Poeninus

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In ancient times there was a temple near the statue of St. Bernard today

Poeninus was a Celtic god who was worshiped in antiquity on the pass of the Great St. Bernhard . He was equated with the Roman god father Jupiter , which is typical for mountain gods.

history

The Roman historian Titus Livius reported that the Veragrer and the Seduner had worshiped the god Poeninus on the highest peak of the Poeninum iugum (Gr. St. Bernhard) pass .

A little south of the top of the pass, a Roman temple (7.4 × 11.3 meters) and the remains of a rest house (mansio) were excavated and examined by archaeologists. Around 50 bronze tablets were found that were dedicated to the Poeninus or Iuppiter Optimus Maximus Poeninus (and similar). A small bronze statue of the god was also found. Other finds such as jewelry and Celtic coins show that a sanctuary stood on the top of the pass even before the Roman occupation. The finds are in the hospice museum on Gr. St. Bernhard exhibited.

The temple was destroyed in 394 and the Christian Emperor Theodosius I rewarded the looters. After that, no cultic gifts appear to have been deposited on the pass. Nevertheless, the Gr. St. Bernhard still in the Middle Ages Mons Iovis (»Jupiterberg«; French : Mont-Joux ).

According to the legend, Bernhard von Aosta († 1081) had a hospice built on the pass. From the 13th century the name Mont-Saint-Bernard appears and today there is a statue of Saint Bernard in the place of the ancient temple.

Surname

The name is not really interpreted. It is assumed that Poeninus, like the Apennines, means "mountain, mountain range". In ancient times, the Valais Alps ( lat . Alpes Poeninae ) and Valais (lat. Vallis Poeninae ) were named after Poeninus. The name has been preserved to this day in the valley name Valpelline southeast of the pass and north of Aosta .

See also

literature

  • Helmut Birkhan : Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-7001-2609-3 .
  • Ernst Howald, Ernst Meyer: The Roman Switzerland . Zurich 1940 (inscriptions no. 72–89).
  • Gerold Walser: Studies on the history of the Alps in ancient times . 1994, ISBN 3-515-06498-2 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Titus Livius: From Urbe Condita XXI, 38,9.
  2. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. Pp. 94, 684.
  3. ↑ Aurelius Augustine : De Civitate Dei 5:26