vegetation divinities in Europe.  The flesh of the animal was often mixed with the seed corn or buried in the fields to promote fertility.  The swine had been a sacred animal among the Celts, but had apparently become an anthropomorphic god of fertility, Moccus, assimilated to Mercury, perhaps because the Greek Hermes caused fertility in flocks and herds.  Such a god was one of a class whose importance was great among the Celts as an agricultural people.

Commerce, much developed among the settled Gauls, gave rise to a god or gods who guarded roads over which merchants travelled, and boundaries where their transactions took place.  Hence we have an inscription from Yorkshire, “To the god who invented roads and paths,” while another local god of roads, equated with Mercury, was Cimiacinus.[59]

Another god, Ogmios, a native god of speech, who draws men by chains fastened to the tip of his tongue, is identified in Lucian with Heracles, and is identical with the Goidelic Ogma.[60] Eloquence and speech are important matters among primitive peoples, and this god has more likeness to Mercury as a culture-god than to Heracles, Greek writers speaking of eloquence as binding men with the chains of Hermes.

Several local gods, of agriculture, commerce, and culture, were thus identified with Mercury, and the Celtic Mercury was sometimes worshipped on hilltops, one of the epithets of the god, Dumias, being connected with the Celtic word for hill or mound.  Irish gods were also associated with mounds.

Many local gods were identified with Apollo both in his capacity of god of healing and also that of god of light.[61] The two functions are not incompatible, and this is suggested by the name Grannos, god of thermal springs both in Britain and on the Continent.  The name is connected with a root which gives words meaning “burning,” “shining,” etc., and from which comes also Irish grian, “sun.”  The god is still remembered in a chant sung round bonfires in Auvergne.  A sheaf of corn is set on fire, and called “Granno mio,” while the people sing, “Granno, my friend; Granno, my father; Granno, my mother."[62] Another god of thermal springs was Borvo, Bormo, or Bormanus, whose name is derived from borvo, whence Welsh berw, “boiling,” and is evidently connected with the bubbling of the springs.[63] Votive tablets inscribed Grannos or Borvo show that the offerers desired healing for themselves or others.

The name Belenos found over a wide area, but mainly in Aquileia, comes from belo-s, bright, and probably means “the shining one.”  It is thus the name of a Celtic sun-god, equated with Apollo in that character.  If he is the Belinus referred to by Geoffrey of Monmouth,[64] his cult must have extended into Britain from the Continent, and he is often mentioned by classical writers, while much later Ausonius speaks of his priest in Gaul.[65] Many place and personal names point to the popularity of his cult, and inscriptions show that he, too, was a god of health and of healing-springs.  The plant Belinuntia was called after him and venerated for its healing powers.[66] The sun-god’s functions of light and fertility easily passed over into those of health-giving, as our study of Celtic festivals will show.