Taranis Malmi

In Celtic mythology, Taranis ( Proto-Celtic: *''Toranos'', earlier ''*Tonaros''; Latin: Taranus, earlier Tanarus) is the god of thunder, who was worshipped primarily in Gaul, Hispania, Britain, and Ireland, but also in the Rhineland and Danube regions, amongst others. Taranis, along with Esus and Toutatis, was mentioned by the Roman poet Lucan in his epic poem '' Pharsalia'' as a Celtic deity to whom human sacrificial offerings were made. Taranis was associated, as was the Cyclops Brontes ("thunder") in Greek mythology, with the wheel.

Many representations of a bearded god with a thunderbolt in one hand and a wheel in the other have been recovered from Gaul, where this deity apparently came to be syncretised with Jupiter.

Name and etymology

The Proto-Celtic form of the name is reconstructed as *''Toranos'' ('Thunder'), which derives through metathesis (switch of sounds) from an earlier *''Tonaros'', itself from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) stem for 'thunder', *''(s)tenh₂-''. The original, unmetathesized form of the name is attested in the dative form ''tanaro'' (Chester, 154 AD), found on a votive altar dedicated by a Roman officer from Clunia (modern Burgos Province), and in the Gaulish hydronym '' Tanarus'' ('thundering' or 'thunderous'), an ancient name of the River Po (northern Italy). Similar European hydronyms have also been proposed to belong to the same root. The PIE ''s''-initial seems to have been retained in Celtiberian ''steniontes'', ''stenion'', and ''stena''.

In the Indo-European context, the Proto-Celtic name *''Tonaros'' is identical to the Proto-Germanic Thunder-god ''*Þun(a)raz'' (cf. ON ''Þórr'', OE ''Þunor'', OS ''Thunar'', OFris. ''Thuner'', OHG ''Donar''), and further related to the Sanskrit ''stánati'' and Latin ''tono'', both meaning 'to thunder.'' According to scholar Peter Jackson, the Celtic–Germanic isogloss *''Þun(a)raz'' ''~ *Tonaros'' may have emerged as the result of the fossilization of an original epithet (or epiclesis) of the Proto-Indo-European thunder-god *'' Perk^wunos''.

The later form *''Toranos'' is attested in the Gaulish divine names ''Taranis'' and ''Taranucnos'', as well as in the personal name ''Taranutius''. The name '' Taran'', which appears in the prehistoric section of the Pictish King-List, may also be interpreted as a euhemerized god. The Hispano-Celtic ''tar(a)nekūm'' could mean 'of the descendants of Tar(a)nos'.

Additional cognates may also be found in medieval Celtic languages, such as Old Irish ''torann'' ('thunder, noise'), Old Breton ''taran'', Old Cornish ''taran'', or Middle Welsh ''taran'' (' eal ofthunder, thunderclap'). The Gaulish word for 'thunder' has been preserved in Gascon ''taram''.

Association with the wheel

The wheel, more specifically the chariot wheel with six or eight spokes, was an important symbol in historical Celtic polytheism, apparently associated with a specific god, known as the wheel-god, identified as the sky- sun- or thunder-god, whose name is attested as Taranis by Lucan. Numerous Celtic coins also depict such a wheel. The half-wheel shown in the Gundestrup cauldron "broken wheel" panel also has eight visible spokes.

Symbolic votive wheels were offered at shrines (such as in Alesia), cast in rivers (such as the Seine), buried in tombs or worn as amulets since the Middle Bronze Age. Such "wheel pendants" from the Bronze Age usually had four spokes, and are commonly identified as solar symbols or " sun crosses". Artefacts parallel to the Celtic votive wheels or wheel-pendants are the so-called ''Zierscheiben'' in a Germanic context. The identification of the Sun with a wheel, or a chariot, has parallels in Germanic, Greek and Vedic mythology (see sun chariot).

File:Stone Wheel from Santa Tegra.jpg, Stone wheel representation from the Santa Tegra hill-fort (A Guarda, Galicia). Museo arqueolóxico do castro de Santa Tegra
File:Rouelle d or Balesme Haute Marne.jpg, Golden Celtic wheel with symbols, Balesme, Haute-Marne. Musée d'Archéologie Nationale.

Later cultural references

In 2013 a British combat drone system developed by defence contractor BAE Systems was named Taranis in reference to the Celtic god.

Taranis and Toutatis are often mentioned by characters of the '' Asterix'' series.

Taranis and other Celtic gods are often referred to in the EPIX television series Britannia

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See also

* Delbáeth
*Fontes Tamarici
* Perkūnas
*Indra
* Perun
* Thor
* Tuireann
* Zeus

Footnotes

References

* Ellis, Peter Berresford, ''Dictionary of Celtic Mythology'' (Oxford Paperback Reference), Oxford University Press, (1994):
*
* MacKillop, James. ''Dictionary of Celtic Mythology''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. .
* Wood, Juliette, ''The Celts: Life, Myth, and Art'', Thorsons Publishers (2002):

Further reading

* Gricourt, Daniel; Hollard, Dominique. "Taranis, caelestiorum deorum maximus". In: ''Dialogues d'histoire ancienne'', vol. 17, n°1, 1991. pp. 343–400. OI: https://doi.org/10.3406/dha.1991.1919 ww.persee.fr/doc/dha_0755-7256_1991_num_17_1_1919* Gricourt, Daniel; Hollard, Dominique. "Taranis, le dieu celtique à la roue. Remarques préliminaires". In: ''Dialogues d'histoire ancienne'', vol. 16, n°2, 1990. pp. 275–320. OI: https://doi.org/10.3406/dha.1990.1491 www.persee.fr/doc/dha_0755-7256_1990_num_16_2_1491

External links

Celtic Gods and Associates
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Gaulish gods
Gods of the ancient Britons
Thunder gods
Jovian deities