Taranis

Taranis (sometimes Taranus or Tanarus) is a Celtic thunder god attested in literary and epigraphic sources.

The Roman poet Lucan's epic ''Pharsalia'' mentions Taranis, Esus, and Teutates as gods to whom the Gauls sacrificed humans. This rare mention of Celtic gods under their native names in a Latin text has been the subject of much comment. Almost as often commented on are the scholia to Lucan's poem (early medieval, but relying on earlier sources) which tell us the nature of these sacrifices: in particular, that the victims of Taranis were burned in a hollow wooden container. This sacrifice has been compared with the wicker man described by Caesar.

These scholia also tell us that Taranis was perhaps either equated by the Romans with Dis Pater, Roman god of the underworld, or Jupiter, Roman god of weather. Scholars have preferred the latter equation to the former, as Taranis is also equated with Jupiter in inscriptions. Both identifications have been studied against Caesar's lapidary remarks about the Gaulish Jupiter and Gaulish Dis Pater.

The equation of Taranis with Jupiter has been reason for some scholars to identify Taranis with the "wheel god" of the Celts. This god, known only from iconographic sources, is depicted with a spoked wheel and the attributes of Jupiter (including a thunderbolt). No direct evidence links Taranis with the wheel god, so other scholars have expressed reservations about this identification.

Various inscriptions attest to Taranis's worship, dating between the 4th century BCE to the 3rd century CE. Scholars have drawn contrary conclusions about the importance of Taranis from the distribution of these inscriptions.

Name

Etymology and development

Taranis's name derives from proto-Celtic ("thunder"), which in turn derives from the proto-Indo-European root ("to thunder"). Through the proto-Celtic etymon, the theonym is cognate with words for thunder in Old Irish (), Old Breton (), Middle Welsh (), and (as a loan word into a non-Celtic language) the Gascon dialect of French ().

During the development of Celtic, the word for thunder seem to have undergone a metathesis (transposition of syllables) from to . The question of whether the Chester altar (discussed below) should be read as attesting to an unmetathesised form of the god's name, Tanaris, was for a long time controversial. However, the discovery of a dedication to ("Jupiter Tanaris") in Dalmatia confirms that such a form did exist.

Thunder god

The association with thunder, suggested by the etymology of Taranis's name, is confirmed by his equation with Jupiter. Taranis's name corresponds etymologically to that of the Germanic god Donar (i.e., Thor). Peter Jackson has conjectured that the theonyms Taranis and Donar (as well as perhaps the epithet Tonans of Jupiter) originated as a result of the "fossilization of an original epithet or epiklesis" of the proto-Indo-European thunder god *Perkʷūnos. Calvert Watkins compared Taranis's name with the name of the Hittite weather god Tarḫunna. However, John T. Koch pointed out that an etymology linking the two theonyms would reverse the order of the metathesis (so that Taranis precedes Tanaris) and therefore compromise the proto-Indo-European etymology.

Lucan and the scholia

Lucan

Lucan's ''Pharsalia'' or ''De Bello Civili'' (''On the Civil War'') is an epic poem, begun about 61 CE, on the events of Caesar's civil war (49–48 BCE). The passage relevant to Taranis occurs in "Gallic excursus", an epic catalogue detailing the rejoicing of the various Gaulish peoples after Caesar removed his legions from Gaul (where they were intended to control the natives) to Italy. The passage thus brings out two themes of Lucan's work, the barbarity of the Gauls and the unpatriotism of Caesar.

The substance of the last few lines is this: unspecified Gauls, who made human sacrifices to their gods Teutates, Esus, and Taranis, were overjoyed by the exit of Caesar's troops from their territory. The reference to "Diana of the Scythians" refers to the human sacrifices demanded by Diana at her temple in Scythian Taurica, well known in antiquity. That Lucan says little about these gods is not surprising. Lucan's aims were poetic, and not historical or ethnographic. The poet never travelled to Gaul and relied on secondary sources for his knowledge of Gaulish religion. When he neglects to add more, this may well reflect the limits of his knowledge.

We have no literary sources prior to Lucan which mention these deities, and the few which mention them after Lucan (in the case of Taranis, Papias alone) rely on this passage. The secondary sources on Celtic religion which Lucan relied on in this passage (perhaps Posidonius) have not come down to us. This passage is one of the very few in classical literature in which Celtic gods are mentioned under their native names, rather than identified with Greek or Roman gods. This departure from classical practice likely had poetic intent: emphasising the barbarity and exoticness the Gauls, whom Caesar had left to their own devices.

Some scholars, such as de Vries, have argued that the three gods mentioned together here (Esus, Teutates, and Taranis) formed a divine triad in ancient Gaulish religion. However, there is little other evidence associating these gods with each other. Other scholars, such as Graham Webster, emphasise that Lucan may as well have chosen these deity-names for their scansion and harsh sound.

Scholia

Lucan's ''Pharsalia'' was a very popular school text in late antiquity and the medieval period. This created a demand for commentaries and scholia dealing with difficulties in the work, both in grammar and subject matter. The earliest Lucan scholia that have come down to us are the ''Commenta Bernensia'' and ''Adnotationes Super Lucanum'', both from manuscripts datable between the 9th and 11th centuries. Also important are comments from a Cologne codex (the ''Glossen ad Lucan''), dating to the 11th and 12th centuries. In spite of their late date, these scholia are thought to incorporate very ancient material, some of it now lost. The ''Commenta'' and ''Adnotationes'' are known to contain material at least as old as Servius the Grammarian (4th century CE). Below are excerpts from these scholia relevant to Taranis:

The first excerpt, about the sacrifice to Taranis, comes from a passage in the ''Commenta'' which details the human sacrifices offered each of to the three gods (persons were suspended from trees and dismembered for Esus, persons were drowned in a barrel for Teutates). This passage, which is not paralleled anywhere else in classical literature, has been much the subject of much commentary. It seems to have been preserved in the ''Commenta'' by virtue of its author's preference for factual (over grammatical) explanation. The ''Adnotationes'', by comparison, tell us nothing about the sacrifices to Esus, Teutates, and Taranis beyond that they were each murderous.

The ''Commenta'' tells us that as sacrifices to Taranis, several people were burned in a wooden . The Latin word is translated above as "tub", but it could applied to any hollow container. In various settings, the term could be used to mean a ship's hull, a bath tub, a drainage basin, a canoe, or a beehive. Miranda Green linked this sacrifice with the wicker man, the well-known wooden figure in which (according to Caesar and Strabo) humans were burned as sacrifices.

The ''interpretatio romana'' of Taranis as Jupiter, given by all three commentaries, is otherwise attested in epigraphy, and agrees with our understanding of Taranis as a thunder god. By contrast, the ''interpretatio'' of Taranis as Dis Pater, which only the ''Commenta'' gives, is quite obscure. It is not given in any inscription, and we do not know what Taranis had to do with the underworld. Manfred Hainzmann points out that Dis was associated in Latin literature with the night sky and night thunderstorms. Statius, for example, refers to Dis Pater as the "thunderer of the underworld" (''Thebaid'', 11.209).

In the course of giving the ''interpretatio'' of Taranis as Jupiter, the scholiast of the ''Commenta'' mentions that Taranis was "leader of wars". This is an unusual trait to associate with Jupiter rather than Mars (Roman god of war), though the Romans occasionally gave Jupiter martial functions. Hofeneder has associated the comment that Taranis was "appeased with human heads" with this martial function, as the (pre-Roman) Celtic custom of carrying off their foes' heads in battle is well-attested. The scholiast describes a transition from human to animal sacrifice, probably connected to the suppression of human sacrifice in Gaul in the Imperial period.

Caesar states in his '' Commentaries on the Gallic War'' that the Gauls regarded a Gaulish god (whom Caesar equated with Dis Pater) as their ancestor. As Taranis is the only Celtic god equated with Dis Pater in ancient literary sources, Taranis has often been a cited as a candidate for Gaulish Dis Pater. On the other hand, Caesar also briefly refers to an unnamed Gaulish god who "rules over all the gods" (), and whom he equates with Jupiter. It has been suggested that Taranis is behind this description. The similarity between Caesar's description of Gaulish Jupiter, and the ''Commenta'' description of Taranis as "chief of the heavenly gods" (), has been noted, though this may reflect reliance on Caesar's text or a routine characterisation of the Roman god Jupiter.

Taranis and the wheel god

The wheel god () is a figure of Celtic religious iconography, a god wielding a spoked wheel. The wheel god is often depicted with the attributes of Jupiter: thunderbolt, sceptre, and eagle. The spoked wheel was an important religious motif for the Celts. Metal votive wheels (known as ') are known from Iron Age Europe. The '' Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae'' lists 15 depictions of the wheel god. Some are statuettes of the god dressed in Gaulish garb, with a wheel in one hand and a thunderbolt in the other. A mosaic from Saint-Romain-en-Gal shows a woman and a man leaving sacrifices to such a statuette. An obscure scene on the Gundestrup cauldron perhaps shows a leaping devotee offering a wheel to the wheel god. The so-called Jupiter columns, religious monuments widespread in Germania, are frequently crowned with an equestrian god, who sometimes wields a wheel.

Because both were identified with Jupiter, Taranis has been repeatedly equated with the wheel god (for example, by Pierre Lambrechts, , and Anne Ross). However, nothing connects the gods directly. No inscription links Taranis with wheel iconography. Some scholars have rejected this equation. Green rejects it, and argues that the wheel god was a solar deity; naturally identifiable with Jupiter, but distinct from the thunder god Taranis. and both express scepticism in their studies of Jupiter columns in Germany. Árpád M. Nagy described the equation as "probable, but not binding".

In any case, the combination of the thunderbolt and wheel as attributes is not unique to one deity: Hercules is occasionally depicted with these attributes in the Latin West, and a female deity with a thunderbolt and wheel is known from a statue in Autun.

Epigraphy

, Inscribed on an object (perhaps a keyhandle) made from staghorn. Found in Sottopedonda, in the Fiemme Valley, Italy.
,
, Raetic
,
FI-1
, The god Taranis (in the form Tarani) is invoked twice in this obscure (perhaps magico-religious) Raetic inscription. Simona Marchesini has argued that the absence of the Celtic final -s suggests "the god's name was well integrated in the Raetic world".
, -
, (translit. )
, Inscribed on a small cippus. Found in Orgon, Bouches-du-Rhône, France.
,
, Gaulish
, '' RIG''
G-27
, Lejeune offers the translation "Vebrumaros offered Taranus in gratitude (?) the tithe (?)".RIG
G-27
via ''Recueil informatisé des inscriptions gauloises''. Accessed on 16 January 2025.
, -
,
, Inscribed on an altar. Found in Bribir, Dalmatia, Croatia.'' AE'
2010, 1225
/ref>
,
, Latin
, '' AE'
2010, 1225
,
, -
,
, Inscribed on a terracotta jug. Found near Amiens, Somme, France.'' AE'
1966, 269
/ref>
,
, Latin
,
, Another inscription found nearby () suggests the find-spot was originally a place of religious significance.
, -
,
, Found in Caesarodunum (Roman Tours), Indre-et-Loire

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