Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/52

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I. THE GAULISH PANTHEON.

equivalent, not of the simpler noun meaning wind, but of the adjective denoting the wind-god. Several reasons might be adduced why the wind should be associated with the war-god; among others, it might be suggested that all violent gales that commit general havoc and destruction might not unnaturally be referred to the agency of the god of war. But the wind is not always destructive, not always adverse; it is sometimes the fair breeze for which the mariner whistles. So it happens that Vintios, associated with fair wind, is found identified with Pollux, a god propitious to sailors. This is attested by an Allobrogic inscription[1] on an altar at Seyssel, in Haute-Savoie, reading: Deo Vintio Polluci, Cn. Terentius, Billonis fil(ius) Terentianus, ex voto. Another, in which Vintius stands alone, was found in the Vigne des Idoles, near the castle of Hauteville[2] in the same department, and reads: Aug(usto) Vin(tio) sacr(um), T. Valerius (. . . . .) Crispinus, sacer Vinti præf(ectus) Pag(i) Dia(. . . . .) ædem d(at). The navigation of the Rhone at the present day begins at Seyssel, and in Roman times the mariners of that river formed a powerful and influential body which had its head-quarters at Lyons: one old inscription describes it as a splendidissimum corpus.[3] It is probable that the god Vintios had many temples and altars in that neighbourhood, and the site of one of them is marked out by the name Vence or Vens, borne by a hill near Seyssel, at whose foot stands now a chapel dedicated to the Virgin, who is in great esteem among the boatmen of the Rhone: their ancestors doubtless

  1. Rev. Celt. iv. 23 ; Allmer, iii. 243.
  2. Rev. Celt. ib.; Allmer, ii. 345.
  3. Rev. Celt. iv. 24.