Also called Hesus.
Their story
Esus is one of Lucan's three Gaulish gods. On the Pillar of the Boatmen, found beneath Notre-Dame in Paris and dedicated in the reign of Tiberius, he is shown cutting branches from a tree beside a panel of the bull with three cranes, Tarvos Trigaranus. A similar carving from Trier shows a woodcutter with a bull and birds in a tree.
Best times to give to them
- Calan Gaeaf
- when pruning or coppicing
- Samhain
What they like being given
- a fallen branch carved or trimmed
- bread
- a tree planted
How to honour them
- Plant a tree, or volunteer on a woodland day, in his honour.
- Honour honest hard work, your own and other people's.
How they can help you
- hard labour
- woodland care
- clearing away what is dead
Symbols
- the axe
- the willow tree
- the bull with three cranes
Almost nothing else is known of him, and the meaning of his images remains a puzzle.
Sources
- Lucan, Pharsalia I
- CIL XIII 3026 (Pillar of the Boatmen)
- Green, Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend
More Celtic gods
- The Dagda The good god, father of all
- Lugh Master of all the arts
- Cernunnos The antlered one of the wild
- Manannán mac Lir Lord of the sea and the Otherworld
- Aengus The young god of love
- Nuada The king with the silver hand
- Dian Cécht Physician of the Tuatha Dé Danann
- Goibniu Smith of the gods and brewer of the feast