This page groups deities by the domain or function myth assigns them, the area of life, craft or natural force a god is called on to govern. Wikipedia's overview of deities gives a clear example in the Yoruba god Ogun, described as "the primordial masculine deity as well as the archdivinity and guardian of occupations such as tools making and use, metal working, hunting, war, protection and ascertaining equity and justice." Browsing by domain lets a visitor find every god of, for example, war or the harvest, across many different pantheons at once.
Facts
Overview
What Defines This GroupingThe gods of the Celtic-speaking peoples, collected by language family rather than by any shared cult. Two evidence bases barely overlap: Gaulish and British theonyms on Roman-period inscriptions, usually paired with a Roman name, and the Irish gods of medieval manuscripts written by Christian monks centuries after conversion. No unified Celtic pantheon is recoverable from either. 2 Peoples and Traditions CoveredGaul and the Continental Celtic-speaking peoples, known almost entirely from Roman-period epigraphy and from Greek and Roman writers 2 Peoples and Traditions CoveredIreland, whose gods survive in medieval Irish manuscript literature written after conversion 2 Peoples and Traditions CoveredRoman Britain, known from inscriptions and from deities paired with Roman ones 2 Attestation
Era of AttestationGaulish and British theonyms appear from the first century BCE in Roman-period inscriptions and reliefs; the Irish material only in manuscripts of the eighth to twelfth centuries CE. 2 Veneration TodayThe ancient cults did not survive Christianisation as continuous practice. 2 Veneration TodayVenerated in modern Druid and Celtic reconstructionist religions, which are movements of the last three centuries and mostly of the last one. 5 Status
Standing as a Comparative CategoryCeltic is a classification of languages. Whether it names one people, or one religion, has been actively disputed in the scholarship for three decades, and that dispute bears directly on whether this grouping names anything at all. 4 Contested Use
Contested or Appropriated Modern UseCeltic spirituality and modern Druidry draw on this material, but much of what circulates under those names - the tree calendar and its alphabet above all - was composed between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries and is not attested in the ancient or medieval sources. 3 Origins
Origin of the NameFrom the Greek Keltoi, a name Greek and Roman writers used of peoples north and west of the Mediterranean. It was applied to a family of languages only in the eighteenth century, and to the peoples of Ireland and Britain later still. 4 Learn More
The gods of the Celtic peoples
This group gathers the deities of the Celtic-speaking peoples of Ireland, Britain and Gaul. The evidence is uneven: the Irish gods are known from medieval manuscripts written by Christian monks centuries after conversion, the Gaulish and British gods largely from Roman-era inscriptions and altars, so no single, unified Celtic pantheon can be recovered.
The browser will find the Irish Tuatha De Danann (the Dagda, the Morrigan, Lugh, Brigid, Danu), alongside Gaulish and British figures such as Cernunnos, Epona and Sulis. The atlas is explicit that these were distinct regional traditions and that their myths reach us through later, often Christianising, hands.
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Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia
John T. Koch (ed.), ABC-CLIO, 2006s.v. religious beliefs, pre-Christian CelticView the Source 3. Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain
4. The Atlantic Celts: Ancient People or Modern Invention?
5. Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives
Michael F. Strmiska (ed.), ABC-CLIO, 2005chapter on Celtic Paganism
Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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