This document provides information on several Celtic deities and figures from European history: - Cernunnos was a horned god associated with forest animals who was depicted in art from several ancient cultures. - Sulis was a Gaulish goddess of healing waters linked to the Roman goddess Minerva, worshipped at the site of present-day Bath, England. - Brigindo was a goddess of fertility possibly related to the Brigantes tribe and later Christianized as St. Brigit. - Celtic society had professional classes including druids, poets, and lawyers, and higher status for women shown by prominent goddesses and ruling queens. Written Celtic sources provide accounts of their migrations and early histories.

1. Cernunnos. Left image a detail from the Gundestrup Cauldron. Right
image a carving from Cluny Museum, Paris, France.
• Known as the horned god
• Associated with animals of the
forest
• Attested in images from India,
Turkey, Greece, Gaul and in
Irish character Conall Cernach

2. Aquae Sulis, now Bath, England.
• Sulis linked to
Sequana, a Gaulish
goddess associated
with healing
• The name of a tribe in
Gaul, the Sequani,
and found in the
name of the River
Seine
• Sulis equated by
Romans to Minerva

3. Brigindo, Brigantia, Brigit. Carving in National Museum of
Scotland.
• A goddess associated
with fertility
• The name of a tribe in
northern Britain, the
Brigantes
• Possibly Christianized in
Irish St. Brigit
• Imbolc, February 1st

4. Pre-modern European migrations:
Celtic Migrations
• Social organization
• Professional classes
• Druids—attested in Greek and Roman sources; early Christian sources in
Ireland; place name evidence from Scotland to Iberia to Asia Minor
• Poets—attested primarily in Irish, Welsh, and Scottish written sources
• Lawyers—attested primarily in Irish, Welsh, and Scottish sources

5. Pre-Modern European Migrations:
Celtic Migrations
• Social organization
• Higher status of women
• Prominent female deities
• Sovereignty goddesses—Rosmerta in Gaul; Medb/Maeve in Ireland
• Goddesses of war—the Morrigan and Badb in Ireland; Agrona and Andraste
in Britain/Wales; Cathabodua in Gaul
• Ruling queens—Cartimandua (fl. 50-70 AD) and Boudica (d. 60 AD) in Britain
• Warrior women—Scathach and Aoife from Irish mythology; Boudica in Britain
• Women’s legal rights—medieval Irish, Welsh, and Scottish law (pre-English
conquest) allowed women to divorce their husbands and share property equally
after seven years of marriage

6. Pre-Modern European Migrations:
Celtic Migrations
• What written Celtic sources tell us about their history.
• Irish Lebor Gebála (The Book of Invasions), 7th-8th century AD
• Describes a series of migrations dating back to the sons of Noah; the final
migration a group from Iberia known as the Milesians or Sons of Mil
• Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae (The History of the Kings
of Britain), 12th century AD
• Describes the reign of Britain’s early kings, beginning with Brutus of Troy

7. Celtic migrations in the post-Roman era. Map from Barry
Cunliffe, Europe Between the Oceans, 9000 BC-AD 1000.

8. Map of European ancestry of modern British DNA types, from Leslie et
al., “The fine-scale genetic structure of the British population” Nature
519 (19 March 2015), 309-314.

9. Modern Celtic migrations. Map by Howard Vincent, 1897.