Sukellos -Sucellos
God of Gaulish Celtic Mythology
Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, United States of America ( This statue of Sucellus is the earliest known depiction of the god (circa 1st century AD). It was found in a Roman dwelling in France and stood in a private sanctuary (lararium).
Celtic god of agriculture,
forests and alcohol...
Characteristics
Latin name: Sucellus
Main function: God of life, death, crops and flocks
Place of origin: Gaul
Period of Origin: Celtic and Gallic Antiquity
Paredre: Nantosuelte - Nantosuelta
Equivalent(s): by syncretism Dagda, Sylvain, Thor[1]Symbols.
The name of the god is said to mean "good hitter" or "hit hard". The theonym is composed of the prefix su- which means "good, good" and cellos which designates the hammer (or striker)[3].
Judging by the number of his representations (more than 200), Sucellus is one of the greatest Gallic gods[4].
bronze statuette at the National Archeology Museum in Paris.
This god is known mainly in Gaul and all the elements concerning him (representation on a Unelles coin, some inscriptions and bronze statuettes) are from the Gallo-Roman period.
He appears to be old and bearded, dressed in the Gallic style of a long blouse tight at the waist and tight breeches, sometimes with boots. In addition to the mallet (or the hammer), he is represented with food utensils: cauldron, keg, wine amphora. It happens that the mallet is replaced by a sickle and that the foot of the god is placed on a keg.
He is sometimes accompanied by a dog.
Relief of the Gallic Silvanus on an altar in Nîmes. The god carries his distinctive mallet and olla. A dog is next to him.
Syncretism
At least eleven Sucellus inscriptions are known[5], mostly in Gaul. An inscription (RIB II, 3/2422.21) was found at Eboracum (modern York) in Britain.
Sylvanus
In an inscription found at Augusta Rauricorum (modern Augst), Sucellus is identified with Silvanus[6]:
In honor (em) /d (omus) d (ivinae) deo Su /cello Silv (ano) /Spart (us) l (ocus) d (atus) d (ecreto) d (ecurionum)
The syncretism between Sucellus and Silvanus can also be seen in the work of Narbonne Gaul[7].
Thor
Sucellos bears strong similarities to the Germanic god Thor.
Archaeologist Jean-Jacques Hatt puts forward two possibilities:
• The resemblances between the two gods could result from a common origin dating from the Bronze Age, when the partition between Celtic or pre-Celtic cultures on the one hand and pre-Germanic on the other hand is not yet clear between North Germany. South and West[1]. The separation between the two groups would then date from the beginning of the Iron Age, more precisely from the peregrinations of the Hallstattian warriors, bearers of the long sword[1].
• Another possibility, at a much lower period (3rd-2nd century BC), the Gallic Sucellos could also have contaminated the Germanic Thor like the Celtic Teutates the Germanic Odin[1].
Hatt also notes that these two theories are not exclusive, an ancient Celtic-Germanic origin of Sucellus and Thor, as between Teutates and Odhin, could have facilitated exchanges and syncretisms between the two pantheons, the Germanic and the Celtic[ 1].
A god of life and death
He is the only Gallic god who has a somewhat infernal character[4].
Like the Irish Dagda, Sucellos kills and resurrects with his mallet, which he holds in his left hand. He stands straight, his foot resting on a barrel, a symbol of survival.
He is the Gallic equivalent of the Irish god Dagda, but not an exact replica. Indeed, as a dispenser of wealth, protector of crafts and agriculture, he falls under the third productive function (the other two being the priestly class of druids, and the class of warriors), whereas Dagda, in the Irish tradition, belongs to the first function, called priestly.
The sucellus of vienna
A god of crops and herds
Sucellos is a rural deity, a pastoral god, protector of crops and herds[8]. Sucellos is a "provider of food[9]" god. He is the holder of prosperity, symbolized by that other attribute which is the cauldron, in his right hand. He is a god of nurturing nature, forests and plantations[10]. Sucellod is also considered like the god of beer
Beer ad (consume in moderation)
Her consort is Nantosuelte, which is a representation of fertility. Sucellos and Nantosuelte are associated on an altar discovered in Sarrebourg and on which we can read the following inscription:
Deo Svcello /Nantosvelte /Bellavsvs Mas /se Filivs V(otum).S(olvit).L(ibens).M(erito).
This can be translated: "For the god Sucellos and Nantosuelte, Bellausus, son of Massa, willingly and rightly fulfilled his vow."
Altar of Sucellos and Nantosuelte in Sarrebourg.
Sucellos seems to have been particularly honored in the Rhineland and in the eastern part of Gaul, in Narbonne, during the Gallo-Roman period. An inscription has also been found in Britain.
• He was assimilated to the Roman god Sylvain, god of vegetation[12], especially in Gaul Narbonne.
• Paul-Marie Duval hypothesized a closeness to another Latin sovereign god, Dis Pater[13].
• Anne Lombard-Jourdan analyzes it as an avatar of the god Cernunnos[14].
• Strong links between Sucellos and Thor have also been put forward[1].
• Bernard Sergent compares him to Vishvakarma.
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contrary to what I could see as absurd, his feast day does not take place on November 11, the date dedicated to Thor, but his celebrations in Gaul took place on March 20 or 21, days of the spring equinox because he was a Agrarian God who largely dispensed food to men, he was celebrated with the aim of having good harvests in the year.
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Notes and references
• 1 / ↑ a b c d e and f Jean-Jacques Hatt, Myths and Gods of Gaul, vol 2
• 2/ ↑ Paul-Marie Duval, The Gods of Gaul, Paris, Payot, 1993, p. 62.
• 3/ ↑ Xavier Delamarre, Dictionary of the Gallic Language, Paris, Errance, 2003, p. 113, 282, 283 (ISBN 2-87772-237-6).
• 4/↑ a and b Paul-Marie Duval, Great Gods of Gaul [archive], Publications of the French School of Rome, Year 1989, 116, pp. 223-234
• 5/ ↑ Jufer and Luginbühl (2001), p. 63.
• 6/ ↑ AE 1926, 00040 [archive]
• 7/ ↑ Duval (1993), p. 78.
• 8/ ↑ Félix Guirand, General Mythology, ed.
• 9/ ↑ Paul-Marie Duval, The Gods of Gaul, p. 63.
• 10/ ↑ Jean-Paul Persigout, Dictionary of Celtic Mythology, ed. of the Rock, p. 280, Monaco, 1985, (ISBN 2-268-00968-8)
• 11/ ↑ Philippe Voluer, The Big Book of Beer in Alsace, Editions Place Stanislas, 2008. p23
• 12/ ↑ Record of the National Archaeological Museum, Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
• 13/ ↑ Paul-Marie Duval, The Gods of Gaul, p. 64.
• 14/ ↑ The origins of Carnival, ed. Odile Jacob, Paris, 2005, p.196 (ISBN 2-7381-1637-X).
Bibliography
• Stéphanie Boucher, "The image and functions of the god Sucellus", in The world of images in Gaul and neighboring provinces, Caesarodunum, 23, 1988, p. 77-85.
• Paul-Marie Duval, The Gods of Gaul, Paris, Payot, 1993, 169 p. (ISBN 2-228-88621-1)
• Bernard Sergent, "Sucellus and the barrel", in Marco V. García Quintela, Francisco J. González García and Felipe Criado Boado dir., Anthropology of the Indo-European World and material culture. Proceedings of the 5th international Colloquium of Anthropology of the Indo-European World and comparative Mythology, Budapest, Archaeolingua, 2006, p. 61-80.
• Raymond Christinger and Willy Borgeaud, Ancient Swiss Mythology, Geneva, Georg-Musée d'Ethnographie de la Ville de Genève, 1963, 318 p. (pages 147-214)