Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/84

68 on the Roman Wall, and it is noteworthy that it was set up by the prefect of a cohort of Tungrians; but the fact does not prove the god to have been Teutonic: witness the Germans who honoured the Celtic god Maponos in an inscription at Ainstable near Armthwaite: those ancient warriors could have taught a lesson in religious toleration to some of the fanatics of the Teutonic race at the present day.

Another instance showing how another Gaulish god was, so to say, split up into two Roman ones, was brought under your attention in the case of Vintios; and it is not impossible that Hercules in the Carlsburg inscription was meant to stand for Camulos, Toutates, or Segomo, the strong god equated with Mars, in which case, Silvanus Dom(esticus), Terra Mater and Hercules, would be virtually Lucan's triad with the order changed. Be that as it may, the analogy of the treatment of Vintios may, I think, be carried further, and I should be inclined on Italian ground to equate Esus not only with Silvanus, but also with the agricultural god Saturn, whose old-world characteristics remind one of Thor as the 'old Anse.' Allusion has been made to the twofold character of Thor as a thunderer and the farmer's friend, and similarly to Esus; but this may possibly be an inexact way of describing him, since it would perhaps be preferable, as already suggested, to regard him as armed with the hammer in consequence and by reason of his being looked to as the farmer's friend and protector, his thunder being his means of vanquishing the evil powers constituting the farmer's foes. This would leave us free to suppose that thunder and lightning originally and naturally belonged to the divinity associated with