thumb|alt=Altar to Taranis|Altar from [[Orgon, France with a Gaulish inscription recording an offering to Taranis.]]
Taranis (sometimes Taranus or Tanarus) is a Celtic thunder god attested in literary and epigraphic sources.
The Roman poet Lucan's epic Pharsalia mentions Taranis, Esus, and Teutates as gods to whom the Gauls sacrificed humans. This rare mention of Celtic gods under their native names in a Latin text has been the subject of much comment. Almost as often commented on are the scholia to Lucan's poem (early medieval, but relying on earlier sources) which tell us the nature of these sacrifices: in particular, that the victims of Taranis were burned in a hollow wooden container. This sacrifice has been compared with the wicker man described by Caesar.
These scholia also tell us that Taranis was perhaps either equated by the Romans with Dis Pater, Roman god of the underworld, or Jupiter, Roman god of weather. Scholars have preferred the latter equation to the former, as Taranis is also equated with Jupiter in inscriptions. Both identifications have been studied against Caesar's lapidary remarks about the Gaulish Jupiter and Gaulish Dis Pater.
The equation of Taranis with Jupiter has been reason for some scholars to identify Taranis with the "wheel god" of the Celts. This god, known only from iconographic sources, is depicted with a spoked wheel and the attributes of Jupiter (including a thunderbolt). No direct evidence links Taranis with the wheel god, so other scholars have expressed reservations about this identification.
Various inscriptions attest to Taranis's worship, dating between the 4th century BCE and the 3rd century CE. Scholars have drawn contrary conclusions about the importance of Taranis from the distribution of these inscriptions.
Name
alt=Drawing of an altar to Taranis|thumb|Altar dedicated to Jupiter Tanaris from [[Chester, England]]
Etymology and development
The name Taranis derives from proto-Celtic ("thunder"), which in turn derives from the proto-Indo-European root ("to thunder"). Through this proto-Celtic etymon, the theonym is cognate with words for thunder in Old Irish (), Old Breton (), Middle Welsh (), and, as a loanword into a non-Celtic language, the Gascon dialect of French (). The Proto-Indo-European s-initial seems to have been retained in Celtiberian steniontes, stenion, and stena.
Thunder god
The association with thunder, suggested by the etymology of Taranis's name, is confirmed by his equation with Jupiter. Taranis's name corresponds etymologically to that of the Germanic god Donar (i.e., Thor). Calvert Watkins compared Taranis's name with the name of the Hittite weather god Tarḫunna. However, Koch pointed out that an etymology linking the two theonyms would reverse the order of the metathesis (so that Taranis precedes Tanaris) and therefore compromise the proto-Indo-European etymology.
Lucan and the scholia
Lucan
Lucan's Pharsalia or De Bello Civili (On the Civil War) is an epic poem, begun about 61 CE, on the events of Caesar's civil war (49–48 BCE). The passage relevant to Taranis occurs in "Gallic excursus", an epic catalogue detailing the rejoicing of the various Gaulish peoples after Caesar removed his legions from Gaul (where they were intended to control the natives) to Italy. The passage thus brings out two themes of Lucan's work, the barbarity of the Gauls and the unpatriotism of Caesar.
The substance of the last few lines is this: unspecified Gauls, who made human sacrifices to their gods Teutates, Esus, and Taranis, were overjoyed by the exit of Caesar's troops from their territory. That Lucan says little about these gods is not surprising. Lucan's aims were poetic, and not historical or ethnographic. The poet never travelled to Gaul and relied on secondary sources for his knowledge of Gaulish religion. When he neglects to add more, this may well reflect the limits of his knowledge.
We have no literary sources prior to Lucan which mention these deities, and the few which mention them after Lucan (in the case of Taranis, Papias alone) rely on this passage. Other Celtic gods mentioned under their own name in later literature include Belenus, Ogmios, Grannus, and Andraste. In spite of their late date, the Commenta and Adnotationes are thought to incorporate very ancient material, some of it now lost; both are known to contain material at least as old as Servius the Grammarian (4th century CE).
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|Adnotationes super Lucanum, 1.445.
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|Taranis is called Jupiter by the Gauls, to whom sacrifices are made with human blood.
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|Glossen ad Lucan, 1.445
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|Tharanis Jupiter. All of these were worshipped in the Teutonic regions at Taranus (?), as a day of the week is called in Teutonic.