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Overview picture of the complete Gundestrup Cauldron, which was crafted in Gaul circa 100 BCE. It was discovered in a peat bog in Denmark in 1891, where scholars suggest it had been placed as an offering to the deities of Nature in a Druidic ritual. The cauldron's 13 panels recount a Celtic Foundation Myth similar in importance to the Hebrew Genesis cycle, the Greek Illiad, and Roman Aeneid.

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The Hiberno-Celtic goddess Maeve, she who endows the sovereign with his powers and the Earth with fertility, rides upon her wheeled chariot in a sunwise direction. The elephants identify her with rulership, the griffins and lion with her War Goddess aspect.

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The Celtic God/Hero named Esus/Cu Chulainn, guardian of cattle and beasts, is introduced. He offers a torc, symbolizing wealth and prosperity; the horned-serpent associates him also with water. The various beasts and fish-rider on right refer to a Celtic shape-shifter chapter of the larger myth.

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The leaping horned figure Esus/Cu Chulainn's great ordeal is shown. First, with a chariot-wheel as his weapon, he defeats Fergus, the central deity in the panel(who is also Maeve's lover/ally). He also leaps upon and breaks the neck of a horned serpent, a form of the Goddess Morrigan with whom he also must do battle.

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Three further aspects of Esus/Cu Chulainn's epic battle are shown. Top: Maeve's ally Froech and 3 riders try to jump the Hero's felled tree obstacle; next Froech with his warriors and trumpeteers march warlike against Esus/Cu Chulainn; finally the Hero wrestles with Froech and drowns him as predicted.

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Donn Cooley, the great bull of Gaulish/Ulster kingship, was the Celtic cultural symbol of the annual life-death-ressurection Year-King. This deified bull of tribal fertility, after defeating the bull of Goddess Maeve (in struggle that parallel's and echos that of Esus/Cu Chulainn), is himself ritually slain. The triple rendering of this deed emphasizes its importance, and a second depiction of this ultimate sacrifical offering appears as a panel mounted on the cauldron's bottom.