Gurzil was an important ancient Berber deity. He is known from two sources, the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

poem ''Iohannis'' by the 6th-century Christian Roman poet Corippus and a Neo-Punic inscription from Lepcis Magna.A. F. Elmayer, "The Libyan God Gurzil in a Neo-Punic Inscription from Tripolitania", ''Libyan Studies'' 13 (1982), pp. 49–50. Gurzil

According to Corippus, the

Laguatan The Laguatan () was a Berber clan that inhabited the Cyrenaica area during the Roman period. They have been described as primarily raiders and nomadic, but others consider them a settled group who also raided. The Laguatan emerged in the late 3rd ...

Tripolitania Tripolitania (), historically known as the Tripoli region, is a historic region and former province of Libya. The region had been settled since antiquity, first coming to prominence as part of the Carthaginian empire. Following the defeat ...

carried a representation of Gurzil in the form of a bull into battle against the Romans when they revolted along with the Austurii in AD 546. They regarded Gurzil as the offspring of

Amun Amun was a major ancient Egyptian deity who appears as a member of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad. Amun was attested from the Old Kingdom together with his wife Amunet. His oracle in Siwa Oasis, located in Western Egypt near the Libyan Desert, r ...

, presumably the Amun whose temple was at Siwa, and a cow. Corippus also mentions idols of wood and metal, presumably also images of Gurzil. After several battles the Laguatan and their allies were defeated. Ierna, the chief and high priest of the Laguatan, was killed while trying to rescue the image of Gurzil. The image was destroyed. The combination of royal and priestly functions in Ierna is not otherwise attested among ancient Berbers. The Neo-Punic inscription is partially damaged and resists interpretation. The last four letters of the first line spell the name of Gurzil, while the first four of the second line spell Satur. If the latter is the Roman god

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant, with an average radius of about 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 tim ...

it suggests that he was equated with Gurzil per an ''

interpretatio Romana , or "interpretation by means of Greek odels, 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 cult ...

''. This would be the only known instance of such an interpretation among the Berbers. The inscription may be read " o-and-soendowed the expenses for Gurzil–Saturn". The name of Gurzil may be detected elsewhere in the

toponymy Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' ( proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for a proper na ...

of Tripolitania. A temple among the ruins of Gerisa (Ghirza) in Libya may have been dedicated to Gurzil, and the name of the town itself may even be related to his name. According to the 9th-century Muslim writer al-Bakrī, there was a place called Gherza in Tripolitania with a hilltop sanctuary containing a stone idol that the Berber tribes from the surrounding region still worshipped. The relief carving of a horned god at

Volubilis Volubilis (; ; ) is a partly excavated Berber-Roman city in Morocco, situated near the city of Meknes, that may have been the capital of the Kingdom of Mauretania, at least from the time of King Juba II. Before Volubilis, the capital of the kin ...

has been tentatively identified as Gurzil. This would be the only evidence of his worship outside of Tripolitania, but the identification is highly speculative.

References

{{reflist Berber gods Roman Tripolitania War gods