Hercules Magusanus is a Romano-Germanic deity or hero worshipped during the early first millennium AD in the

Lower Rhine The Lower Rhine (german: Niederrhein; kilometres 660 to 1,033 of the river Rhine) flows from Bonn, Germany, to the North Sea at Hook of Holland, Netherlands (including the Nederrijn or "Nether Rhine" within the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta); al ...

region among the Batavi, Marsaci,

Ubii 350px, The Ubii around AD 30 The Ubii were a Germanic tribe first encountered dwelling on the east bank of the Rhine in the time of Julius Caesar, who formed an alliance with them in 55 BC in order to launch attacks across the river. They were ...

Cugerni The Cugerni (or Cuberni or Guberni) were a Germanic tribal grouping with a particular territory within the Roman province of Germania Inferior, which later became Germania Secunda. More precisely they lived near modern Xanten, and the old Castra ...

Baetasii The Baetasii (or Betasii) were a Germanic tribal grouping within the Roman province of Germania Inferior, which later became Germania Secunda. Their exact location is still unknown, although two proposals are, first, that it might be the source o ...

, and probably among the

Tungri The Tungri (or Tongri, or Tungrians) were a tribe, or group of tribes, who lived in the Belgic part of Gaul, during the times of the Roman Empire. Within the Roman Empire, their territory was called the ''Civitas Tungrorum''. They were described b ...

Name

Attestations

The name is attested on votive stones, coins and arm rings principally found in Lower Germania, but also in Rome, Britain, and Dacia. It appears as ''Magusen s' in a inscription dated ca. 100 AD, found near the village of

Empel Empel is a village and former municipality, which is now a quarter of 's-Hertogenbosch in the Dutch province of North Brabant. History Archaeological evidence shows Celtic and Roman traces in the area. The site of a Roman temple was of special ...

. An altar from Ruimel (mid-1st c. AD), the earliest known which is devoted to Hercules Magusanus, shows the name in reverse order: '' gusa Herculi''. Additionally, two Roman coins of the Roman Emperor

Postumus Marcus Cassianius Latinius Postumus was a Roman commander of Batavian origin, who ruled as Emperor of the splinter state of the Roman Empire known to modern historians as the Gallic Empire. The Roman army in Gaul threw off its allegiance to G ...

minted in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

in 261 AD, as well as four arm rings from

Tongeren Tongeren (; french: Tongres ; german: Tongern ; li, Tóngere ) is a city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg, in the southeastern corner of the Flemish region of Belgium. Tongeren is the oldest town in Belgium, as the onl ...

Neuss Neuss (; spelled ''Neuß'' until 1968; li, Nüss ; la, Novaesium) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the west bank of the Rhine opposite Düsseldorf. Neuss is the largest city within the Rhein-Kreis Neuss district. It ...

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

and Cologne also bear his name.

Etymology

The name ''Hercules Magusanus'' is a

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 t ...

between the Graeco-Roman divine hero ''

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the Gr ...

'' and the local deity or hero ''Magusanus''. The etymology of the name remains debated. According to Norbert Wagner, it may stem from the

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic branc ...

name ''*Magus-naz'' ('the one with strength, the powerful one'; cf. Goth. ''mahts'', German ''Macht'').

Rudolf Much Rudolf Much (7 September 1862 – 8 March 1936) was an Austrian philologist and historian who specialized in Germanic studies. Much was Professor and Chair of Germanic Linguistic History and Germanic Antiquity at the University of Vienna, dur ...

has also proposed to compare it with ''Novio-magus'' (now Nijmegen), the main settlement of the Batavi, in which the centre of Magusanus' local cult seems to have been located. In 2022 a new site was discovered in nearby Herwen-Hemeling. It is a sanctuary with a Gallo-Roman temple where most altars were dedicated to Hercules Magusanus. In 1984,

Léon Fleuriot Léon Fleuriot (5 April 1923 – 15 March 1987) was a French linguist and Celtic scholar, specializing in Celtic languages and the history of Gallo-Roman and Early Medieval Brittany. Biography Born in Morlaix, Brittany, in a family originat ...

proposed an alternative connection with the

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

personal name ''Mavohe os' ('Old Lad', or 'old neof the servant''), ultimately from

Proto-Celtic Proto-Celtic, or Common Celtic, is the ancestral proto-language of all known Celtic languages, and a descendant of Proto-Indo-European. It is not attested in writing but has been partly Linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed through the compar ...

''*magusenos'' (''magus'' 'young lad; servant' + ''senos'' 'old'). Lauran Toorians notes that, in this view, both Celtic and Germanic etymologies are possible, with the Germanic ''*magus'' ('boy, servant') attached to the root ''*sen-'' ('old').

Origin

Magusanus

According to Lauran Toorians, it is probable that the Batavi, who entered the Rhine-Meuse delta from the east after the defeat of the Eburones, were "linguistically mixed, which might mean that they had shifted from Celtic-speaking to Germanic-speaking in recent times." Their elite language was likely Germanic, which led them to Germanicize the names of the region they took over. In this view, the Germanic name ''Magusanus'' may have arisen from the original Celtic *''Magusenus'' suggested by Fleuriot. The earliest dedications to Magusanus are found on Batavian territory and are not attested in the

Rhineland The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section. Term Historically, the Rhinelands ...

region before the 2nd century AD, which may suggest a progressive diffusion of the cult from the Batavi to their neighbours in the east. Since the Roman Hercules was generally equated with the Germanic Donar/Thor via ''

interpretatio romana ''Interpretatio graeca'' (Latin, "Greek translation") or "interpretation by means of Greek odels is a discourse used to interpret or attempt to understand the mythology and religion of other cultures; a comparative methodology using ancient Gr ...

'',

Rudolf Simek Rudolf Simek (born 21 February 1954) is an Austrian philologist and religious studies scholar who is Professor and Chair of Ancient German studies, German and Scandinavian studies, Nordic Studies at the University of Bonn. Simek specializes in G ...

has suggested that Magusanus was originally an epithet attached to the

deity *''Þunraz''.

Syncretism with Hercules

Several reasons have been proposed to explain the popularity of the Roman hero among Germanic peoples of the

and his

with the local god Magunasus. A reasonable explanation is that the military and sporting attributes traditionally associated with Hercules, including masculine power and courage, possibly matched those associated with the native Magunasus. This view is supported by the number of votive inscriptions to the god that were dedicated by soldiers, the practice of dropping off weapons in the sanctuary of Hercules Magusanus at

, and his role as the patron-deity of the Batavian young warrior bands. A second reason for his success could have been Hercules' role as the keeper of cattle, particularly adapted to the pastoral values of a Lower Rhine society essentially relying on cattle and horse raising. A third argument may be the perception of Hercules as a bridge between the Germanic and Roman cultures, Hercules being seen as the mythical forebear of "barbarian" peoples and the first explorer of the Germanic frontier.

Cult

Batavi

As evidenced by the number of votive inscriptions and a cult associated with the monumental temple complex of

, Hercules Magusanus was probably the main deity of the Batavian ''

civitas In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (; plural ), according to Cicero in the time of the late Roman Republic, was the social body of the , or citizens, united by law (). It is the law that binds them together, giving them responsibilities () on th ...

'' during the

Roman period The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...

. He may also have played a role as a patron and protector of the Batavian ''iuventus'' ( koryos), the young male warriors involved as a class age in a public initiation ritual into adulthood. Nico Roymans argues that the cult of Herculus Magusanus played in a prominent role in the

ethnogenesis Ethnogenesis (; ) is "the formation and development of an ethnic group". This can originate by group self-identification or by outside identification. The term ''ethnogenesis'' was originally a mid-19th century neologism that was later introdu ...

of the Batavi during the second part of the first century BC.

Other Lower Rhine tribes

The cult of Hercules Magusanus must have been marginalized as a principal deity in the public cult among the Ubii and the

following the foundation of the

Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium was the Roman colony in the Rhineland from which the city of Cologne, now in Germany, developed. It was usually called ''Colonia'' (colony) and was the capital of the Roman province of Germania Inferior and t ...

and

Colonia Ulpia Traiana Xanten (, Low Rhenish: ''Santen'') is a town in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the district of Wesel. Xanten is known for the Archaeological Park, one of the largest archaeological open air museums in the wor ...

in 50–60 AD, when his role was likely taken over by the Roman god

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

Outside the Lower Rhine

Dedications to Hercules Magusanus are also known from Rome, Britain or

Dacia Dacia (, ; ) was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It thus r ...

. In all instances, they are related to Germani from the Lower Rhine area, most of them serving in the Roman army or to its influence. An altar to Hercules Magusanus was found near the site of a Roman fort at Mumrills (

Stirlingshire Stirlingshire or the County of Stirling, gd, Siorrachd Sruighlea) is a Counties of Scotland, historic county and registration countyRegisters of Scotland. Publications, leaflets, Land Register Counties. of Scotland. Its county town is Stirli ...

), dedicated by Valerius Nigrinus, an officer in the

an cavalry regiment.

Depiction

Although no myth associated with Hercules Magusanus has been preserved, the iconography is rather close to the Latin imagery surrounding Hercules. For instance, several Germanic figurines and statues depict him bearing a club and a lion’s skin over his shoulders, once with three-headed dog

Cerberus In Greek mythology, Cerberus (; grc-gre, Κέρβερος ''Kérberos'' ), often referred to as the hound of Hades, is a multi-headed dog that guards the gates of the Underworld to prevent the dead from leaving. He was the offspring of the mo ...

, echoing foreign myths involving the Roman hero.

References

Bibliography

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