ancient Celtic religion Ancient Celtic religion, commonly known as Celtic paganism, was the religion of the ancient Celtic peoples of Europe. Because there are no extant native records of their beliefs, evidence about their religion is gleaned from archaeology, Greco ...

, Maponos or Maponus ("Great Son") is a god of youth known mainly in northern

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

but also in

Gaul Gaul () was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Roman people, Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of . Ac ...

. In

Roman Britain Roman Britain was the territory that became the Roman province of ''Britannia'' after the Roman conquest of Britain, consisting of a large part of the island of Great Britain. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. Julius Caes ...

, he was equated with

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

. The Welsh mythological figure Mabon ap Modron is apparently derived from Maponos, who by analogy we may suggest was the son of the mother-goddess

Dea Matrona In Celtic mythology, Dea Matrona ('Divine Mother') was the goddess who gives her name to the river Marne (ancient ''Matrŏna'') in Gaul Gaul () was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Roman people, Romans, encompassin ...

. The Irish god

Aengus In Irish mythology, Aengus or Óengus is one of the Tuatha Dé Danann and probably originally a god associated with youth, love,Ó hÓgáin, Dáithí. ''Myth, Legend & Romance: An encyclopedia of the Irish folk tradition''. Prentice-Hall Press, ...

, also known as the ''Mac Óg'' ("young son"), is probably related to Maponos.

Etymology

Gaulish Gaulish is an extinct Celtic languages, Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, ...

, ''mapos'' means a young boy or a son. The suffix ''-onos'' is augmentative. Besides the

theonym A theonym (from Greek (), 'god', attached to (), ) is a proper name of a deity. Theonymy, the study of divine proper names, is a branch of onomastics, the study of the etymology, history, and use of proper names. Theonymy helps develop an und ...

''Maponos'', the root ''mapos'' is found in personal names such as ''Mapodia'', ''Mapillus'', and ''Maponius''; ''mapo'' is also found in the Carjac inscription (RIG L-86). The root is

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...

''*makʷos''. (Delamarre 2003 pp. 216–217). In

Insular Celtic languages Insular Celtic languages are the group of Celtic languages spoken in Brittany, Great Britain, Ireland, and the Isle of Man. All surviving Celtic languages are in the Insular group, including Breton, which is spoken on continental Europe in Br ...

, the same root is found in Welsh, Cornish and Breton ''mab'' meaning ''son'' (Delamarre 2003 pp. 216–217), derived from Common Brythonic ''*mapos'' (identical to Gaulish). In

Old Irish Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic (, Ogham, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ; ; or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic languages, Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive written texts. It was used from 600 to 900. The ...

, ''macc'' also means ''son''; it is found in

Ogham Ogham (also ogam and ogom, , Modern Irish: ; , later ) is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the early Irish language (in the "orthodox" inscriptions, 4th to 6th centuries AD), and later the Old Irish language ( scholastic ...

inscriptions as the genitive ''maqui'', ''maqqi'', ''maqui'' (Sims-Williams 2003 pp. 430–431) with a geminative expressive doubling ''*makʷkʷos''. (This is the source of Scottish and Irish names starting ''Mac'' or ''Mc'' as well as Welsh or Cornish names ''Ap,'' often shortened to just 'P-). He therefore personified youthfulness, which would explain the

syncretism Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various school of thought, schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or religious assimilation, assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the ...

with the Graeco-Roman god

Evidence for Maponos

Epigraphy

The evidence is mainly epigraphic: Maponos is attested in Britain in a military context, and in Gaul in a civilian milieu. Maponos (“Great Son”) is mentioned in

Bourbonne-les-Bains Bourbonne-les-Bains () is a commune in the Haute-Marne department in north-eastern France in the region Grand Est.CIL 13, 05924) and at

Chamalières Chamalières (; Auvergnat: ) is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, central France. With 17,276 inhabitants (2019), Chamalières is the fourth-largest town in the department. It lies adjacent to the west of Clermo ...

(RIG L-100) but is attested chiefly in the north of

Brampton Brampton is a city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario, and the regional seat of the Regional Municipality of Peel. It is part of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is a List of municipalities in Ontario#L ...

Corbridge Corbridge is a village in Northumberland, England, west of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle and east of Hexham. Villages nearby include Halton, Northumberland, Halton, Acomb, Northumberland, Acomb, Aydon and Sandhoe. Etymology Corbridge was k ...

(ancient Coria),

Ribchester Ribchester () is a village and civil parish within the Ribble Valley district of Lancashire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Ribble, northwest of Blackburn and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. The village has a long history w ...

(In antiquity, Bremetenacum Veteranorum) and Chesterholm (in antiquity,

Vindolanda Vindolanda was a Roman auxiliary fort ('' castrum'') just south of Hadrian's Wall in northern England, which it pre-dated. Archaeological excavations of the site show it was under Roman occupation from roughly 85 AD to 370 AD. Located near th ...

). Some inscriptions are very simple such as ''Deo Mapono'' ("to the god Maponos") from Chesterholm (AE 1975, 00568). At Corbridge are two dedications (RIB 1120 and RIB 1121) ''Apollini Mapono'' ("to Apollo Maponos") and one (RIB 1122) '' eo/ po o/ Apo lini' ("to the god Maponos Apollo"). The inscription at Brampton (RIB 2063) by four Germans is to the god Maponos and the

numen Numen (plural numina) is a Latin term for "divinity", "divine presence", or "divine will". The Latin authors defined it as follows:For a more extensive account, refer to Cicero writes of a "divine mind" (), a god "whose numen everything obeys", ...

of the emperor:.

''Deo / Mapono / et n(umini) Aug(usti) / Durio / et Ramio / et Trupo / et Lurio / Germa/ni v(otum) s(olverunt) l(ibentes) m(erito)''
"To the god Maponos and to the Numen of Augustus, the
Germani The Germanic peoples were tribal groups who lived in Northern Europe in Classical antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. In modern scholarship, they typically include not only the Roman-era ''Germani'' who lived in both ''Germania'' and parts of ...
Durio, Ramio, Trupo and Lurio have fulfilled their
vow A vow ( Lat. ''votum'', vow, promise; see vote) is a promise or oath. A vow is used as a promise that is solemn rather than casual. Marriage vows Marriage vows are binding promises each partner in a couple makes to the other during a weddin ...
willingly, as is deserved."

This inscription (RIB 583) by a unit of

Sarmatians The Sarmatians (; ; Latin: ) were a large confederation of Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Iranian Eurasian nomads, equestrian nomadic peoples who dominated the Pontic–Caspian steppe, Pontic steppe from about the 5th century BCE to the 4t ...

based at Ribchester shows the association with Apollo and also can be precisely dated to the day (''pridie Kalendas Septembres'', or 29 August in the

Roman calendar The Roman calendar was the calendar used by the Roman Kingdom and Roman Republic. Although the term is primarily used for Rome's pre-Julian calendars, it is often used inclusively of the Julian calendar established by Julius Caesar in 46&nbs ...

) and the year (241 CE, by mention of the two consuls). :''Deo san(cto) / ollini Mapono / r salute d(omini) n(ostri) / tn(umeri) eq(uitum) Sar/ (atarum)Bremetenn(acensium) / rdiani / l(ius) Antoni/nus , (centurio) leg(ionis) VI / vic(tricis) domo / Melitenis / praep(ositus) et pr(aefectus) / v(otum) s(olvit) l(ibens) m(erito) / eic(atum) pr(idie) Kal(endas) Sep(tembres) / m(eratore) d(omino) n(ostro) Gord

no A No or NO may refer to: Linguistics and symbols * ''Yes'' and ''no'', responses * No, an English determiner in noun phrases * No (kana) (, ), a letter/syllable in Japanese script * No symbol (🚫), the general prohibition sign * Numero sign ( ...

g(usto) II e Pon eiao(!) co(n)s(ulibus)'' The preceding inscriptions are all in Latin. The name is also found on the inscription from Chamalières, which is a relatively long magical text (12 lines) written in

on a rolled lead sheet. The second line calls for the help of Maponos (here in the accusative singular, Maponon: ''artiu maponon aruerriíatin'' (RIG L-100).

Iconography

There are at least three statues to Maponos. In one, he is depicted as a harper and stands opposite a Celtic Diana huntress figure. A sketch of this image appears in Ann Ross' ''Pagan Celtic Britain''.

Toponymy

Two items of place-name evidence also attest to Maponos in Britain. Both are from the 7th-century

Ravenna Cosmography The ''Ravenna Cosmography'' (, "The Cosmography of the Unknown Ravennese") is a work describing the Ecumene, known world from India to Ireland, compiled by an anonymous cleric in Ravenna around 700 AD. It consists of five books describing ...

. ''Locus Maponi'' (Richmond & Crawford #228) or "the place of Maponos", is thought to be between

Lochmaben Lochmaben () is a small town and civil parish in Scotland, and site of a castle. It lies west of Lockerbie, in Dumfries and Galloway. By the 12th century the Bruce family had become the local landowners and, in the 14th century, Edward I of Engl ...

and

Lockerbie Lockerbie (, ) is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, located in south-western Scotland. The 2001 Census recorded its population as 4,009. The town had an estimated population of in . The town came to international attention in December 1988 when ...

(the name Lochmaben may be derived from Locus Maponi, with the ''p'' to ''b'' sound shift). ''Maporiton'' (Richmond & Crawford #163) or "the ford of Maponos" is thought to be Ladyward, near Lockerbie. The Lochmaben Stone lies near Gretna on the farm named Old Graitney, the old name for Gretna. The name Clachmaben, meaning 'stone of Maben or Maponos', has become corrupted to Lochmaben. This stone was probably part of a stone circle and the area is thought to have been a centre for the worship of Maponus. An inscription from Birrens in Scotland (RIB-3, 3482 / AE 1968, 254) mentions a ''lo(cus) Mabomi'', which is often regarded as a stone-cutter's error for ''locus *Maponi''.

Coligny Calendar

The fifteenth day of Riuros on the

Coligny calendar The Coligny calendar is a bronze plaque with an inscribed calendar, made in Roman Gaul in the 2nd century CE. It lays out a five-year cycle of a lunisolar calendar, each year with twelve lunar months. An intercalary month is inserted before eac ...

is marked with the name Mapanos, which might be a reference to a festival for Maponos.

Celtic epithets of Apollo

In Britain, dedications to Apollo have been found with the following epithets: * ''Apollo Anextiomarus'' * ''Apollo Anicetus Sol'' * ''Apollo Grannus'' * ''Apollo Maponus'' (shows a Latinising influence, ''-os'' becoming ''-us''). It can thus be difficult to tell from a simple dedication to Apollo whether the classical deity is meant or whether a particular Celtic deity is being referred to under a classical name. The situation in Gaul is even more complicated, with at least twenty epithets being recorded. (Jufer & Luginbühl pp. 94–96).

Later tradition

Welsh mythology

Maponos surfaces in the

Middle Welsh Middle Welsh (, ) is the label attached to the Welsh language of the 12th to 15th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This form of Welsh developed directly from Old Welsh (). Literature and history Middle Welsh is ...

narrative, the

Mabinogion The ''Mabinogion'' () is a collection of the earliest Welsh prose stories, compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th–13th centuries from earlier oral traditions. There are two main source manuscripts, created –1410, as well as a few earlier frag ...

, as Mabon, son of

Modron Modron ("mother") is a figure in Welsh tradition, known as the mother of the hero Mabon ap Modron. Both characters may have derived from earlier divine figures, in her case the Gaulish goddess Matrona. She may have been a prototype for Morgan ...

who is herself the continuation of Gaulish Matrona (“Matronly Spirit”). The theme of Maponos son of Matrona (literally, ''child of mother'') and the development of names in the

Mabinogi The ''Mabinogion'' () is a collection of the earliest Welsh prose stories, compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th–13th centuries from earlier oral traditions. There are two main source manuscripts, created –1410, as well as a few earlier frag ...

from Common Brythonic and

theonyms has been examined by Hamp (1999), Lambert (1979), and Meid (1991). Mabon apparently features in the tale of a newborn child taken from his mother at the age of three nights, and is explicitly named in the story of ''

Culhwch ac Olwen Culhwch (, with the final consonant sounding like Scottish "loch"), in Welsh mythology, is the son of Cilydd, Cilydd son of Celyddon and Goleuddydd, a cousin of King Arthur, Arthur and the protagonist of the story ''Culhwch and Olwen'' (the earli ...

''. A similar character in Welsh literature is Mabon son of Mellt, who may in fact be the same as Mabon son of Modron. Scholars Proinsias Mac Cana and

Roger Sherman Loomis Roger Sherman Loomis (1887–1966) was an American scholar and one of the foremost authorities on medieval and Arthurian literature. Loomis is perhaps best known for showing the roots of Arthurian legend, in particular the Holy Grail, in native C ...

suggested that Maponos survived in Arthurian mythology as Mabon, Mabuz and Mabonagrain.

Irish mythology

His counterpart in

Irish mythology Irish mythology is the body of myths indigenous to the island of Ireland. It was originally Oral tradition, passed down orally in the Prehistoric Ireland, prehistoric era. In the History of Ireland (795–1169), early medieval era, myths were ...

would seem to be Mac(c) ind Ó‘c (Hamp 1999) (“Young Son”, “Young Lad”), an epithet of Angus or Oengus, the eternally youthful spirit to be found in

Newgrange Newgrange () is a prehistoric monument in County Meath in Ireland, placed on a rise overlooking the River Boyne, west of the town of Drogheda. It is an exceptionally grand passage tomb built during the Neolithic Period, around 3100 BC, makin ...

called Bruigh na Bóinne, a pre-Celtic

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

barrow or

chambered tomb A chambered cairn is a burial monument, usually constructed during the Neolithic British Isles, Neolithic, consisting of a sizeable (usually stone) chamber around and over which a cairn of stones was constructed. Some chambered cairns are also pas ...

portrays him as the son of

the Dagda The Dagda ( , ) is considered the great god of Irish mythology. He is the chief god of the Tuatha Dé Danann, with the Dagda portrayed as a father-figure, king, and druid.Koch, John T. ''Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia''. ABC-CLIO, ...

, a king of the

Irish gods Irish commonly refers to: * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the island and the sovereign state *** Erse (disambiguati ...

, and of

Boann Boann or Boand is the Irish mythology, Irish goddess of the River Boyne (''Bóinn''), an important river in Ireland's historical province of Kingdom of Meath, Meath. According to the ''Lebor Gabála Érenn'' and ''Táin Bó Fraích'' she was th ...

, a personification of the

River Boyne The River Boyne ( or ''Abhainn na Bóinne'') is a river in Leinster, Ireland, the course of which is about long. It rises at Trinity Well, Newberry Hall, near Carbury, County Kildare, and flows north-east through County Meath to reach the ...

. In

, the Macc Óc frequently features as a trickster and a lover.

References

Bibliography

* ''Année Epigraphique'' (AE), yearly volumes. * ''Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum'' (CIL); vol. XIII, Inscriptiones trium Galliarum et Germaniarum * Collingwood, R. G.; Wright, R. P. ''The Roman Inscriptions of Britain'' (RIB) Vol. 1: The Inscriptions on Stone. * Delamarre, X. (2003). ''Dictionnaire de la Langue Gauloise'' (2nd ed.). Paris: Editions Errance. * Ellis, Peter Berresford (1994) ''Dictionary of Celtic Mythology'' (Oxford Paperback Reference), Oxford University Press. * Hamp, E. (1999) "Mabinogi and Archaism". ''Celtica'' 23, pp. 96–110. Availabl
online PDF file
* Jufer, N. and Luginbühl, T. (2001) ''Répertoire des dieux gaulois''. Paris, Editions Errance. * Lambert, Pierre-Yves (1979) "La tablette gauloise de Chamalières". ''Études Celtiques'' XVI pp. 141–169 * Lambert, Pierre-Yves (ed)(2002) '' Recueil des Inscriptions Gauloises'' (R.I.G.) Vol. 2.2: inscriptions in the Latin alphabet on instrumentum (ceramic, lead, glass etc.) (items L-18 – L-139) *MacKillop, James (1998) ''Dictionary of Celtic Mythology''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. . * Meid, W. (1991) ''Aspekte der germanischen und keltischen Religion im Zeugnis der Sprache.'' (Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft, Vorträge und kleinere Schriften, 52.) * Richmond, I. A. and Crawford, O. G. S. (1949) "The British Section of the Ravenna Cosmography". ''Archaeologia'' XCIII pp. 1–50 * Sims-Williams, Patrick (2003) ''The Celtic Inscriptions of Britain: phonology and chronology, c. 400-1200'' Oxford: Blackwell. *Wood, Juliette, (2002) ''The Celts: Life, Myth, and Art''. Thorsons Publishers.

External links

*
Locus Maponi
{{Celtic mythology (ancient) Celtic gods Health gods

Etymology

Evidence for Maponos

Epigraphy

Iconography

Toponymy

Coligny Calendar

Celtic epithets of Apollo

Later tradition

Welsh mythology

Irish mythology

See also

References

Bibliography

External links