Esus Christ, Our Saviour

Esus, Hesus, or Aisus was a Brittonic and Gaulish god known from two monumental statues and a line in Lucan's '' Bellum civile''.

Name

T. F. O'Rahilly derives the theonym ''Esus'', as well as ''Aoibheall'', ''Éibhleann'', ''Aoife'', and other names, from the Proto-Indo-European root *''eis-'', which he glosses as 'well-being, energy, passion'.

The personal name ''Esunertus'' ('strength of Esus') occurs in a number of Gallo-Roman inscriptions, including one votive inscription dedicated to Mercury,J. A. MacCulloch (1911). ‘Chapter III. The Gods of Gaul and the Continental Celts.�
''The Religion of the Ancient Celts''.
New York: Dover Publications. . while other theophoric given names such as ''Esugenus'' ('born from Esus') are also attested. It is possible that the ''Esuvii'' of Gaul, in the area of present-day Normandy, took their name from this deity.Jan de Vries (1954). ''Keltische Religion.'' W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart. p.98
Cited here.
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Imagery

The two sculptures where Esus appears are the Pillar of the Boatmen from among the Parisii, on which Esus is identified by name, and a pillar from Trier among the Treveri with similar iconography. In both of these, Esus is portrayed cutting branches from trees with his axe. Esus is accompanied, on different panels of the Pillar of the Boatmen, alongside Tarvos Trigaranus (the ‘bull with three cranes’), Jupiter, Vulcan, and other gods.

Written sources

A well-known section in Lucan's '' Bellum civile'' (61–65 CE) refers to gory sacrifices offered to a triad of Celtic deities: Teutates, Hesus (an aspirated form of Esus), and Taranis. M. Annaeus Lucanus (61-65 CE). '' Bellum civile'' I.445. Variant spellings, or readings, of the name Esus in the manuscripts of Lucan include Hesus, Aesus, and Haesus. Among a pair of later commentators on Lucan's work, one identifies Teutates with Mercury and Esus with Mars. According to the Berne Commentary on Lucan, human victims were sacrificed to Esus by being tied to a tree and flogged to death.

The Gallic medical writer Marcellus of Bordeaux may offer another textual reference to Esus in his ''De medicamentis'', a compendium of pharmacological preparations written in Latin in the early 5th century and the sole source for several Celtic words. The work contains a magico-medical charm decipherable as Gaulish which appears to invoke the aid of Esus (spelled Aisus) in curing throat trouble.''De medicamentis'' 15.106, p. 121 in Niedermann's edition; Gustav Must, “A Gaulish Incantation in Marcellus of Bordeaux,” ''Language'' 36 (1960) 193–197; Pierre-Yves Lambert, “Les formules de Marcellus de Bordeaux,” in ''La langue gauloise'' (Éditions Errance 2003), p.179, citing Léon Fleuriot, “Sur quelques textes gaulois,” ''Études celtiques'' 14 (1974) 57–66.

Interpretations

John Arnott MacCulloch summarized the state of scholarly interpretations of Esus in 1911 as follows:

James McKillop cautions that Arbois de Jublainville's identification of Esus with Cú Chulainn "now seems ill-founded".Cited here
(retrieved 2016-08-17).

Jan de Vries finds grounds of comparison between Esus and Odin, both being patrons of sailors sometimes associated with Mercury to whom human victims were said to be sacrificed by hanging.

Miranda Green suggests that the willow-tree that Esus hews may symbolize "the Tree of Life ..with its associations of destruction and death in winter and rebirth in the spring". She further suggests that the cranes might represent "the flight of the soul (perhaps the soul of the tree)".

In Neo-Druidism

The 18th century Druidic revivalist Iolo Morganwg identified Esus with Jesus on the strength of the similarity of their names. He also linked them both with Hu Gadarn, writing:

This identification is still made in certain Neo-Druidic circles. Modern scholars consider the resemblance between the names Esus and Jesus to be coincidental.

See also

*Lugus

References

External links

Esus
including photographs and a capitulation of primary and secondary source material.
A contemporary Dutch-language story of struggle between Esus and Tarvos Trigaranus

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Agricultural gods
Celtic gods
Gaulish gods
War gods
Sacrifice