Sucellus

In Gallo-Roman religion, Sucellus /suːˈsɛləs/ or Sucellos was a deity depicted as carrying a large mallet (also described as a hammer) and also an olla and/or barrel. Originally a Celtic deity, his cult flourished not only among Gallo-Romans, but also to some extent among the neighbouring peoples of Raetia and Britain. He has been associated with agriculture and wine, particularly in the territory of the Aedui.[1]

The Celtic god Sucellus with his characteristic hammer and olla.
This statue of Sucellus is the earliest known likeness of the god (ca. 1st century AD). It is from a Roman home in France and was found in a household shrine (lararium). Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

Sculptures
Relief of Nantosuelta and Sucellus from Sarrebourg. Now in the Museums of Metz.

He is usually portrayed as a middle-aged bearded man, with a long-handled hammer, or perhaps a beer barrel suspended from a pole. His companion Nantosuelta is sometimes depicted alongside him. When together, they are accompanied by symbols associated with prosperity and domesticity.

In a well-known relief from Sarrebourg, near Metz, Nantosuelta, wearing a long gown, is standing to the left. In her left hand she holds a small house-shaped object with two circular holes and a peaked roof – perhaps a dovecote – on a long pole. Her right hand holds a patera which she is tipping onto a cylindrical altar. To the right Sucellus stands, bearded, in a tunic with a cloak over his right shoulder. He holds his mallet in his right hand and an olla in his left. Above the figures is a dedicatory inscription and below them in very low relief is a raven. This sculpture was dated by Reinach, from the form of the letters, to the end of the first century or start of the second century.[2]

Inscriptions

At least eleven inscriptions to Sucellus are known,[3] mostly from Gaul. One (RIB II, 3/2422.21) is from Eboracum (modern York) in Britain.

In an inscription from Augusta Rauricorum (modern Augst), Sucellus is identified with Silvanus:[4]

In honor(em) /
d(omus) d(ivinae) deo Su/
cello Silv(ano) /
Spart(us) l(ocus) d(atus) d(ecreto) d(ecurionum)

The syncretism of Sucellus with Silvanus can also be seen in artwork from Narbonensis.[5]

Etymology
Bronze statue of Sucellus from Vienne.

In Gaulish, the root cellos can be interpreted as 'striker', derived from Proto-Indo-European *-kel-do-s whence also come Latin per-cellere ('striker'), Greek klao ('to break') and Lithuanian kálti ('to hammer, to forge').[6] The prefix su- means 'good' or 'well' and is found in many Gaulish personal names.[7] Sucellus is therefore commonly translated as 'the good striker.'

An alternate etymology is offered by Celticist Blanca María Prósper, who posits a derivative of the Proto-Indo-European root *kel- ‘to protect’, i.e. *su-kel-mó(n) "having a good protection" or *su-kel-mṇ-, an agentive formation meaning "protecting well, providing good protection", with a thematic derivative built on the oblique stem, *su-kel-mn-o- (and subsequent simplification and assimilation of the sonorant cluster and a secondary full grade of the root). Prósper suggests the name would then be comparable to the Indic personal name Suśarman-, found in Hindu mythology.[8]

gollark: As an intellectual, I would just dump the data into better-documented JSON and make the frontend someone else's problem.
gollark: You could have a scriptoidal form do this.
gollark: Have you tried taking notes of things?
gollark: That sounds very inconvenient, hm.
gollark: I can mostly just not remember that. Arbitrarily spontaneously generating memories would be troubling.

See also

References
  1. Miranda Green (2003). Symbol and Image in Celtic Religious Art. Routledge. p. 83.
  2. Reinach (1922), pp. 217–232.
  3. Jufer & Luginbühl (2001), p. 63.
  4. AE 1926, 00040
  5. Duval (1993), p. 78.
  6. Delamarre (2003), p. 113.
  7. Delamarre (2003), pp. 283-284.
  8. Prósper, Blanca María (2015). "Celtic and Non-Celtic Divinities from Ancient Hispania: Power, Daylight, Fertility, Water Spirits and What They Can Tell Us about Indo-European Morphology". The Journal of Indo-European Studies. 43 (1 & 2): 35–36.

Further reading
  • Delamarre, Xavier (2003). Dictionnaire de la Langue Gauloise (2nd ed.). Paris: Éditions Errance. ISBN 2-87772-237-6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Deyts, Simone, ed. (1998). À la rencontre des Dieux gaulois, un défi à César. Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux. ISBN 2-7118-3851-X.
  • Duval, Paul-Marie (1993) [1957]. Les dieux de la Gaule. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France / Éditions Payot.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Heichelheim F. M., Housman J. E. "Sucellus and Nantosuelta in Mediaeval Celtic Mythology". In: L'antiquité classique, Tome 17, fasc. 1, 1948. Miscellanea Philologica Historica et archaelogia in honorem Hvberti Van De Weerd. pp. 305-316. [DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/antiq.1948.2845] www.persee.fr/doc/antiq_0770-2817_1948_num_17_1_2845
  • Jufer, Nicole; Luginbühl, Thierry (2001). Répertoire des dieux gaulois. Paris: Éditions Errance. ISBN 2-87772-200-7.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Reinach, Salomon (1922). Cultes, mythes et religions.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.