Magrat does a bit more (speculative) history!

The conversion of pagan deities

Following my little exploration of pre-Roman British religious beliefs and practices, I've been asked about whether the pagan deities were themselves converted - into Christian saints.

Before I address that, a little excursus into the etymology of the term 'pagan', which for a long time was used (wrongly) pejoratively. It actually derives from a Latin term 'paganus', meaning villager, rustic, or non-combatant civilian, which in turn derives from the term 'pagus' meaning a rural district and/or 'a district limited by markers'. And 'pagus' derives from the verb 'pangere' meaning to fix or fasten. It is said that the word 'paganus ' is likely to have originated as the Roman military jargon for a civilian, also used derisively of an incompetent soldier - nothing at all to do with religious beliefs. The etymology of the term 'heathen' is less clear, but it probably comes from a Germanic root, and may quite simply relate to one who is a heath-dweller, and thus originally have the same rural/rustic connurtations as the term 'pagan'. Pagan was a common 'Christian' name in the 13th century, and has been used occasionally since then, including by the Puritans.

So, taking the 'pagan' deities as being those of the indigenous country-folk living in Britain before the Roman invasion: were they themselves converted first of all into Roman deities and then into Christian saints? And was this a way in which they kept their place in the hearts and the practices of the people?

The short answer is yes, of course. After an initial period, for at least some of the pagan deities as converts to the Roman pantheon, it was only sensible that they were transformed into Christian saints: otherwise local pagan customs and practices would have continued in their original guise - which is not to say that they didn't anyway. 

Many of the pagan deities were personifications of either the forces of Nature on the Earth or of the Celestial cycle, who, under Christianity, would be subsumed in the concept of the Creator God. Others were associated with places, and/or with people and their activities: these latter deities would relatively easily become local saints or patron saints. What is more interesting, to me at least, is what happened to the major pan-Celtic deities - who are surprisingly hard to find. Please add to my mini-pantheon if you can, which to date comprises the god Bel, the goddess called Dis Domnu by Caesar, the Mother Goddess (Dea Matronae) and Maponos (the Great Son).

Bel, also known as Belenus, which name (from the root 'bhel', to shine) means the Shining or Bright One, was a Sun God.

 He was one of the most ancient and most widely worshipped deities across continental  Europe, Britain and Ireland. He was associated with pastoralism, and at his fire festival of Beltane (30 April/1 May) cattle would be purified and protected by fire/smoke before being put out to the open pastures for the summer. Bel was also, like Apollo, with whom he became identified, associated with horses and wheels, being thought to ride the sun across the sky in a horse-drawn chariot. Bel has also been linked with the Semitic deity Baal (the Lord). Images of Belenus sometimes show him to be accompanied by his consort, Belisama (who was identified with Minerva), goddess of lakes, rivers, fire, light, and crafts.

The goddess known to Caesar as Dis Domnu (possibly meaning rich or fertile lady?) was the Goddess of the Deep, especially the deep ocean, the origin of all life. Domnu was thus revered as the Mother of the Waters, as well, possibly, as the ruler of the Otherworld. According to some sources, she represented Chaos and Night. Although largely associated with the Fomorrians, who, according to mythology were a supernatural race who emerged from the sea or from underground and were superceded by the Tuatha Dé Danann (the people of the goddess Danu/Dana/Ana) Domnu may also have lent her name to the British tribe the Dumnonii or Dumnones, who inhabited the West Country from the Iron Age to the early Saxon period.

Dea Matronae, or Matrona, the 'Divine Mother', has been identified with the goddess Modron, daughter of Afallach, God of the Underworld, and mother of Mabon/Maponos ('Youth/Boy/Child' or 'Great Son'). According to legend, Modron's son was stolen from her in the night as a three-day old baby. Modron and Mabon are sometimes depicted as a double deity, for example on the Roman fort at Ribchester, Lancashire. More often, however, she is depicted as a triple-aspect goddess, who was venerated throughout north-western Europe, and depicted almost entirely in groups of three female figures, sitting or standing, but often with at least one figure holding a basket of fruit in her lap. In some representations, the middle figure has loose hair - indicating maidenhood - while the other two have head-dresses. With them there are sometimes also snakes, associated with the dead/the underworld, and babies, indicating the Mothers' protective link with childbirth (as midwives) and family life.

Scholars have connected the Mothers with the Nordic dísir (protective clan spirits), valkyries (females who choose who lives and who dies in battle), and the norns (female beings who rule the destinies of the gods and men) - all three essentially being Fate or the Fates. (Other ancient European motifs of the triple goddess include the Greek Erinyes or Furies, the Charites or Graces, and the Horae - the goddesses of time and the seasons.)

The Morrígan also naturally falls into this category, comprising as she does the three persons of Badb (or Badb Catha, the Battle Crow), Macha (who personfies the land or a particular territory, and confers sovereignty upon the leader by the rite of the sacred marriage), and Nemain (Havoc, as in the frenzied havoc of war) or Anand (also known in some places as 'Gentle Annie' - the nurturing mother). It has unsurprisingly been suggested that the Three Marys of the Christian gospels are yet another trinitarian representation of the Goddess: Mother Mary, Mary Magdalene (consort if not wife), and 'the other Mary' - of whom more, I think, in another post!

But meanwhile a thought: the name Mary may derive either from the Egyptian mry, meaning Beloved, or the Hebrew root mr meaning bitter (as in myrrh). Jerome, writing in the 4th century CE referenced a different etymology, that of the Hebrew mar and yam, and thus took the name Mary to mean 'a drop of the sea' - stilla maris - which was subsequently rendered stella maris, Star of the Sea, hence that title being given to Mother Mary. 

Anglo-Saxon pagans used to celebrate Mōdraniht or Modranicht - Mothers' Night - some say on what is now Christmas Eve, but perhaps more likely to have been on the Eve of the Winter Solstice, possibly as part of Yuletide. Bede, writing in 725 CE, 'suspected' that it was termed Mothers' Night because of the ceremonies which the people performed while watching the night through - keeping a vigil. In Shetland it was known as Helya's Night, thought to have been a corruption of the Old Norse word heilagr or holy, and was subsequently given a Christian veneer as the night when each child was commited, by a prayerful lullaby, to the protection of Mother Mary as they slept.

Winter Solstice or Christmas Eve, we turn at last to Mabon, the 'Great Son', whose name derives from the Common Brythonic 'mapos', meaning a young boy or son. He is in some legends referred to as Maponos ap Modron, (Son of the Mother) and in others as Mabon ap Mellt, the Son of Light. Like Bel he was equated by the incoming Romans with Apollo, and is named in many inscriptions in Gaul as well as in Britain, including one at Hexham Abbey to 'Apollo Maponus', dated 29th August 241 CE, that is during the Romano-British era. Later legends linked him with hunting, hence the dog (see below):

Apollo was the Roman god of the Sun/Light, who had powers to heal and to offer protection from evil. He was also known as the Herdsman or Shepherd. His twin sister was Diviana, 'the shining one', goddess of the moon and patroness of virgins, whose name was later simplified as Diana.

So, here we have four principle Celtic deities: the Sun God, the Goddess of the Deep, the Mother/s, and the Son. Somehow I don't think Christianising these would have been too difficult: Bel, on whom we depend for life, is already very much a Father-figure; the Mother is, quite simply, the Mother, and the Son is the Son. Which leaves us with Domnu, the deep waters of chaos, death, the otherworld, and if you remember the opening of Genesis, the earth without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters: Domnu, the deep watery origin of all that has been, is, and will be? It makes sense to me. What do you think?