Hesus or Eros, and Bremrillahm, of the Keltic Druids - CRUCIFIED
Hesus or Eros, and Bremrillahm, of the Keltic Druids - CRUCIFIED
834 BCE
The listing of Hesus (Esus) alongside Eros and Bremrillahm as Druidic crucified saviors comes directly from 19th-century comparative mythicist catalogs—primarily Godfrey Higgins’ Anacalypsis (1836) and Kersey Graves’ The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviors (1875).
In authentic Celtic archaeology, epigraphy, and classical Roman records, Esus was a Gaulish god of vegetation and sacred groves, while "Bremrillahm" is a 19th-century speculative conflation of Brahma/Abraham, and "Eros" is the Greek god of love.
Profile & Biographical Claims
Timeline & Dates:
Mythicist Claim: Active ~834 BCE among the Druids of Gaul and Britain.
Historical Reality: Historically attested in Gallo-Roman inscriptions from the 1st century BCE through the 1st century CE.
Date of Birth & Age at Death:
Claim: No specific calendar day (such as December 25) or age at death is documented in any surviving Celtic myth or classical commentary.
Geographical Locations:
Gaul (modern France, western Germany, Switzerland) and parts of the British Isles. The "Canutes of Gaul" cited by Higgins/Graves is a textual corruption of the Carnutes, a prominent central Gaulish tribe whose forest territory was identified by Julius Caesar as the central gathering place of the Druidic order.
Manner of Death & Execution:
Claim: Crucified on a tree as a sin offering between an elephant and a lamb.
Classical Account: The 1st-century Roman poet Lucan (Pharsalia) and the Bern Scholia note that human victims dedicated to Esus were suspended from trees and ritually bled to death. Higgins and Graves inverted this rite, claiming the god himself was crucified.
Theological & Doctrinal Details
| Category | 19th-Century Mythicist Claim (Graves/Higgins) | Authentic Celtic Epigraphy & Classical Records |
|---|---|---|
| Virgin Birth | Cataloged as a virgin-born savior deity. | No birth parentage or virgin birth narratives exist in surviving Gaulish records. |
| Crucifixion | Crucified on a cross/tree as an atoning sacrifice. | Not crucified; victims were sacrificed to him in sacred groves. |
| Salvation / Atonement | Died to take away the sins of the world. | Celtic religion possessed no doctrine of original sin or universal vicarious atonement. |
| Resurrection & Descent | Descended to the underworld, resurrected, and ascended. | No death-and-resurrection myth is attested for Esus in Gaulish archaeology. |
| Title: "Son of God" | Replaced and titled as the Druid "Son of God" / "Lord." | Linguistically derived from Proto-Celtic *Esus (from PIE *h₁eis-, meaning "vigor," "passion," or "master"). |
| Alternate Names | Hesus, Aisus, Eros, Bremrillahm. | Inscribed solely as Esus or Aisus in Gallo-Roman stone dedications. |
| Part of a Trinity | Second person of a Druidic trinitarian godhead. | Mentioned by Lucan alongside Teutates and Taranis as three major Gaulish deities, not a unified trinity. |
| Judgment in Heaven | Presides as the supreme judge of mankind in the afterlife. | Druids taught the transmigration of souls (Metempsychosis), but no individual heavenly judgment by Esus is recorded. |
Iconography and the Brechin Tower
The Brechin Round Tower:
The round tower at Brechin Cathedral (Angus, Scotland) is a medieval Christian structure constructed around 1000–1100 CE.
The doorway relief depicts standard Christian iconography: Christ on the Cross flanked by the Virgin Mary, St. John, two ecclesiastics, the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God), and a stylized beast (a Pictish sea beast/boar). 19th-century antiquarians mistakenly claimed this medieval tower was an ancient Druid fire-temple and misidentified the stylized quadruped as an "elephant" bearing the sins of the world.
Authentic Appearance of Esus:
The primary verified depiction of Esus exists on the Pillar of the Boatmen (Pilier des nautes, 1st century CE, Paris). He is carved as a bearded woodsman wearing a sleeveless tunic, wielding a pruning hook or axe against a sacred willow tree next to the bull-and-birds motif (Tarvos Trigaranus).