them could contain several men. The gods have
also the attribute of invisibility, and are only seen by those to whom
they wish to disclose themselves, or they have the power of concealing
themselves in a magic mist. When they appear to mortals it is usually in
mortal guise, sometimes in the form of a particular person, but they can
also transform themselves into animal shapes, often that of birds. The
animal names of certain divinities show that they had once been animals
pure and simple, but when they became anthropomorphic, myths would arise
telling how they had appeared to men in these animal shapes. This, in
part, accounts for these transformation myths. The gods are also
immortal, though in myth we hear of their deaths. The Tuatha De Danann
are "unfading," their "duration is perennial."[517] This immortality is
sometimes an inherent quality; sometimes it is the result of eating
immortal food--Manannan's swine, Goibniu's feast of age and his immortal
ale, or the apples of Elysium. The stories telling of the deaths of the
gods in the annalists may be based on old myths in which they were said
to die, these myths being connected with ritual acts in which the human
representatives of gods were slain. Such rites were an inherent part of
Celtic religion. Elsewhere the ritual of gods like Osiris or Adonis,
based on their functions as gods of vegetation, was connected with
elaborate myths telling of their death and revival. Something akin to
this may have occurred among the Celts.

The divinities often united with mortals. Goddesses sought the love of
heroes who were then sometimes numbered among the gods, and gods had
amours with the daughters of men.[518] Frequently the heroes of the
sagas are children of a god or goddess and a mortal,[519] and this
divine parentage was firmly believed in by the Celts, since personal
names formed of a divine name and _-genos_ or _-gnatos_, "born of," "son
of," are found in inscriptions over the whole Celtic area, or in Celtic
documents--Boduogenos, Camulognata, etc. Those who first bore these
names were believed to be of divine descent on one side. Spirits of
nature or the elements of nature personified might also be parents of
mortals, as a name like Morgen, from _Morigenos_, "Son of the Sea," and
many others suggest. For this and for other reasons the gods frequently
interfere in human affairs, assisting their children or their
favourites. Or, again, they seek the aid of mortals or of t