Maponos

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Maponos or Maponus is a Celtic god of hunting and youth, probably also of fertility and light . He was especially venerated in the north of Britain near Hadrian's Wall and equated with the Roman god Apollo in the Romano-British period .

Etymology and veneration

The name "Maponos" is derived from the Celtic "Mapos" ("son", "child") and the final syllable "-onos", which occurs as a frequent ending of god names, compare also Irish mac and Welsh mab .

Maponus, some places of worship were prepared in the area between Hadrian's Wall and Antonine Wall , the place name Lochmaben in Dumfriesshire still reminds of this. A probable "Mapunus head" was found at Corbridge . Some inscriptions, especially on the altar of Hexham Abbey (near Newcastle upon Tyne ) with the text APOLLINI / MAPONO / Q TERENTIUS / QF [] OVF / FIRMUS SAEN / PRAEF CAST / LEG VI PF / DD, testify to his veneration in Northern England (RIB 1120).

The god was probably also worshiped by the mainland Celts of Gaul . The inscription in Rouen and the lead tablet from Chamalières , discovered in 1971, also have designations with “Mapanos”. The lead tablet is a so-called escape tablet in the Gallic language from the first half of the 1st century AD. and with 336 letters or 64 words is the second longest Gallic text found so far after the escape table from Larzac . It is now in the Bargoin Museum in Clermont-Ferrand . Léon Fleuriot suspected a message of victory in the very controversial inscription, Wolfgang Meid more likely a report on the healing of eye diseases, more recent researchers tend to use an escape board or a Maponus invocation. In it, the subterranean people are supposed to induce Maponus to make some Romans named sick because of perjury (PY Lambert).

In the neo-pagan Wicca cult and parts of modern Druidism , the festival of the autumn equinox is named after the Welsh legendary figure Mabon and Mabon or Maponos is interpreted as the incarnation of the young god of light or sun , who is born by the mother goddess in autumn or at mid-winter .

The name of the Welsh legendary figure Mabon , the son of Modron ("mother") and possibly Mellt ("lightning") is related . In the Cymrian saga of Kulhwch and Olwen he is called the greatest hunter in Britain and has to be freed from his captivity in Gloucester by King Arthur . The Irish legendary figure Angus MacOg is also often used for comparison, because this also represents the archetype of the young Celtic god, the son of the mother goddess and the god of heaven (in Wales Modron and Mellt, in Ireland Boand and Dagda ).

Further figures from the Arthurian legend that are etymologically related may be

  • the Mabuz , possibly analogous to Mabon ,
  • the knight Mabonagrain , whose name is of Celtic origin, and that of Maponos, with that of the also attested Celtic Apollo hyposthase Grannus .

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. P. 261 f.
  2. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. Pp. 428, 669.
  3. ^ AE 1975, 568 Vindolanda at Hexham, Province of Britannia Deo Mapono
    RIB 583, 1120–1122, 2063
  4. ^ Bernhard Maier: Lexicon of the Celtic religion and culture . P. 225.
  5. ^ Bernhard Maier: Lexicon of the Celtic religion and culture . P. 75 f.
  6. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. Pp. 623, 911,929.