- The Gods and the Supernatural -
Figure 15-5 Stone relief of Epona, with fruit; Kastel, Germany. Second-third century AD.
Width 25 cm. (Photo: author.)
The Evidence of IconographyThe imagery of Celtic religion in the Roman period is rich and varied. If it is accom-
panied by a dedicatory inscription, a sculpture or figurine may be positively identified;
if not, the symbols accompanying the image must be used to attempt some classifica-
tion in terms of character or function. A depiction may be associated with an inscribed
name on only one or two stones, although the image itself may appear many times. In
these instances, scholars have tended to use the inscribed name to identify similar
images where the dedication is absent. Such is the case with Epona, the horse-goddess,
whose image (a woman riding side-saddle on a horse or sitting between two or more
horses) is far more common than are epigraphic dedications bearing her name.
Likewise, the inscribed name 'Cernunnos' accompanies a depiction of an antlered,
torque-bearing god on an early first-century AD stone in Paris. But there are many
images of a similarly antlered being from Romano-Celtic Gaul which bear no name.
Are we justified in assuming these portrayals also represent Cernunnos? The name
itself merely means 'Horned One', and so it is less a true god-name than a descriptive
title. The names Sucellus and Nantosuelta occur at Sarrebourg near Metz, on a carving
of a male and female, the most distinctive accompanying symbol being the long-
shafted hammer borne by Sucellus. But many other images of a similar divine couple
were the focus of veneration in Gaul and the Rhineland, without the identifying
names, although Sucellus is mentioned on one or two scattered dedications in Britain
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