PLATE XX
A and B
Altar from Notre Dame
A. The god Esus (cf. p. 9) was perhaps a deity of vegetation, and human victims offered to him were hanged on trees. He has been identified, though with slight probability, with Cuchulainn (cf. Plate XVIII). He is here shown cutting down a tree, the branches of which are carried over to the next side of the altar.
B. The next side of the same altar, dedicated by sailors and found at Notre Dame, Paris. Under the branches of the tree which Esus is felling stands a bull with three cranes perched on his back—Tarvos Trigaranos (see p. 9). For the bull see also Plates II, 4-5, 9, III, 5, IX, B, XIX, I, 6. The subjects of these two sides of the altar recur in an altar from Treves (Plate XXI).
