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.
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 victims of Taranis were burned in a hollow wooden container.
The equation of Taranis with Jupiter has caused some scholars to identify Tarannis with the "wheel god" of the Celts.
No direct evidence links Taranis with the wheel god, so some scholars have expressed scepticism about this identification.
[1]: 384 The question of whether the Chester altar (discussed below) should be read as attesting to an unmetathesised form of the god's name, Tanaris, was for a long time controversial.
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.
[6]: 296 Tu quoque laetatus converti proelia, Trevir, Et nunc tonse Ligur, quondam per colla decore Crinibus effusis toti praelate Comatae; Et quibus inmitis placatur sanguine diro Teutates horrensque feris altaribus Esus Et Taranis Scythicae non mitior ara Dianae.
[7] Transferral of the warfare pleased you too, Treviri, and you, Ligures, now shorn of hair but once in all of Long-Haired Gaul unrivalled for your tresses flowing gracefully over your necks; and the people who with grim blood-offering placate Teutates the merciless and Esus dread with savage altars and the slab of Taranis, no kinder than Diana of the Scythians.
[8] 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.
This departure from classical practice likely had poetic intent: emphasising the barbarity and exoticness the Gauls, whom Caesar had left to their own devices.
[6]: 298 Some scholars, such as de Vries, have argued that the three gods mentioned together here (Esus, Teutates, and Taranis) formed a divine triad in ancient Gaulish religion.
[6]: 312 The earliest Lucan scholia that have come down to us are the Commenta Bernensia and the Adnotationes super Lucanum, both from manuscripts datable to the 10th and 11th centuries.
[21]: 208 The similarity between Caesar's description of Gaulish Jupiter, and the Commenta's description of Taranis as "chief of the heavenly gods" (caelestium deorum maximum), has been noted, though this may reflect reliance on Caesar's text or a routine characterisation of the Roman god Jupiter.
The so-called Jupiter columns, religious monuments widespread in Germania, are frequently crowned with an equestrian god, who sometimes wields a wheel.
[23]: 844 Because both were identified with Jupiter, Taranis has been repeatedly equated with the wheel god (for example, by Pierre Lambrechts, Jean-Jacques Hatt [fr], and Anne Ross).
Marion Euskirchen calls the epigraphic evidence "scanty and altogether not unambiguous", which "suggests a rather limited significance of the god within a number of tribal federations".
[39] Hofeneder, on the other hand, states that Taranis is "attested surprisingly often" for a Celtic god, a fact which "clearly indicates that he must have been a deity worshipped in large parts of Keltiké [de] and over a long period of time".
