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Ambisagrus
A Gaulish god: The Persistent or The Encircling Force
This deity is known from a single inscription found at Aquileia, Italy and is probably a 'Father of the Tribe' type of deity, associated with Thunder and Lightning. |
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Gaul: The Persistent, The Encircling Force
A Gaulish deity known from an inscription found at Aquileia, Italy, whose name is interpreted as being derived from the proto-Celtic lexical roots of: *ambi-sagro-us (he who is strong and all-encircling) which can be interpreted as meaning: ‘The Persistent’ or The Encircling Force. In this inscription he is equated with the Roman god IOM (Jupiter Optimus Maximus) and this, along with the interpretation of his name, has lead some, (most notably Dr. John Koch at the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies) to propose that Ambisagrus was primarily a weather deity, associated with thunder and lightning (an allusion to the all-encompassing nature of thunder experienced at close proximity) and as such his name may be a homonymic theonym for Taranis. After all, Jupiter was also a Lightning god and thus Ambisagrus may well have been a deity of the Celtic Taranis (ie lighting-associated) type.
Ambisagrus may therefore originally have been a deity of the ‘father of the clan’ type; or he may have have been an aspect of the original Dis Pater; of whom Taranis can be considered a surviving archetype.
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