goddess of horses, Epona
(from the Gaulish _Epos_=Lat. _equus_, horse), riding on horseback. One
of the most important monuments of this kind is a figure of Artio, the
bear-goddess (from Celtic _Artos_, a bear), found at Muri near Berne. In
front of her stood a figure of a bear, which was also found with her. The
bull of the Tarvos Trigaranos bas-relief of Notre Dame was also in all
likelihood originally a totem, and similarly the horned serpents of other
bas-reliefs, as well as the boar found on Gaulish ensigns and coins,
especially in Belgic territory. There is a representation, too, of a
raven on a bas-relief at Compiegne. The name 'Moccus,' which is
identified with Mercury, on inscriptions, and which is found inscribed at
Langres, Trobaso, the valley of the Ossola and the Borgo san Dalmazzo, is
undoubtedly the philological equivalent of the Welsh _moch_ (swine). In
Britain, too, the boar is frequently found on the coins of the Iceni and
other tribes. In Italy, according to Mr. Warde Fowler, the pig was an
appropriate offering to deities of the earth, so that in the widespread
use of the pig as a symbol in the Celtic world, there may be some ancient
echo of a connection between it and the earth-spirit. Its diet of
acorns, too, may have marked it out, in the early days of life in forest-
clearings, as the animal embodiment of the oak-spirit. In the legends of
the Celtic races, even in historic times, the pig, and especially the
boar, finds an honoured place. In addition to the animals
aforementioned, the ass, too, was probably at one time venerated in one
of the districts of Gaul, and it is not improbable that Mullo, the name
of a god identified with Mars and regarded as the patron of muleteers,
mentioned on inscriptions (at Nantes, Craon, and Les Provencheres near
Craon), meant originally 'an ass.' The goddess Epona, also, whose
worship was widely spread, was probably at one time an animal goddess in
the form of a mare, and the name of another goddess, Damona, either from
the root _dam_=Ir. _dam_, (ox); or Welsh _daf-ad_ (sheep), may similarly
be that of an ancient totem sheep or cow. Nor was it in the animal world
alone that the Celts saw indications of the divine. While the chase and
the pastoral life concentrated the mind's attention on the life of
animals, the growth of agriculture fixed man's thoughts on the life of
the earth, and all that grew upon it, while at the same time he was led
to think more