While our knowledge of the Tuatha De Danann is based upon a series of mythic tales and other records, that of the gods of the continental Celts, apart from a few notices in classical authors and elsewhere, comes from inscriptions.  But as far as can be judged, though the names of the two groups seldom coincide, their functions must have been much alike, and their origins certainly the same.  The Tuatha De Danann were nature divinities of growth, light, agriculture—­their symbols and possessions suggesting fertility, e.g. the cauldron.  They were divinities of culture and crafts, and of war.  There must have been many other gods in Ireland than those described here, while some of those may not have been worshipped all over Ireland.  Generally speaking, there were many local gods in Gaul with similar functions but different names, and this may have been true of Ireland.  Perhaps the different names given to Dagda, Manannan, and others were simply names of similar local gods, one of whom became prominent, and attracted to himself the names of the others.  So, too, the identity of Danu and Brigit might be explained, or the fact that there were three Brigits.  We read also in the texts of the god of Connaught, or of Ulster, and these were apparently regional divinities, or of “the god of Druidism”—­perhaps a god worshipped specially by Druids.[324] The remote origin of some of these divinities may be sought in the primitive cult of the Earth personified as a fertile being, and in that of vegetation and corn-spirits, and the vague spirits of nature in all its aspects.  Some of these still continued to be worshipped when the greater gods had been evolved.  Though animal worship was not lacking in Ireland, divinities who are anthropomorphic forms of earlier animal-gods are less in evidence than on the Continent.  The divinities of culture, crafts, and war, and of departments of nature, must have slowly assumed the definite personality assigned them in Irish religion.  But, doubtless, they already possessed that before the Goidels reached Ireland.  Strictly speaking, the underground domain assigned later to the Tuatha De Danann belongs only to such of them as were associated with fertility.  But in course of time most of the group, as underground dwellers, were connected with growth and increase.  These could be blighted by their enemies, or they themselves could withhold them when their worshippers offended them.[325]

Irish mythology points to the early pre-eminence of goddesses.  As agriculture and many of the arts were first in the hands of women, goddesses of fertility and culture preceded gods, and still held their place when gods were evolved.  Even war-goddesses are prominent in Ireland.  Celtic gods and heroes are often called after their mothers, not their fathers, and women loom largely in the tales of Irish colonisation, while in many legends they play a most important part.  Goddesses give their name to divine groups, and, even where gods are prominent, their actions are free, their personalities still clearly defined.  The supremacy of the divine women of Irish tradition is once more seen in the fact that they themselves woo and win heroes; while their capacity for love, their passion, their eternal youthfulness and beauty are suggestive of their early character as goddesses of ever-springing fertility.[326]