page_title: Cantabrian mythology
section_title: Divinities
hierarchical_section_title: Cantabrian mythology / Divinities
caption_attribution_description: Español: Asociacion cultural amigos de la vijanera de Silió
context_page_description: Cantabrian mythology refers to the myths, teachings and legends of the Cantabri, a pre-Roman Celtic people of the north coastal region of Iberia. Over time, Cantabrian mythology was likely diluted by Celtic mythology and Roman mythology with some original meanings lost. Later, the ascendancy of Christendom absorbed or ended the pagan rites of Cantabrian, Celtic and Roman mythology leading to a syncretism. Some relics of Cantabrian mythology remain.
context_section_description: Some relics and remnants of Cantabrian worship of protective divinities survive. One example is the Cantabrian stele of Barros which suggests worship of a sun god. Another example may be the Bonfires of Saint John coinciding with the summer solstice. A bronze sculpture found near the town of Herrera in Camargo, Cantabria suggests worship of a male figure. Such a figure would have been absorbed into the Roman worship of Jupiter.
  Strabo, Horace and Silius Italicus write of a Cantabrian god of war, later identified with the Roman Mars. The Cantabrian god of war was offered sacrifices of male goats, horses, or large numbers of prisoners. These large sacrifices, or "hecatombs" were accompanied by the drinking of the still warm blood of the horses.
  The Cantabrians considered horses to be sacred animals. Tacitus (56 AD – 120AD) mentions that the Germanic people believed this. In Germania X (98 AD), he wrote, se sacerdotes enim ministros deorum, illos equos conscios putant ("the horses themselves think of the priests as ministers of the gods"). Horace (65 BC – 8 BC) writes, et laetum equino sanguine Concanum ("the Cantabrians, drunk on horses' blood").
  Julio Caro Baroja suggests there may have been an equestrian deity among Hispanian Celts, similar to that of the other European Celts. The Celtic goddess of the horses, worshipped even in Rome was Epona, which in ancient Cantabria was called Epane. Some link sacrifice of horses with the Celtic variant of the god Mars and that horses represented Mars' reincarnation. At Numantia, where there are ruins of an Iberian Celtic settlement, relics depicting the horse god are decorated with solar signs.
  Human sacrifices by the Cantabrians are reported by Saint Martin of Braga. They were similar to those of the Celts of Gaul in purpose. The victim wore a thin tunic. Their right hand was cut off and consecrated to the gods. The fall of the victim and the condition of their entrails were used to predict the future while at the same time, the people sought redemption from the gods.
  The Cantabrians, being an agrarian society, worshipped fertility mother goddesses related to the Moon and influencing the phases of sowing and gathering of crops.
  A Celtic group worshipping a sea god was assimilated to that of the Roman Neptune. A statuette of this deity showing features of Cantabrian divinity, was found in Castro Urdiales.
  The Cantabrians believed in the immortality of the spirit. Cremation was the preferred burial custom. However, fallen soldiers were left lying in the battlefield until vultures savaged the entrails. This meant the soldier's soul was taken to the afterlife and reunited with their ancestors in glory. This practice is recorded in the engravings of the Cantabrian stele of Zurita.
  Self-sacrifice, for instance by immolation and especially by a military leader, was considered an important way of fulfilling the will of the gods for the collective good. In the devotio, a leader or general would offer himself in battle as a sacrifice to the gods in order to secure victory for his army.
caption: Vijanera masquerade ceremony
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