CELTIC HEALER and WARRIOR MAIDEN Celtic Gods Served The
CHAPTER FOUR CELTIC HEALER AND WARRIOR MAIDEN Celtic gods served the tribe in matters of war and peace, justice and fertility, salvation and healing. As fully-fledged tribal deities, they did not entirely engage the interests of the soldier on the Roman fron tier, but some divine aspects were relevant and desirable. \Ve have already seen the Celtic god as horned warrior. It remains to con sider native gods and goddesses as healers. The ill relied as much on the supernatural as on empirical medicine, inextricably linked with religion. 1 Consequently, physicians and priests were on staff together at most healing shrines, Graeco-Roman as well as Celtic (i.e., 614). 2 Most healer gods are associated with water and curative springs; as will be seen, some have connections with curses and ret ribution (Sulis at Bath, Mercury at Uley). Warrior God and Healer Under numerous epithets, Mars was thoroughly assimilated into Celtic cults known both on the continent and in Britain alone: Camulus (467), Lenus (468, 469), Loucetius (470), Toutates (474). Celtic gods equated with Mars in Britain emphasize the god's regal and mili tary character: 1 Alator, the huntsman (603-604), Belatucadrus (Fair Shining One: 554, 55 7, 558, 562, 567),4 Rigisamus (most kingly: 472), Segomo (Victor),5 Toutates (Ruler of the people: 473, 474), Barrex (Supreme). 6 Occasionally his role as healer surfaces, especially 1 Allason-Jones, Women, 156. 2 For example, Asclepius' incubation shrines at Cos and Epidaurus. For Celtic examples, priests and physicians attended the sick at the Fontes Sequana, where the water spirit who personified the river Seine dwelled (Deyts, Sanctuaire) and at Bath where Sulis Minerva presided over a healing sanctuary (Cunlifle, Sacred Spring, 359 62).
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