A Gallo-Roman perspective on sacred trees and groves
Cusack shows in her book (2011) that trees=Gods/human=world. Trees are homologous with Gods and humans as they both have bones, bleed, and have a limited lifespan in the case of trees and humans. God=world as the sacrifice of the King 'twin' created the world out of Their body. And tree=world as the world is made from the body of the first King, and plants from the body of the first Bovine, therefore a tree represents the world or imago Mundi. The World Tree and sacred trees are also seen as axis Mundi, hub or centre of the universe/world/cosmos. This can be seen in trees being the site of ritual and worship and can be explained as connecting the profane and mundane with the sacred, with the Gods themselves, be they celestial or chthonic, connecting all three levels of existence. Pillars, altars and stumps are sometimes representations or derivations of the sacred tree.
In both Roman and Gaulish religion, particular importance was placed upon trees and groves. The Romans had two main kinds of groves, the lucus and the nemus. The lucus is 'a group of trees sacred in nature,' and the nemus is 'a series of well-ordered trees' (Simon, 2015). Indeed the sacredness and association with Gods and groves in Rome was so strong that poets described sanctuaries without vegetation as 'sacred groves (Simon, 2015). Cato, the Elder in the De Agricultura, describes the process of maintaining a grove through thinning, with the sacrifice of an animal (pig in his case) to the God or Goddess the grove is dedicated to (De Agr. 139). This ritual could be used for any sacred groves, and there is potential that general maintenance of groves happened on the holiday of Lucaria, on the 19th and 21st of July, but there are other interpretations of this holiday.
Venus Victrix was the protector of gardens and sacred groves, with the Porticus Pompeiana having a large temple to Venus and the nemus containing symbols of victory (Gleason, 1994). As the sacred groves and sacred trees are stand-ins for the World Tree, as worlds in miniature and tree=world, She can be called to in this aspect. For example, in Venus’ temple in Pompei, she had a nemus, a grove of trees, likely Laurel, Myrtle, and Rose bushes (Carroll, 2010). Lucretius calls to Venus as an omnipotent Goddess of nature and pleasure (Asmis, 1982).
In addition to the association of Taranis with oaks, Lucan describes an oak grove near Massalia.
“There stood a grove
Which from the earliest time no hand of man
Had dared to violate; hidden from the sun
Its chill recesses; matted boughs entwined
Prisoned the air within. No sylvan nymphs
Here found a home, nor Pan, but savage rites
And barbarous worship, altars horrible
On massive stones upreared; sacred with blood
Of men was every tree. If faith be given
To ancient myth, no fowl has ever dared
To rest upon those branches, and no beast
Has made his lair beneath: no tempest falls,
Nor lightnings flash upon it from the cloud.
Stagnant the air, unmoving, yet the leaves
Filled with mysterious trembling; dripped the streams
From coal-black fountains; effigies of gods
Rude, scarcely fashioned from some fallen trunk
Held the mid space: and, pallid with decay,
Their rotting shapes struck terror. Thus do men
Dread most the god unknown. 'Twas said that caves
Rumbled with earthquakes, that the prostrate yew
Rose up again; that fiery tongues of flame
Gleamed in the forest depths, yet were the trees
Unkindled; and that snakes in frequent folds
Were coiled around the trunks. Men flee the spot
Nor dare to worship near: and e'en the priest
Or when bright Phoebus holds the height, or when
Dark night controls the heavens, in anxious dread
Draws near the grove and fears to find its lord.”
- Luc. 3. 399-427.
This depiction of groves may be sensationalised for Roman audiences and is written as part of a poem and therefore is more ‘poetic’ in its language and description. Tully (2002) does argue, however, that the archaeology suggests it is a reasonably accurate depiction of Gaulish sacred groves. Regardless, groves or nemeton in Gaulish were sacred spaces where one could commune with the Gods (Green, 2003). Many sacred sites would contain trees in Gaul or have stand-ins for trees, such as pillars, poles, or the stumps of large trees, where offerings were made (Green, 2003).
The groves in Gaul were sacred to many Gods; however, Maximus of Tyre said at the end of the 2nd century AD: “The Celta, indeed, venerate Jupiter, but the Celtic statue of Jupiter is a lofty oak.” (Dissert. 8. 8). The Jupiter he is referring is without a doubt Taranis, and it may also imply that from his perspective, Taranis was the ‘chief’ God of the Gauls. This tying together of trees and Taranis can be seen in the Jupiter columns of Eastern Gaul and parts of Germania, where large stone columns were carved with a lightning bolt or club-wielding horseman killing a serpent or half serpent-man (Cusack, 2011). The Jupiter columns had representations of other Gods around them, usually Roman, but sometimes Gaulish, such as Esus on several seasons, were also common depictions on some columns. Woolf (2001) suggests that the Jupiter columns were the private cult expressions of people looking for cosmological order.
The Matres, Celto-Germanic Goddesses, often worshipped in groups of three, were commonly represented with trees. In some cases, inscriptions were made to them with only a depiction of a tree (Green, 2003). The trees often had snakes at their base or curling around them, reminiscent of the World Tree in Germanic myth (Green, 2003).
A symbol is seen in Gaulish and Roman groves and other tree-related images connected with snakes or serpents. In the Jupiter columns, we see ‘Jupiter’ trampling a serpent, or half serpent man. The Matres trees have snakes present. The Greco-Romans believed that the omphalos, the stone that was the ‘navel of the world’ and represented the axis Mundi as the world tree does, had coiled around it a serpent which Apollo slew (Cusack 2011). Snake/serpent symbols had many meanings which changed by context; they were seen as symbols of healing, the underworld, protection and fertility (Green, 2002). It is likely that the snakes found curled around trees in the oak groves of the Gauls and around the Matres trees are symbols of protection and fertility, particularly the fertility brought from the underworld (Green, 2002). In Roman religion, snakes were associated with or were the depiction of lares, Gods of place and protection (Flower, 2017). Snakes and serpents, more broadly, are commonly found symbols in groves and other sacred sites (which can be seen as derivations of groves) and are therefore have an important place here.
Whether in groves, stand-alone or derivative forms, trees were a core part of Roman and Gaulish religion and present in Gallo-Roman religion. The sacred tree or grove represents the world, the connection between the three realms and our relationship to the Gods, and is our model for altars and sacred spaces. Many Gods, both Gaulish and Roman, can be called upon in maintaining and blessing these sites, and any God is appropriate to worship within a grove. These groves can be highly ordered or more natural, giving us a broad scope of worship sites.
Bibliography:
Asmis, E., 1982. Lucretius' Venus and Stoic Zeus. Hermes, 110(H. 4), pp.458-470.
Carroll, M., 2010. Exploring the sanctuary of Venus and its sacred grove: politics, cult and identity in Roman Pompeii. Papers of the British School at Rome, 78, pp.63-106.
Cusack, C.M., 2011. The Sacred Tree: Ancient and Medieval Manifestations. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Flower, H.I., 2017. The Dancing Lares and the Serpent in the Garden: religion at the Roman street corner. Princeton University Press.
Green, M., 2002. Animals in Celtic life and myth. Routledge.
Green, M., 2003. Symbol and image in Celtic religious art. Routledge.
Maximus, T., 1994. The Dissertations of Maximus Tyrius.
Pharsalia. M. Annaeus Lucanus. Sir Edward Ridley. London. Longmans, Green, and Co. 1905.
Simón, F.M., 2015. Priests of the groves (re) creating ancient rites in the Augustan culture. Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 55(1-4), pp.79-90.
Tully, C., 2002. Gory Celtic Groves: Does Archaeology Confirm Classical Texts?. Journal of Archaeology, 5(3), p.297.
Woolf, G., 2001. Representation as cult: the case of the Jupiter columns. Religion in den germanischen Provinzen Roms, pp.117-34.