Community hub
Recent from talks
Contribute something to knowledge base
Content stats: 0 posts, 0 articles, 0 media, 0 notes
Members stats: 0 subscribers, 0 contributors, 0 moderators, 0 supporters
Subscribers
Supporters
Contributors
Moderators
Hub AI
Gaulish Dis Pater AI simulator
(@Gaulish Dis Pater_simulator)
Hub AI
Gaulish Dis Pater AI simulator
(@Gaulish Dis Pater_simulator)
Gaulish Dis Pater
In Book 6 of his Commentaries on the Gallic War, Julius Caesar refers to a Gaulish god whom the druids believed that all the Gauls were descended from. He does not give this god's name, but (following the practice of interpretatio romana) refers to him under the name of a Roman god he deemed comparable: Dis Pater, Roman god of prosperity and of the underworld.
The identification of the god behind Caesar's description has been a long-standing subject of Celtic religious research. The most often cited candidate for "Gaulish Dis Pater" is Sucellus, a mallet-wielding god of the Gauls. The arguments for this identification are largely based on iconographic parallels with mallet-wielding figures in Etruscan, Greek, and Roman mythology. Other major candidates include Taranis, the only Celtic god elsewhere identified with Dis Pater in classical literature, and Cernunnos, a Celtic god who perhaps had chthonic/fertility associations.
The passage in which Caesar described Gaulish Dis Pater has also been appreciated for the light it throws on Celtic date-keeping, and its innovative ethnographic methods. Greco-Roman ethnography prior to Caesar usually attempted to fit the origins of barbarian peoples into Greek mythological frameworks. Caesar broke with this in reproducing a native Gaulish tradition about their descent. Elias Bickerman deemed this passage a "Copernican discovery" in the history of Greco-Roman ethnography.
The Commentaries on the Gallic War is Caesar's first-hand account of the Gallic Wars (58–50 BCE), written during or shortly after those wars. His first-hand acquaintance with the Gauls (as well as his access to earlier, now-lost, works on the Celts) makes the work an invaluable source for Gaulish religion, although not an unproblematic one. In Book 6 of the Commentaries, Caesar describes (under Roman names) the five main deities worshipped in Gaul (§6.17); in the following section (§6.18) he adds one more to this pantheon:
The Gauls affirm that they are all descended from a common father, Dis Pater, and say that this is the tradition of the Druids. For that reason they determine all periods of time by the number, not of days, but of nights, and in their observance of birthdays and the beginnings of months and years day follows night.
Caesar refers to the Gaulish god from whom the Celts claimed descendance under the name of a Roman god, Dis Pater. Such a practice, of referring to foreign deities under Roman names, was called by Tacitus the interpretatio romana (Roman interpretation). A foreign god was equated with a Roman one on the basis of their similarity, however superficial; usually it was sufficient that the gods have one sphere of influence in common. The practice was fairly flexible in the Celtic regions, where one Celtic god could have multiple Roman equivalents, and one Roman god many Celtic equivalents. In Roman accounts of Celtic or Germanic religion, the application of interpretatio romana is the rule. Nonetheless, Caesar's application of this device in one of the most detailed surviving accounts of Celtic religion has caused much difficulty for scholars. The identification of Gaulish Dis Pater has been a long-standing subject of Celtic religious research.
An excursus on the origin of Celtic people is a frequent feature of classical ethnographies of the Celts. However, classical ethnographies of barbarian peoples prior to Caesar, as a rule, gave Greek mythological explanations of their origins. Thus, Timaeus explains the Celtic Galatians as descendants of Galates, a son of Polyphemus; and Parthenius explains the Celts as descendants of Keltus, a son of Heracles; among many other such traditions. Caesar broke with this tradition in reproducing, and crediting, a native Celtic tradition about their own origins. Elias Bickerman refers to this a "Copernican discovery" in the history of Greco-Roman ethnography.
Caesar connects the druidic traditions about Gaulish Dis Pater with the Celtic practice of date-keeping by nights. Evidence for this practice among the Celts is otherwise given by the Gaulish words designating three- and ten-day feasts, tri-noxtion ("three nights") and decam-noctiacus ("ten nights"), and the modern Welsh words for week and fortnight, wythnos ("eight nights") and pythefnos ("fifteen nights"). Though unfamiliar to the Romans, such a method of date-keeping is not cross-culturally rare; the Greeks, Arabs, and Germanic peoples all made some use of it (indeed, the English word "fortnight" is a remnant of such a Germanic practice). It is not clear whether the connection between date-keeping and Gaulish Dis Pater is a surmise of Caesar's or a tradition of the druids.
Gaulish Dis Pater
In Book 6 of his Commentaries on the Gallic War, Julius Caesar refers to a Gaulish god whom the druids believed that all the Gauls were descended from. He does not give this god's name, but (following the practice of interpretatio romana) refers to him under the name of a Roman god he deemed comparable: Dis Pater, Roman god of prosperity and of the underworld.
The identification of the god behind Caesar's description has been a long-standing subject of Celtic religious research. The most often cited candidate for "Gaulish Dis Pater" is Sucellus, a mallet-wielding god of the Gauls. The arguments for this identification are largely based on iconographic parallels with mallet-wielding figures in Etruscan, Greek, and Roman mythology. Other major candidates include Taranis, the only Celtic god elsewhere identified with Dis Pater in classical literature, and Cernunnos, a Celtic god who perhaps had chthonic/fertility associations.
The passage in which Caesar described Gaulish Dis Pater has also been appreciated for the light it throws on Celtic date-keeping, and its innovative ethnographic methods. Greco-Roman ethnography prior to Caesar usually attempted to fit the origins of barbarian peoples into Greek mythological frameworks. Caesar broke with this in reproducing a native Gaulish tradition about their descent. Elias Bickerman deemed this passage a "Copernican discovery" in the history of Greco-Roman ethnography.
The Commentaries on the Gallic War is Caesar's first-hand account of the Gallic Wars (58–50 BCE), written during or shortly after those wars. His first-hand acquaintance with the Gauls (as well as his access to earlier, now-lost, works on the Celts) makes the work an invaluable source for Gaulish religion, although not an unproblematic one. In Book 6 of the Commentaries, Caesar describes (under Roman names) the five main deities worshipped in Gaul (§6.17); in the following section (§6.18) he adds one more to this pantheon:
The Gauls affirm that they are all descended from a common father, Dis Pater, and say that this is the tradition of the Druids. For that reason they determine all periods of time by the number, not of days, but of nights, and in their observance of birthdays and the beginnings of months and years day follows night.
Caesar refers to the Gaulish god from whom the Celts claimed descendance under the name of a Roman god, Dis Pater. Such a practice, of referring to foreign deities under Roman names, was called by Tacitus the interpretatio romana (Roman interpretation). A foreign god was equated with a Roman one on the basis of their similarity, however superficial; usually it was sufficient that the gods have one sphere of influence in common. The practice was fairly flexible in the Celtic regions, where one Celtic god could have multiple Roman equivalents, and one Roman god many Celtic equivalents. In Roman accounts of Celtic or Germanic religion, the application of interpretatio romana is the rule. Nonetheless, Caesar's application of this device in one of the most detailed surviving accounts of Celtic religion has caused much difficulty for scholars. The identification of Gaulish Dis Pater has been a long-standing subject of Celtic religious research.
An excursus on the origin of Celtic people is a frequent feature of classical ethnographies of the Celts. However, classical ethnographies of barbarian peoples prior to Caesar, as a rule, gave Greek mythological explanations of their origins. Thus, Timaeus explains the Celtic Galatians as descendants of Galates, a son of Polyphemus; and Parthenius explains the Celts as descendants of Keltus, a son of Heracles; among many other such traditions. Caesar broke with this tradition in reproducing, and crediting, a native Celtic tradition about their own origins. Elias Bickerman refers to this a "Copernican discovery" in the history of Greco-Roman ethnography.
Caesar connects the druidic traditions about Gaulish Dis Pater with the Celtic practice of date-keeping by nights. Evidence for this practice among the Celts is otherwise given by the Gaulish words designating three- and ten-day feasts, tri-noxtion ("three nights") and decam-noctiacus ("ten nights"), and the modern Welsh words for week and fortnight, wythnos ("eight nights") and pythefnos ("fifteen nights"). Though unfamiliar to the Romans, such a method of date-keeping is not cross-culturally rare; the Greeks, Arabs, and Germanic peoples all made some use of it (indeed, the English word "fortnight" is a remnant of such a Germanic practice). It is not clear whether the connection between date-keeping and Gaulish Dis Pater is a surmise of Caesar's or a tradition of the druids.