[Celtic](celtic-religion) [Celtic Gods](celtic-gods.md) # *Celtic Divine Couples* - "divine couples...were venerated. In these cults the partnership itself seems to be symbolically significant and to produce harmony and prosperity." - "The pairing of male and female deities was a prominent feature..." - "divine couples...were venerated. In these cults the partnership itself seems to be symbolically significant and to produce harmony and prosperity." - "when introduced to the Celtic world, gods of Graco-Roman origin often acquired female consorts or partners who were indigenous to the conquered territory....example...Mercury and Rosmerta. The male deity might have a Roman name but a Celtic epithet: such is the case with Apollo Grannus and Sirona." - "the couples were invoked as promoters of health, wealth or abundance. Thus Sucellus (the 'Good Striker') and his consort Nantosuelta ('Winding Brook'), named on a stone at Sarrebourg in eastern Gaul, were particularly linked with the wine-harvest, especially in Burgundy. Sucellus' hammer struck the earth to fertilize it, and the domestic aspect to their cult is displayed by Nantosuelta's emblem of a house on a pole. Rosmerta's name means 'Great Provider', and the Celtic Mercury was invoked particularly as a bringer of commercial success, symbolized by his purse (a symbol that is Classical in origin) or money-chest. In Britain, Rosmerta has a vat or bucket who symbolism may be regenerative like that of the cauldron of renewal so prominent in Irish and Welsh myth...the 'Celtic Apollo' and his various partners are strongly linked with cults of healing springs. Apollo and Sirona were worshipped at Hochscheid in Germany and elsewhere. Apollo Moritasgus and Damona were invoked at the springs of Alesia. Interestingly there was a close affinity between healing and fertility. Sirona and Damona, consorts of Apollo, are both symbolized with ears of corn and with serpents, which combine rebirth-imagery (because of the sloughing of their skins) with that of fecundity. At Hochscheid, Sirona carries eggs, powerful emblems of both fertility and regeneration. The goddesses sometimes reveal their 'polyandrous' nature: Damona, for instance, is coupled with Apollo at Alesia, with another healing god, Borvo, at Bourbonne-les-Bains, and with a local deity Abilus at Arnay-le-Duc, all in Gaul. Ancamna was the consort of the great healer Lenus Mars at Trier, but additionally of Mars Smertrius at Möhn, also in Treveran territory. The link between the Celtic Mars and healing seems to have derived from the idea of the god as a fighter/guardian against disease, barrenness and death." - "Some divine couples were strictly territorial, personifications of the land or settlement where they were invoked. Such were Luxovius and Bricta at Luxeuil-les-Bains and Bormanus and Bormana at Die in France and Veraudinus and Inciona at Widdenburg in Luxembourg. This close tie with the land has a particular interest in connection with Insular mythical traditions of sacral kingship. --- # Sources - Celtic Myths by (m-green)