Celtic Gods: The Gaulish God, Glanis (Clean Water)

Glanis
A Gaulish God: Clean Water

Glanis are Gaulish god known from Glanis, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France where he is the eponymous patron deity of both the city and the sacred spring near which it was built.



Synonyms:
Gaul: Clean Water

Glanis is the eponymous patron deity of the Romano-Gaulish town of Glanum (near modern Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Provence, France [AE 1954, 103]). The city, founded by Celto-Ligurians and subsequently Hellenised, was already old when it became a Romanised settlement in the first century BCE; a shrine to the Celtic god Glanis, who was associated with a local healing spring, had been erected on the site in the 4th century BCE. The Romans seem to have adopted the shrine and the god, naming their town after him.

Glanis may have been the patron deity of the Glanici. He certainly seems to have been considered as the protective deity of the sacred spring. Though this function may originally have been performed by a female deity whose name was lost, but who was equated with the triple Matres and named the Glanicae.

Though Glanis' name has been translated as Glittering gem one derived from the Cymric glain I prefer a derivation from the proto-Cletic *glano- (clean, clear) which would make Glanis' name something like 'Clean Waters'; a far more fitting name for the protective deity of a sacred spring.

As an interesting aside, several species of fish (especially catfish) have the name of this deity incorporated into their scientific nomenclature. Examples beng Uegitglanis zammaranoi and Trachyglanis boulenger; thus this deity lives on even today.



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