Celtic Deity
   HOME



picture info

Celtic Deity
The gods and goddesses of the pre-Christian Celtic peoples are known from a variety of sources, including ancient places of worship, statues, engravings, cult objects, and place or personal names. The ancient Celts appear to have had a pantheon of deities comparable to others in Indo-European religion, each linked to aspects of life and the natural world. By a process of syncretism, after the Roman conquest of Celtic areas, most of these became associated with their Roman equivalents, and their worship continued until Christianization. Epona was an exception and retained without association with any Roman deity. Pre-Roman Celtic art produced few images of deities, and these are hard to identify, lacking inscriptions, but in the post-conquest period many more images were made, some with inscriptions naming the deity. Most of the specific information we have therefore comes from Latin writers and the archaeology of the post-conquest period. More tentatively, links can be made be ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Epona
In Gallo-Roman religion, Epona was a protector of horses, ponies, donkeys, and mules. She was particularly a goddess of fertility, as shown by her attributes of a patera, cornucopia, ears of grain, and the presence of foals in some sculptures. She and her horses might also have been leaders of the soul in the after-life ride, with later literary parallels in Rhiannon of the Mabinogion. The worship of Epona, "the sole Celtic divinity ultimately worshipped in Rome itself", as the patroness of cavalry, was widespread in the Roman Empire between the first and third centuries AD; this is unusual for a Celtic deity, most of whom were associated with specific localities. Etymology Although known only from Roman contexts, the name Epona ('Great Mare') is from the Gaulish language; it is derived from the inferred Proto-Celtic *''ekʷos'' 'horse', which gives rise to modern Welsh '' ebol'' 'foal', together with the augmentative suffix ''-on'' frequently, although not exclusively, f ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Mars (mythology)
In ancient Roman religion and Roman mythology, mythology, Mars (, ) is the god of war and also an Roman agriculture, agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early ancient Rome, Rome. He is the son of Jupiter (mythology), Jupiter and Juno (mythology), Juno, and was pre-eminent among the Religion in the Roman military, Roman army's military gods. Most of his Roman festivals, festivals were held in March, the month named for him (Martius (month), Latin ''Martius''), and in October, the months which traditionally began and ended the season for both military campaigning and farming. Under the Hellenization, influence of Greek culture, Mars was interpretatio graeca, identified with the Greek mythology, Greek god Ares,''Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia'', The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215. whose myths were reinterpreted in Latin literature, Roman literature and Roman art, art under the name of Mars. The character and dignity of Mars differs in fundamental ways fr ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Teutates
Teutates (spelled variously Toutatis, Totatis, Totates) is a Celtic god attested in literary and epigraphic sources. His name, which is derived from a proto-Celtic word meaning "tribe", suggests he was a tribal deity. The Roman poet Lucan's epic ''Pharsalia'' mentions Teutates, Esus, and Taranis as gods to whom the Gauls sacrificed humans. This rare mention of Celtic gods under their native names in a Latin text has been the subject of much comment. Almost as often commented on are the scholia to Lucan's poem (early medieval, but relying on earlier sources) which tell us the nature of these sacrifices: in particular, that victims of Teutates were immersed headfirst into a small barrel and drowned. This sacrifice has been compared with a poorly understood ritual depicted on the Gundestrup cauldron, some motifs in Irish mythology, and the death of the bog body known as the Lindow Man. Teutates appears in a number of inscriptions, most of which have been found in border or f ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Lucan (poet)
Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (3 November AD 39 – 30 April AD 65), better known in English as Lucan (), was a Roman poet, born in Corduba, Hispania Baetica (present-day Córdoba, Spain). He is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of the Imperial Latin period, known in particular for his epic ''Pharsalia''. His youth and speed of composition set him apart from other poets. Life Three brief ancient accounts allow for the reconstruction of a modest biography – the earliest attributed to Suetonius, another to an otherwise unknown Vacca, and the third anonymous and undated – along with references in Martial, Cassius Dio, Tacitus's ''Annals'', and one of Statius's ''Silvae''. Lucan was born in the Roman colony of Corduba into a wealthy family of central Italic origins; he was the son of and grandson of Seneca the Elder. He grew up under the tutelage of his uncle Seneca the Younger. He studied rhetoric at Athens and was probably provided with a philosophical and Stoic ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Rosmerta
In Gallo-Roman religion, Rosmerta was a goddess of fertility and abundance, her attributes being those of plenty such as the cornucopia. Rosmerta is attested by statues and by inscriptions. In Gaul she was often depicted with the Roman god Mercury as her consort, but is sometimes found independently. Etymology The name ''Rosmerta'' is Gaulish, and is analysed as ''ro-smert-a''. ''Smert'' means "provider" or "carer" and is also found in other Gaulish names such as Ad-smerio, Smertu-litani, Smerius (Σμερο), Smertae, Smertus, and others. ''Ro-'' is a modifier meaning "very", "great", or "most" as found in Ro-bili ("most-good") or Ro-cabalus ("great horse"). The ''-a'' ending is the typical Gaulish feminine singular nominative. The meaning is thus "the Great Provider". Iconography A relief from Autun (ancient ''Augustodunum'', the ''civitas'' capital of the Celtic Aedui), shows Rosmerta and Mercury seated together as a divine couple. She holds a cornucopia, with Mercury holdi ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Sirona (goddess)
In Celtic polytheism, Sirona was a goddess worshipped predominantly in East Central Gaul and along the Danubian limes. A healing deity, she was associated with healing springs; her attributes were snakes and eggs. She was sometimes depicted with Apollo Grannus or Apollo Borvo. She was particularly worshipped by the Treveri in the Moselle Valley. Sirona's name The name of the goddess was written in various ways: ''Sirona'', ''Đirona'', ''Ꟈirona'', ''Thirona'', indicating some difficulty in capturing the initial sound in the Latin alphabet. The symbol Đ is used here to represent the ''tau gallicum'', an additional letter used in Gaulish representing the cluster ''ts'' which was interchangeable with ''st''- in word-initial position and it is not a form of the letter "D". The root is a long vowel Gaulish variant of proto-Celtic ''*ster-'' (''*h2ster'') meaning ‘star’. The same root is found in Old Irish as ''ser'', Welsh ''seren'', Middle Cornish ''sterenn'' and Breton '' ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Sulevia
In ancient Celtic religion, Sulevia was a goddess worshipped in Gaul, Britain, and Gallaecia, very often in the plural forms Suleviae or (dative) Sule(v)is. Dedications to Sulevia(e) are attested in about forty inscriptions, distributed quite widely in the Celtic world, but with particular concentrations in Noricum, among the Helvetii, along the Rhine, and also in Rome. Jufer and Luginbühl distinguish the Suleviae from another group of plural Celtic goddesses, the Matres, and interpret the name Suleviae as meaning "those who govern well".Nicole Jufer & Thierry Luginbühl (2001). ''Les dieux gaulois : répertoire des noms de divinités celtiques connus par l'épigraphie, les textes antiques et la toponymie.'' Editions Errance, Paris. pp.15,64. In the original: ''"Celles qui gouvernent bien"''. In the same vein, Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel connects Suleviae with Welsh ''hylyw'' 'leading (well)' and Breton ''helevez'' 'good behaviour'. Epigraphy The Suleviae have been identified in ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Sulis
In the localised Celtic polytheism practised in Great Britain, Sulis was a deity worshiped at the thermal spring of Bath. She was worshiped by the Romano-British as Sulis Minerva, whose votive objects and inscribed lead tablets suggest that she was conceived of both as a nourishing, life-giving mother goddess and as an effective agent of curses invoked by her votaries. Etymology The exact meaning of the name ''Sulis'' has been a matter of debate, but an emerging consensus among linguists regards the name as cognate with Old Irish ''súil'' ("eye, sight"). A common Proto-Celtic root ''*sūli-'', related to the various Indo-European words for "sun" (cf. Homeric Greek ἡέλιος, Sanskrit ''sūryah'', from c ''*suh2lio-'') has also been proposed, although the Brittonic terms for "sun" (Old Breton ''houl'', Old Welsh ''heul'') feature a diphthong that is absent from ''Sulis'' and they are not attested as a feminine form or with the ''-i-'' inflection. Pierre-Yves Lambert argue ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Poeninus
The Great St Bernard Pass (, , ; ) is the third highest road pass in Switzerland, at an elevation of . It connects Martigny in the canton of Valais in Switzerland with Aosta in the region Aosta Valley in Italy. It is the lowest pass lying on the ridge between the two highest mountains of the Alps, Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa. It is located on the main watershed that separates the basin of the Rhône from that of the Po. Great St Bernard is one of the most ancient passes through the Western Alps, with evidence of use as far back as the Bronze Age and surviving traces of a Roman road. In 1800, Napoleon's army used the pass to enter Italy, an event depicted in Jacques-Louis David's '' Napoleon at the Saint-Bernard Pass'' and Paul Delaroche's '' Bonaparte Crossing the Alps'', both notable oil paintings. Having been bypassed by easier and more practical routes, particularly the Great St Bernard Tunnel, a road tunnel which opened in 1964, its value today is mainly historical and rec ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Lenus
Lenus (; E. Courtney (1995) reads the original dative form as in ''Musa Lapidaria: A Selection of Latin Verses'' 160, p. 152. agrees with dative in the following line.) was a Celtic god of healing, good fortune, and protection in battle, worshipped mainly in eastern Gaul, where he was almost always identified with the Roman god Mars. Name The Gaulish theonym ''Lenos'' has been derived from a stem ''lēno''-, which could mean 'wood, bocage' (cf. Welsh ''llwyn'' 'bush, grave, shrub'). His name most often appears in inscriptions as "Lenus Mars", rather than "Mars Lenus" as would be expected from other most syncretized names. His name also occasionally appears as "Mars Laenus". While the bulk of religious inscriptions to Lenus Mars are in Latin, there is one Latin-Greek bilingual inscription that identifies the god as "Lēnos ... Arēs" in the Greek version. Cult Lenus was an important god of the Treveri, who had large sanctuaries at medicinal springs at Trier and t ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Visucius
Visucius was a Gallo-Roman god, usually identified with Mercury. He was worshipped primarily in the east of Gaul, around Trier and on the Rhine; his name is recorded on about ten dedicatory inscriptions. One such inscription has also been found in Bordeaux. Visucius is, along with Gebrinius and Cissonius, among the most common indigenous epithets of the Gaulish Mercury. The name has sometimes been interpreted as meaning "of the ravens" or "knowledgeable"; cf. the Proto-Celtic roots *''wesāko-'' 'raven, grebe' (cf. Old Irish disyllabic ''fiach'', Welsh ''gwyach'') and *''witsu-'' 'knowing'.Proto-Celtic—English lexicon
an
English—Proto-Celtic lexicon

[...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Interpretatio Romana
, or "interpretation by means of Greek [models]", refers to the tendency of the ancient Greeks to identify foreign deities with their own gods. It is a discourse used to interpret or attempt to understand the mythology and religion of other cultures; a Comparative religion, comparative methodology using Religion in ancient Greece, ancient Greek religious concepts and practices, List of Greek deities, deities, and Greek mythology, myths, Comparative mythology, equivalencies, and shared characteristics. The phrase may describe Greek efforts to explain others' beliefs and myths, as when Herodotus describes ancient Egyptian religion, Egyptian religion in terms of perceived Greek analogues, or when Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Plutarch document Cult (religious practice), Roman cults, Roman temple, temples, and practices under the names of equivalent Greek deities. may also describe non-Greeks' interpretation of their own belief systems by comparison or assimilation with Greek model ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]