Taranis

Taranis, Taranos, Taranus [W, Bret. taran, thunder]. One of the three principal divinities, along with Esus and Teutates, of Gaul and Britain, according to the Roman poet Lucan (1st cent. AD) in his Pharsalia, on the subject of Julius Caesar's conquest 100 years earlier. While each of the deities was propitiated with human sacrifice, according to Lucan, the cult of Taranis was crueller than that of the Scythian Diana; victims could be burned alive in wooden vessels. Speculation on the death of the 4th-cent. BC man found in Lindow bog in 1984 has suggested that he may have been sacrificed to either Taranis or Teutates. A 9th-century commentary on Lucan describes Taranis as a ‘master of war’ and links him to Jupiter. But from what we know, Taranis is only an embodiment of the natural force of thunder and lacks the complexity and wide-ranging functions of the Roman sky-god. Other commentators link Taranis to the Roman Dis Pater and to the British Etharún and Etirun. Archaeological evidence does not, however, support Lucan's contentions. The name of Taranis survives on only seven altars, and although they range from Britain to the Balkans, their size and implied wealth does not match that of gods like Gaulish Mercury, whose worship is much more widespread.

Bibliography

See Paul-Marie Duval,, ‘ Teutatés,, Esus,, and Taranis ’, Études Celtiques, 8 (1958), 41–58;
Miranda J. Green,, ‘ Tanarus,, and Taranis and the Chester Altar ’, Chester Archaeological Society, 65 (1982), 37–44.