Stone relief of Gallo-Roman age (I-II century A.D.), now in the Archaeological Museum, Nîmes, France. The sculpture represents the god Sucellus, a Gaulish divinity associated with the Underworld, holding in his arm a little vessel and an hammer, with a long handle. At his side is shown a dog, an animal frequently related to the divinities of the dead or who have the function of accompanying or leading the dead in the Otherworld. The relationship of the god with the world of the dead is suggested also by another peculiarity with which he is often represented: a wolf skin which covers his shoulders and his head.
The name Sucellus (or Sucellos) seems to mean “the Striker”, and his hammer has undoubtedly something to do with this name, but the precise meaning of this attribute remains obscure. It is not a reference to the thunder, as in the case of Thor’s hammer, the Germanic god of thunderstorms, but perhaps it is an allusion to an instrument (similar to an ax) used by woodcutters and thus pertaining to the farmer’s world. Sucellus was indeed a protector of the crops and of cattle, and a stimulator of fertility and growth in the vegetation. These characteristics, as well as the frequent presence of the dog at his side, justify his identification, in the Roman age, with Silvanus, the god of the woods.
In Ireland, a divinity with very similar characteristics was Dagda, the “good god”, who owned a magical cauldron that could never be emptied, and a mallet, of possibly a phallic significance, so huge it had to be dragged on a cart. The god had also magical pigs, which, after having been killed and eaten, revived themselves, and an orchard that, in every season, was always filled of fruits. These traits declare him a god of abundance and fertility, promoter of growth for the crops (Monaghan 2004).

[Image: http://www.cndp.fr/archive-musagora/gaulois/documents/sucellus.htm]