Figs. 146 and 147.—Gaulish. From Akerman.
Fig. 146, a coin of the Turones, whose ancient capital is now Tours, consists of a specky or spectral horse accompanied by an urn: this urn was the symbol of the Virgin, and the reader will be familiar with a well-known modern picture in which La Source is ambiguously represented as a maiden standing with a pitcher at a spring. Yver is Norse for a warm bubbling spring, and on the coins of Vergingetorix we find the pitcher and the horse: the word virgin is equivalent to Spring Queen, and as ceto figures largely in British mythology as the ark, box, or womb of Ked, it is probable that Virgingetorix may be interpreted King Virgin Keto. In Gaul rex meant King or Queen, but this word is less radical than the Spanish rey, French roi, British rhi: according to Sir John Rhys, “the old Irish ri, genitive rig, king, and rigan queen would be somewhat analogous, although the Welsh rhian, the equivalent of the Irish rigan, differs in being mostly a poetic term for a lady who need not be royal”.[319] The name Maria, which in Spain is bestowed indiscriminately upon men and women, would therefore seem to be Mother Queen, and Rhea, the Great Mother of Candia, might be interpreted as the Princess or the Queen.
Fig. 148.—Egyptian.
Fig. 149.—Etrurian. From Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria (Dennis, G.).
Fig. 150.—British. From A New Description of England and Wales (Anon, 1724).
Among inscriptions to the Gaulish Apollo the most common are those in which he is entitled Albiorix and Toutiorix: these are understood by the authorities as having meant respectively “King of the World,” and “King of the People”.