The depictions of Cernunnos are strikingly consistent throughout the Celtic world.
His most distinctive attribute are his stag's horns, and he is usually
portrayed as a mature man with long hair and a beard. He wears a torc,
an ornate neck-ring used by the Celts to denote nobility. He often
carries other torcs in his hands or hanging from his horns, as well as
a purse filled with coins. He is usually portrayed seated and
cross-legged, in a position which some have interpreted as meditative or shamanic, although it may only reflect the fact that the Celts squatted on the ground when hunting.
Cernunnos is nearly always portrayed with animals, in particular the stag. He is also frequently associated with a unique beast that seems to belong primarily to him: a serpent with the horns of a ram. This creature may have been a deity in its own right. He is associated with other beasts less frequently, including bulls (at Rheims), dogs, and rats. Because of his frequent association with creatures, scholars often describe Cernunnos as the "Lord of the Animals" or the "Lord of Wild Things", and Miranda Green describes him as a "peaceful god of nature and fruitfulness". Because of his association with stags (a particularly hunted beast) he is also described as the "Lord of the Hunt". Interestingly, the Pilier des nautes links him with sailors and with commerce, suggesting that he was also associated with material wealth as does the coin pouch from the Cernunnos of Rheims (Marne, Champagne, France)&in antiquity, Durocortorum, the civitas capital of the Remi tribe&and the stag vomiting coins from Niedercorn-Turbelslach (Luxembourg) in the lands of the Treveri. The god may have symbolised the fecundity of the stag-inhabited forest.
Neopaganism
In Wicca and derived forms of Neopaganism a Horned God is revered, a divinity which syncretises a number of horned or antlered
gods from various cultures, including Cernunnos. The Horned God
reflects the seasons of the year in an annual cycle of life, death and
rebirth. In the tradition of Gardnerian Wicca, the Horned God is sometimes specifically referred to as Cernunnos, or sometimes also as Kernunno.
Modern Druidry, which derives from Celtic culture, honors Cernunnos
in his ancient Celto-European form as the guardian of the forests, the
defender of the animal tuatha (tribes), the source of the deep forest
wisdom, and the masculine half of creative energy. His restorative work
in the cycle of the year is particularly celebrated at Beltaine, and is
often paired with one or another of the female deities in her maiden
aspect. Druids may call upon him in reference to vital, non-violent
masculine divinity.
The Dagda (sometimes written with n Proto-Celtic: *Dagodeiwos; Old Irish: dag dia; Irish: dea-Dia; all meaning "good god") is an important god of Irish mythology. The Dagda is a father-figure (he is also known as Eochaid Ollathair, or "All-father Haughey") and a protector of the tribe. In some texts his father is Elatha, in others his mother is Ethlinn.
Description
Tales depict the Dagda as a figure of immense power, armed with a magic club and associated with a cauldron.
The club was supposed to be able to kill ni but
with the handle he could return the slain to life. The cauldron was
known as the Undry and was said to be bottomless, from which no man
left unsatisfied. He also possessed Daurdabla, also known as "the Four
Angled Music", a richly ornamented magic harp made of oak which, when the Dagda played it, put the seasons in
other accounts tell of it being used to command the order of
battle. He possessed two pigs, one of which was always growing whilst
the other was always roasting, and ever-laden fruit trees.
The Dagda was a High King of the Tuatha D& Danann after his predecessor Nuada was injured in battle. The Tuatha D& Danann are the race of supernatural beings who conquered the Fomorians, who inhabited Ireland previously, prior to the coming of the Milesians. His lover was Boann and his daughter was Breg. Prior to the battle with the Fomorians, he coupled with the goddess of war, the M&rr&gan, on Samhain in exchange for a plan of battle. Despite his great power and prestige, the Dagda is sometimes
depicted as oafish and crude, even comical, wearing a short, rough
tunic that barely covers his rump, dragging his great penis on the
The Dagda had an affair with Boann, wife of Nechtan. In order to hide their affair, Dagda made the sun stand s therefore their son, Aengus, was conceived, gestated and born in one day. He, along with Boann, helped Aengus search for his love. Whilst Aengus was away the Dagda shared out his land among his
children, but Aengus returned to discover that nothing had been saved
for him. Under the guidance of Lugh Aengus later tricked his father out of his home at the Br& na B&inne (Newgrange). Aengus was instructed to ask his father if he could live in the Br& for a day and a night, and the Dagda agreed. But Irish has no indefinite article, so "a day and a night" is the same as "day and night", which covers all time, and so Aengus took possession of the Br& permanently. In "The Wooing of &Eta&n", on the other hand, Aengus uses the same ploy to trick Elcmar out of Br& na B&inne, with the Dagda's connivance.
The Dagda was also the father of Bodb Dearg, Cermait, Midir, Aine, and Brigit. He was the brother or father of Oghma, who is probably related to the Gaulish god O
Ogmios, depicted as an old man with a club, is one of the closest
Gaulish parallels to the Dagda. Another Gaulish god who may be related
to the Dagda is Sucellus, the striker, depicted with a hammer and cup. He is credited with a seventy or eighty-year reign (depending on source) over the Tuatha D& Danann, before dying at the Br& na B&inne, finally succumbing to a wound inflicted by Cethlenn during the second battle of Magh Tuiredh.
The name Dagda may ultimately be derived from the Proto-Indo-European *Dhagho-deiwos "shining divinity", the first element being cognate with the English word "day",
and possibly a byword for a deification of a notion such as
"splendour". This etymology would tie in well with Dagda's mythic
association with the sun and the earth, with kingship and excellence in
general. *Dhago-deiwos would have been inherited into Proto-Celtic as *Dago-deiwos, thereby punning with the Proto-Celtic word *dago-s "good".
Diana was the goddess of the hunt, being associated with wild animals and woodland, and also of the moon in Roman mythology. In literature she was the equivalent of the Greek goddess Artemis, though in cult beliefs she was Italic, not Greek, in origin. Diana was worshiped in ancient Roman religion and is currently revered in Roman Neopaganism and Stregheria.
Dianic Wicca, a largely feminist form of the practice, is named for
her. Diana was known to be the virgin goddess and looked after virgins
and women. Along with her main attributes, Diana was an emblem of chastity. Oak groves were especially sacred to her. According to mythology, Diana was born with her twin brother Apollo on the island of Delos, daughter of Jupiter and Latona. Diana made up a triad with two other Roman deities: Egeria the water nymph, her servant a and Virbius, the woodland god.
Diana (pronounced with long 'i' and a') is an adjectival form
developed from an ancient *divios, corresponding to later 'divus',
'dius', as in Dius Fidius, Dea Dia and in the neuter form dium meaning the sky. It is rooted in Indoeuropean *d(e)y(e)w meaning bright sky or daylight,
from which also derived the name of Vedic god Dyaus and the Latin deus (god), dies (day, daylight).
The image of Diana is complex and shows various archaic features. According to Dumezil it presents the character of a uranic god of a peculiar nature,
referred to in history of religions as 'frame god'. Such gods, while
keeping the original features of uranic gods, i.e. transcendent
heavenly power and abstention from direct rule on worldly matters, did
not face the fate of other uranic gods in Indoeuropean religions of
becoming dei otiosi, as they did preserve a peculiar sort of influence over the world and mankind. The uranic character of Diana is well reflected in her connexion to
light, inaccessibility, virginity, dwelling on high mountains and in
sacred woods. Diana is thus the representation of the heavenly world (dium)
in its character of sovereignty, supremacy, impassibility, indifference
towards secular matters as the fate of men and states, while at the
same time ensuring the succession of kings and the preservation of
mankind through the protection of childbirth.
These functions are apparent in the traditional institutions and cults related to the goddess. 1) The institution of the rex Nemorensis, Diana's sacerdos in the Arician wood, who held its position til somebody else challenged
and killed him in a duel, after breaking a branch from a certain tree
of the wood. This ever totally open succession reveals the character
and mission of the goddess as a guarantee of the continuity of the
kingly status through successive generations. The same meaning implying her function of bestower of regality is
testified by the story related by Livy of the prediction of empire to
the land of origin of the person who would offer her a particularly
beautiful cow. 2) Diana was also worshipped by women who sought pregnancy or asked for
an easy delivery. This kind of worship is testified by archeological
finds of votive statuettes in her sanctuary in the nemus Aricinum as well as by ancient sources, e.g. Ovid.
According to Dumezil the function of frame god is to be
traced in an Indian epic hero who is the image of Vedic god Dyaus:
having renounced the world, i.e. the role of father and king, he has
attained the condititon of an immortal being, although he keeps the
duty of ensuring that in his dynasty there are always children and one
king for each generation. The Scandinavian god Heimdallr performs an analogous function: he is born first and will die last. He
too gives origin to kingship and the first king, bestowing on him regal
prerogatives. Diana is a female god but has exactly the same functions,
preserving mankind through childbirth and king succession. Dumezil's interpretation appears to ignore deliberately James G. Frazer's, who connects Diana in her regal function with male god Janus as a divine couple, whereas his description of the type of the frame god would fit his own interpretation of Italic god Janus equally well.
Frazer, however, gives a very different interpretation of the couple
Diana-Janus: he identifies it with the supreme heavenly couple
Juppiter-Juno and connects these figures to the religious Indoeuropean
complex tieing regality to the cult of trees, particularly oaks. In
this interpretative line the institution of the Rex Nemorensis and his
ritual should be related to the theme of the dying god and the kings of
Diana was initially just the hunting goddess, associated with wild animals and woodlands. She also later became a moon goddess, supplanting Luna. She also became the goddess of childbirth and ruled over the countryside. Diana was worshipped at a festival on August 13, when King Servius Tullius, himself born a slave, dedicated her shrine on the Aventine Hill in the mid-sixth century BC. Being placed on the Aventine, and thus outside the pomerium, meant that Diana's cult essentially remained a 'foreign' one, like that of B she was never officially 'transferred' to Rome as Juno was after the sack of Veii. It seems that her cult originated in Aricia, where her priest, the Rex Nemorensis remained. There the simple open-air fane was held in common by the Latin tribes, which Rome aspired to weld into a league and direct. Diana of the wood was soon thoroughly Hellenized, "a process which culminated with the appearance of Diana beside Apollo in the first lectisternium at Rome". Diana was regarded with great reverence by lower-class
slaves could receive asylum in her temples. This fact is of difficult
interpretation. Wissowa proposed the explanation that it might be
because the first slaves of the Romans must have been Latins of the
neighbouring tribes.
Though some Roman patrons ordered marble replicas of the specifically Anatolian "Diana" of Ephesus, where the Temple of Artemis stood, Diana was usually depicted for educated Romans in her Greek guise. If she is accompanied by a deer, as in the Diana of Versailles (illustration, above right) this is because Diana was the patroness of hunting. The deer may also offer a covert reference to the myth of Acteon (or Actaeon), who saw her bathing naked. Diana transformed Acteon into a stag and set his own hunting dogs to kill him. Worship of Diana is mentioned in the Bible. In Acts of the Apostles,
Ephesian metal smiths who felt threatened by Saint Paul&s preaching of
Christianity, jealously rioted in her defense, shouting &Great is Diana of the Ephesians!& (Acts 19:28, New English Bible).
Sanctuaries
Diana was an ancient goddess common to all Latin tribes. Therefore
many sanctuaries were dedicated to her in the lands inhabited by
Latins. The first one is supposed to have beeen near Alba before the
town was destroyed by the Romans. The Arician wood sanctuary near the lake of Nemi was Latin confederal as testified by the dedicatory epigraph quoted by Cato.
She had a }