Talk:Sucellus

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Material formerly at Celtic polytheism: The Gaulish Sucellos (or Sucellus), possibly meaning "the Good Striker," appears on a number of reliefs and statuettes with a mallet as his attribute. He has been equated with the Irish Dagda, "the Good God," also called Eochaidh Ollathair ("Eochaidh the Great Father"). A powerful and widely worshiped Celtic god, his iconographic symbols were usually his mallet and libation saucer, indicative of his powers of protection and provision. His Irish equivalent seeming to have been the Dagda, Sucellus was possibly one of the Gaulish gods who were equated by Julius Caesar with the Roman god Dis Pater, from whom, according to Caesar, all the Gauls believed themselves to be descended. Sucellus was sometimes portrayed with a cask of liquid or with a drinking vessel, which may indicate that he was one of the gods who presided at the otherworld feast. He was also often accompanied by a dog. In Irish forms of his cult, Eochaid Ollathair ("Eochaid the All-Father"), or In Ruad Ro-fhessa ("Red [or Mighty] One of Great Wisdom"), the Dagda ( Celtic"Good God") is one of the leaders of the Irish pantheon, the Tuatha Dé Danann ("People of the Goddess Danu"). The Dagda was credited with many powers and possessed a caldron that was never empty, fruit trees that were never barren, and two pigs—one live and the other perpetually roasting. He also had a huge club that had the power both to kill men and to restore them to life. With his harp, which played by itself, he summoned the seasons. The Dagda mated with the sinister war goddess Morrígan. It may or may not be usefully incorporated here or at Dagda. QuartierLatin1968 19:15, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

Lede
User:Quinto Simmaco (awesome user name, by the way! ☺) made some changes to the lede of this article that on the whole are improvements, but there are some elements I wanted to discuss. Here's how part of the text now runs:
 * Originally a Celtic deity, his cult was one of the few that flourished not only among Gallo-Romans, but also to some extent throughout the wider Roman world, without being reinterpreted and assimilated to the more traditional deities of the Roman pantheon. He has traditionally been associated with agriculture, brewing, and/or wine production.

As currently written, this overstates Sucellus' exemption from interpretatio, since (as the article later points out) we have the example from Augst where he is invoked as deus Sucellus Silvanus. Furthermore, there are other cases where Silvanus is depicted either as Sucellus or with a mix of elements typical of both: see this page for a little more on the subject.

I also don't think we can say that his cult flourished "to some extent throughout the wider Roman world". Sucellus' presence in Britain and Raetia is as likely to be due to a common Celtic religious substrate as to a radiation of the Gallo-Roman deity outwards (although the latter is certainly possible). By contrast, the cult of Epona really is attested in Italy, in the Greek-speaking East, etc.; but that's not what we have with Sucellus.

Oh, finally, we ought to get a citation about the agriculture/brewing/wine theme. I think Miranda Green says something like this; I'll see if I can find a page number. Q·L·1968 ☿ 23:36, 1 February 2016 (UTC)


 * I've added a Miranda Green reference. Having heard no objection, I think I'll revise the sentences in the lede that I mentioned above. Feel free to weigh in if I'm going too far, Quinto Simmaco! Q·L·1968 ☿ 18:19, 3 February 2016 (UTC)

Sources for future article expansion
More on Sucellus, the statuary evidence and iconography for him in Britain and elsewhere, his conflation interpretatio Romana with Dispater, &c. at — Llywelyn II   06:12, 4 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Emma Durham, "Depicting the Gods: Metal Figurines in Roman Britain", Internet Archaeology, No. 31, 2012.