Vellaunus is a Celtic god known from two inscriptions. He was equated to the Roman god Mercury. [1]
The deity Vellaunus is known from two inscriptions.
The first, found at Caerwent, is the base of a state recording the dedication of the statue to:
Above this base there survives only a pair of human feet and those of a goose. [3] The dedication dates to AD 152. Mars Lenus was a god of the Treveri with great cult centres at Trier and Pommern; Ocelus was a local British deity, to whom another stone was inscribed at Caerwent, and who was also worshipped at Carlisle. Mars Lenus was clearly equated in Britain with other, localised Celtic divinities.
The second inscription dedicated to Vellaunus was located at Hières-sur-Amby in the territory of the Allobroges in southern Gaul. It reads:
Here Vellaunus occurs as one of several epithets of Mercury.
The root uellauno- is attested in compounds of Celtic onomastics. Some examples include toponym Vellaunodunum, [5] and ethnonyms Segovellauni and Catuvellauni, a tribe of southeastern Britain, [6] whose name may also be cognate with Catalauni (Châlons-sur-Marne) and Catalaunia (Catalonia). [7]
Individual names include goddess Icovellauna; British leader Cassivellaunos, later famous in Welsh legend as Caswallawn; Vercassivellaunos, Dubnovellaunus [8] and Cadwallon.
The meaning of uellauno- has been variously interpreted. It has been glossed by Pierre-Henri Billy as "bon" (good); [9] however, Pierre-Yves Lambert derives it from *uelna-mon-, meaning "chef, commandant, dirigeant" (chief, commander, leader). The latter derivation has been accepted as definitive by Xavier Delamarre [7] and accords well with the Latin epithet victor found alongside vellaunus in the Hières inscription. Celticist Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel also translated Vellaunus as "Führer" ('leader'). [10]
Belenus is an ancient Celtic healing god. The cult of Belenus stretched from the Italian Peninsula to the British Isles, with a main sanctuary located at Aquileia, on the Adriatic coast. Through interpretatio romana, Belenus was often identified with Apollo, although his cult seems to have preserved a certain degree of autonomy during the Roman period.
Condatis was an ancient Celtic deity worshipped primarily in northern Britain but also in Gaul. He was associated with the confluences of rivers, in particular within County Durham in the North of England. Condatis is known from several inscriptions in Britain and a single inscription found at Alonnes, Sarthe, France. In each case he is equated with the Roman god Mars.
Grannus was a Celtic deity of classical antiquity. He was regularly identified with Apollo as Apollo Grannus and frequently worshipped in conjunction with Sirona, and sometimes with Mars and other deities.
In Gallo-Roman religion, Loucetios was a Gallic god known from the Rhine-Moselle region, where he was identified with the Roman Mars. Scholars have interpreted his name to mean ‘lightning’. Mars Loucetius was worshipped alongside the goddess Nemetona.
Lugus is a Celtic god whose worship is attested in the epigraphic record. No depictions of the god are known. Lugus perhaps also appears in Roman sources and medieval Insular mythology.
In ancient Celtic religion, Maponos or Maponus is a god of youth known mainly in northern Britain but also in Gaul. In Roman Britain, he was equated with Apollo.
The Silures were a powerful and warlike tribe or tribal confederation of ancient Britain, occupying what is now south east Wales and perhaps some adjoining areas. They were bordered to the north by the Ordovices; to the east by the Dobunni; and to the west by the Demetae.
Gobannus was a Gallo-Roman smithing god.
Lenus was a Celtic god of healing, good fortune, and protection in battle, worshipped mainly in eastern Gaul, where he was almost always identified with the Roman god Mars.
Veraudunus is the name of a Celtic god known only from two votive inscriptions found in Luxembourg. One of these inscriptions suggests that ‘Veraudunus’ may have been an epithet of the important Treveran god Lenus Mars. In both inscriptions, Veraudunus is invoked along with Inciona.
Ocelus is a Celtic god known from three inscriptions in Roman Britain. He is twice invoked on dedications at Caerwent: one stone is the base of a statue of which only a pair of human feet and a pair of goose feet survive. The invocation is to Mars Lenus or Ocelus Vellaunus and to the numen of the emperor, and was dedicated on 23 August AD 152. The second Caerwent inscription dedicates an altar to Mars Ocelus. The god was also venerated at Carlisle, where he was once more equated with Mars and again linked to the imperial cult. So Ocelus seems to have been a British, perhaps Silurian god, associated with Mars, probably in the latter's Celtic capacity as a protector. At Caerwent he is linked with Lenus, a Treveran healing deity, and with Vellaunus, who is also recorded among the Gaulish Allobroges; the name "Vellaunus" has been glossed as 'chief' or 'commander'.
Cicolluis or Cicoluis is a god in Celtic mythology worshiped by the ancient Gauls and having a parallel in Ireland.
The Alauni were a Gallic tribe dwelling around the lake Chiemsee during the Roman period.
The Eburovīcēs or Aulercī Eburovīcēs were a Gallic tribe dwelling in the modern Eure department during the Iron Age and the Roman period. They were part of the Aulerci.
The Latobici or Latovici were a Celtic tribe dwelling in Pannonia Superior, around present-day Drnovo (Slovenia), during the Roman period.
The gods and goddesses of the pre-Christian Celtic peoples are known from a variety of sources, including ancient places of worship, statues, engravings, cult objects, and place or personal names. The ancient Celts appear to have had a pantheon of deities comparable to others in Indo-European religion, each linked to aspects of life and the natural world. Epona was an exception and retained without association with any Roman deity. By a process of syncretism, after the Roman conquest of Celtic areas, most of these became associated with their Roman equivalents, and their worship continued until Christianization. Pre-Roman Celtic art produced few images of deities, and these are hard to identify, lacking inscriptions, but in the post-conquest period many more images were made, some with inscriptions naming the deity. Most of the specific information we have therefore comes from Latin writers and the archaeology of the post-conquest period. More tentatively, links can be made between ancient Celtic deities and figures in early medieval Irish and Welsh literature, although all these works were produced well after Christianization.
The Dexivates were a small Gallic tribe dwelling in the southern part of modern Vaucluse, near the present-day village of Cadenet, during the Iron Age and the Roman period.
Proto-Celtic paganism was the beliefs of the speakers of Proto-Celtic and includes topics such as the mythology, legendry, folk tales, and folk beliefs of early Celtic culture. By way of the comparative method, Celtic philologists, a variety of historical linguists, have proposed reconstructions of entities, locations, and concepts with various levels of security in early Celtic folklore and mythology. The present article includes both reconstructed forms and proposed motifs from the early Celtic period.
The Budenicenses were a small Gallic tribe dwelling in the present-day Gard department, near Nemausos, during the Roman period.
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