Most Indo-European Pagan cultures had a deity who presided over wine, mead, beer and brewing. I wanted to find some brewing deities that were specifically Celtic…
Obscure Deities
Accasbel was a Partholan (Irish) deity who is credited with making the first tavern in Ireland. Most likely he was an early God of wine or mead.
The Gaelic Goddess Sin could make wine from water, and swine from leaves, in order to feed and fortify her fighting legions.
Brâg, Braciaca, “The Brewer” is a Brythonic deity equated with the Roman Mars. This association is possibly related to the ancient Celtic practice of getting drunk before going into battle as detailed in the poem, Y Gododdin by Aneirin. We only know of Brâg from an inscription on an altarstone in Derbyshire, addressed to “The god Mars Braciaca…”
Meduio seems to have been a Gaulish deity of drink-induced intoxication. This is another deity we know from only one inscription (in France).
Demetos (also known as Dyfed) was a tutelary god of the Demetae tribe. From his name we can surmise that he was a god of drunkenness, and perhaps another deity of battle. He would be the male equivalent of the battle goddess Maev (Medd).
Medb
Medb (“She Who Intoxicates”, also known as Maev, Maeve) was the Irish Celtic goddess of intoxication. She a role similar to that of the Greek God Bacchus, in that she presided over all functions involving the consuming of alcohol.
In Irish mythology, it was Medb who set the conditions for kingship, chose her partners, and married those who passed her tests. None could be king unless she offered him the “cup of sovereignty”. Thus the kings of Ireland “married” the Goddess at the time of their coronations, drinking mead to produce intoxication.
Medb is a goddess who is able to assume human form and live among mortals as a warrior queen. She has a reputation for aggressive behavior. In myth, she was insatiable sexually, and was the dominant partner is all of her sexual affairs. She incited men to fight, and then fought alongside them.
Queen Medb of Connaught was named after the Goddess, and is often given attributes similar to that of the Goddess. She may be a human incarnation of the Goddess.
Goibniu
“And Angus stopped in Brugh na Boinne, and some say he is there to this day, with the hidden walls about him, drinking Goibniu’s ale and eating the pigs that never fail.” ~Lady Gregory, ‘Gods and Fighting Men’.
Known to many Celtic peoples was the Irish Goibniu, also known as Govannon to the Welsh and Gobannos to the Gaulish Celts. Goibniu was the smith god of the Tuatha De Dannan. We are never given a consistent account of his parentage, but if we make the connection with Govannon, his mother would be Danu. One of his functions was Smith of the Gods. His weapons were always lethal, and the swords he crafted alway met their target in battle.
He was also known as a brewer, and his mead (or beer) gave the drinker immortality. According to Altram Tige Dá Medar, he also provided the Tuatha Dé Dannan with the sacred otherworld feast, the Fled Goibnen, which protected the gods from sickness and old age.
“And he made the Feast of Age for them, and what they drank at it was the ale of Goibniu the Smith, that kept whoever tasted it from age and from sickness and from death. And for food at the feast he gave them his own swine, that though they were killed and eaten one day, would be alive and fit for eating again the next day, and that would go on in that way for ever.” ~Lady Gregory, ‘Gods and Fighting Men’.
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Sources
Part I Book IV: The Dagda of ‘Gods and Fighting Men,’ by Lady Gregory, (1904), available at http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/gafm/gafm12.htm
The Lebor Gabála Érenn, available in translation at http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/lebor4.html#55
Goibniu, Mary Jones at http://www.maryjones.us/jce/goibniu.html
Celtnet Nemeton at http://www.celtnet.org.uk/celtic/
Shee-Eire at http://www.shee-eire.com
February 24th, 2013 at 12:11 pm
Thanks for sharing your findings, Seanmcdh!