Lusitanian Mythology
In what is now Portugal south of river Douro and a portion of Spain, there was Lusitania, previously owned by Celtic-derived groups and conquered by the Romans when they invaded the Iberian Peninsula. What most people, even most of the modern Portuguese and Spanish, seem to be unaware of, is that there was a native pantheon of gods. Considering this is perhaps one of the least studied mythologies, there is no surprise that these gods were so little known, and today little is left after centuries of Christian domination (and a period of Islamic domination, and shorter period of the two fighting) of the Iberian Peninsula. What is known, however, is that the Roman religion adopted some of the deities (as was the norm), and that there's enough known to |write up on All The Tropes.
Like in many mythologies, there are historical texts focusing on it, the most relevant being Macrobius's Saturnalia.
- Cast Speciation: Of the known gods several were essentially water gods, several dedicated to war and two related to light.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Ataegina.
- Ensemble Darkhorse: Possibly Endovelicus, the only god even recognised by modern Portuguese and Spanish thanks to the amount of shrines and temples he had, and even so not a very famous figure.
- Father Neptune: Duberdicus.
- Fertile Feet: Sucellus and Nantosuelta.
- God Couple: Duberdicus/Nabia, Sucellus/Nantosuelta (the second pair also occurring in the main Celtic Mythology) and possibly Bandua/Bandus, if they aren't two different names for the same god(dess).
- Intercontinuity Crossover: Having derived from the Celtic Mythology and being incorporated into the Classical Mythology by the Romans, this mythology seems to have effectively mixed both continuities; for instance several gods are present in the original Celtic myths, such as Sucellus and Nantosuelta, while the Romans accepted the native gods into their canon and the mythology itself shaped to fit the Roman influences (Lusus, the ancestor of the Lusitanians and thus of modern Portuguese people, was a canon Greek/Roman character).
- Light'Em Up: There are two gods related to light: Endovelicus, also associated with health, was benevolent, while the other, Neto, was a war god. The first became associated with Lucifer once Christianity got installed on Lusitania, while the later was incorporated into the Roman god Mars, leading to the title of Mars Neto in the Iberian Peninsula and his association with the sun (he was already an agricultural god to begin with).
- Making a Splash: Several gods were water based as mentioned above.
- Our Giants Are Bigger: Possibly Dervetius, a mountain god.
- Spell My Name with an "S": As in many Latinized names, there are several variations to the names; Endovelicus was Aendovelicus and, in Portuguese, Endovélico. There is a possible subversion in Bandua's case as the name Bandus might have referred to the god he/she was consort to.
- The Power of the Sun: Neto was one of the few solar deities in any mythology to show the Sun's real potential.
- We Hardly Knew Ye