Taranis

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Taranis ( Jupiter with wheel and thunderbolt), Le Chatelet, Gourzon, Haute, Marne

Taranis is a Celtic god of sky, weather, and thunder. According to the Roman poet Lucan , he stood with Teutates and Esus at the head of the Celtic world of gods.

Etymology of the name Taranis

Taranis is generally interpreted as "the thunderer", related are the Welsh "Taran" and the Irish "Torann" (both with the meaning "thunder"). The matter and possibly also the name is related to the Germanic thunder god Donar / Thor . Variants of the name attested to in writing or derived from inscriptions are Taranus (derived from the dative Ταρανοου from an inscription from Orgon, Bouches-du-Rhône : RIG I G-27); Taranucnus (Rhineland CIL XIII, 6478 ; probably to be interpreted as "Donner-Sohn") and Taranucus ( Dalmatia CIL III, 2804 ). In Britain he is attested as IOM TANARO (Chester: The Roman Inscriptions of Britain (RIB) [1] ).

"Taran" also appears as the personal name of various Pictish kings. In the Welsh " Four Branches of Mabinogi " a "Taran" is the father of the hero Glinnew.

Taranis in the Lucan tradition

The mention in Lucan does not primarily refer to the Celtic deities, but only uses them to describe the Ligurians or Gauls, emphasizing the particular cruelty or ferocity of their cult:

" Et quibus inmitis placatur sanguine diro
Teutates horrensque feris altaribus Esus
et Taranis Scythicae non mitior ara Dianae "

" And you, from whom the cruel
Teutates is appeased with terrible blood , and on wild altars the terrible Esus
and Taranis, the altar of the Scythian Diana is no less cruel "

- Marcus Annaeus Lucanus : ( De bello civili I, 444-446):

The reference to the Scythian Diana in the older literature sometimes gave the impression that Taranis was understood by Lucan as a female deity, or the assumption that the Celtic name was originally a feminine appellative to denote the thunder deity who was then reinterpreted as a male deity.

The Commenta Bernensia ( Bernese Lucan Scholien ), a collection of Lucan glosses of late antique provenance, which were prepared for school lessons in Carolingian times and which are handed down in a Bernese manuscript from the 10th century, contribute to Taranis explanations from two different traditions. According to one, Taranis corresponded to the underworld god Dis Pater (i.e. Pluto ) and sacrifices were made to him by burning people in a wooden hollow or trough ("in alveo ligneo"). After the other, he was the supreme god of war and heaven, superior to the other gods and equated with Jupiter , and in earlier times human heads were offered to him as sacrifices, but later cattle.

The interpretation as Jupiter, also repeatedly attested to in inscriptions, would suggest to see in him the Gallic Jupiter mentioned by Julius Caesar in De Bello Gallico , who (according to Caesar) ruled the heavenly powers in the minds of the Gauls. As a Dis Pater , on the other hand, he would have to be identified with the god from whom, according to Caesar, the Gauls believed they descended.

Rider of a giant column of Jupiter from Obernburg am Main ( Römermuseum Obernburg ), Jupiter with a wheel as an attribute.

iconography

In general, Taranis is identified with the Celtic type of the so-called "wheel god", who carries a wheel or wheel symbol or a wheel cross in his hands. (The most famous representation of the "wheel god" can be found on the Gundestrup cauldron , even if the god depicted only holds a halved wheel there). Late antique depictions are clearly influenced by Mediterranean statues of Jupiter, which show him bearded and with a thunderbolt . The representations on the " Jupiter giant columns " are particularly famous . Early Celtic representations, on the other hand, are much rarer and more difficult to identify and are usually classified as such using the wheel symbol mentioned. The interpretation of the wheel is not clear. In addition to the wheel as a sun symbol , interpretations as a moon sign, seasonal symbol, symbol of time or world order or even as a ball lightning have been suggested.

cult

The burning of people mentioned in the Bern glossary has been linked to more general reports from Diodor , Strabo and Poseidonios , not specifically related to Taranis , according to which people were burned in large willow networks. Diodorus and Poseidonios also talk about burnt victims of animals (according to Diodorus, animals captured in war). According to Diodorus, the people who were sacrificed were convicted criminals who were also shot with arrows or staked (i.e. the convicts were not burned alive, but handed over to the fire of sacrifice after their execution).

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Taranis  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Rudolf Much: The Germanic god of heaven. In: Treatises on Germanic Philology: Festgabe für Richard Heinzel , Niemeyer, Halle 1898 (reprint Olms, Hildesheim 1985), pp. 189–278; 227 ff.
  2. ^ Hermann Usener: Scholia in Lucani Bellum civile. Pars prior: Commenta Bernensia , Teubner, Leipzig 1869
  3. ↑ Ed. Usener, p. 32, lines 15-16: "Taranis Ditis pater hoc modo aput eos placatur: in alueo ligneo aliquod homines cremantur"
  4. ↑ Ed. Usener, p. 32, lines 22-23: "et praesidem bellorum et caelestium deorum maximum Taranin Iouem adsuetum olim humanis placari capitibus, nunc uero gaudere pecorum."