od
Mother."[146]

In inscriptions from Eastern and Cisalpine Gaul, and from the Rhine and
Danube region, the _Matronae_ are mentioned, and this name is probably
indicative of goddesses like the _Matres_.[147] It is akin to that of
many rivers, e.g. the Marne or Meyrone, and shows that the Mothers were
associated with rivers. The Mother river fertilised a large district,
and exhibited the characteristic of the whole group of goddesses.

Akin also to the _Matres_ are the _Suleviae_, guardian goddesses called
_Matres_ in a few inscriptions; the _Comedovae_, whose name perhaps
denotes guardianship or power; the _Dominae_, who watched over the home,
perhaps the _Dames_ of mediaeval folk-lore; and the _Virgines_, perhaps
an appellative of the _Matres_, and significant when we find that virgin
priestesses existed in Gaul and Ireland.[148] The _Proxumae_ were
worshipped in Southern Gaul, and the _Quadriviae_, goddesses of
cross-roads, at Cherbourg.[149]

Some Roman gods are found on inscriptions without being equated with
native deities. They may have been accepted by the Gauls as new gods, or
they had perhaps completely ousted similar native gods. Others, not
mentioned by Caesar, are equated with native deities, Juno with Clivana,
Saturn with Arvalus, and to a native Vulcan the Celts vowed spoils of
war.[150] Again, many native gods are not equated with Roman deities on
inscriptions. Apart from the divinities of Pyrenaean inscriptions, who
may not be Celtic, the names of over 400 native deities, whether equated
with Roman gods or not, are known. Some of these names are mere
epithets, and most of the gods are of a local character, known here by
one name, there by another. Only in a very few cases can it be asserted
that a god was worshipped over the whole Celtic area by one name, though
some gods in Gaul, Britain, and Ireland with different names have
certainly similar functions.[151]

The pantheon of the continental Celts was a varied one. Traces of the
primitive agricultural rites, and of the priority of goddesses to gods,
are found, and the vaguer aspects of primitive nature worship are seen
behind the cult of divinities of sky, sun, thunder, forests, rivers, or
in deities of animal origin. We come next to evidence of a higher stage,
in divinities of culture, healing, the chase, war, and the underworld.
We see divinities of Celtic groups--gods of individuals, the family, the
tribe. Sometimes war-gods assumed great promin