Taranis
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In Celtic mythology Taranis was a god of thunder worshipped in Gaul and Britain and mentioned, along with Esus and Toutatis, by the Roman poet Lucan in his epic poem Pharsalia. He was associated, as was the cyclops Brontes (Thunder) in Greek mythology, with the wheel and may have received human sacrifices. He is likely connected with the Anglo-Saxon god ̃unor, the Norse Thor, Ambisagrus and the Irish Tuireann.
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Classical References
A well-known section in Lucan's Bellum civile talks about the gory sacrificial offerings proffered to a triad of Celtic deities: Teutates, Esus, and Taranis.
Etymology & Fundamental Nature
The reconstructed lexis of the Proto-Celtic language as collated by the University of Wales [1] (http://www.wales.ac.uk/documents/external/cawcs/pcl-moe.pdf) suggests that the name is likely to be ultimately derived from the Proto-Celtic *Toranos . This Proto-Celtic word connotes the semantics of ‘Thunder.’
Parallels in non-Celtic cultures?
If the theory is correct that Taranis is in fact a personification of ‘thunder’, this allow one to draw parallels with such beings in the mythology of other cultures as Thor, Brontes, Indra, Ostots.
Bibliography
- Ellis, Peter Berresford, Dictionary of Celtic Mythology(Oxford Paperback Reference), Oxford University Press, (1994): ISBN: 0195089618
- MacKillop, James. Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0192801201.
- Wood, Juliette, The Celts: Life, Myth, and Art, Thorsons Publishers (2002): ISBN: 0007640595
External Links
[2] (http://www.mythome.org/celtic.html) [3] (http://www.paralumun.com/celticgod.htm) [4] (http://www.daire.org/names/deities.html) [5] (http://www.wales.ac.uk/documents/external/cawcs/pcl-moe.pdf)pt:Taranis