[135] Holder, _s.v._; see p. 213, _infra_. [136] Holder, ii. 463. They are very numerous in South-East Gaul, where also three-headed gods are found. [137] See pp. 274-5, _infra_. [138] Courcelle-Seneuil, 80-81. [139] See my article "Calendar" in Hastings' _Encyclop. of Religion and Ethics_, iii. 80. [140] _CIL_ v. 4208, 5771, vii. 927; Holder, ii. 89. [141] For all these titles see Holder, _s.v._ [142] There is a large literature devoted to the _Matres_. See De Wal, _Die Mæder Gottinem_; Vallentin, _Le Culte des Matræ_; Daremberg-Saglio, _Dict. s.v. Matres_; Ihm, _Jahrbuch. des Vereins von Alterth. in Rheinlande_, No. 83; Roscher, _Lexicon_, ii. 2464 f. [143] See Maury, _Fées du Moyen Age_; Sébillot, i. 262; Monnier, 439 f.; Wright, _Celt, Roman, and Saxon_, 286 f.; Vallentin, _RC_ iv. 29. The _Matres_ may already have had a sinister aspect in Roman times, as they appear to be intended by an inscription _Lamiis Tribus_ on an altar at Newcastle. Hübner, 507. [144] Anwyl, _Celt. Rev._ 1906, 28. Cf. _Y Foel Famau_, "the hill of the Mothers," in the Clwydian range. [145] See p. 73, _infra_. [146] Vallentin, _op. cit._ iv. 29; Maury, _Croyances du Moyen Age_, 382. [147] Holder, _s.v._ [148] See pp. 69, 317, _infra_. [149] For all these see Holder, _s.v._; Rh[^y]s, _HL_ 103; _RC_ iv. 34. [150] Florus, ii. 4. [151] See the table of identifications, p. 125, _infra_. [152] We need not assume with Jullian, 18, that there was one supreme god, now a war-god, now a god of peace. Any prominent god may have become a war-god on occasion. CHAPTER IV. THE IRISH MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE. Three divine and heroic cycles of myths are known in Ireland, one telling of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the others of Cúchulainn and of the Fians. They are distinct in character and contents, but the gods of the first cycle often help the heroes of the other groups, as the gods of Greece and India assisted the heroes of the epics. We shall see that some of the personages of these cycles may have been known in Gaul; they are remembered in Wales, but, in the Highlands, where stories of Cúchulainn and Fionn are still told, the Tuatha Dé Danann are less known now than in 1567, when Bishop Carsewell lamented the love of the Highlanders for "idle, turbulent, lying, worldly stories concerning the Tuatha Dédanans."[153]