Celtic Gods: The Gaulish God, Poeninus (God of the Summit)

Poeninus
A Gaulish god, also known as Poininus, Pyninus and Penninos: God of the Summit

Poeninus (Poininus, Pyninus, Puoenino, Phoeninus, ?Penninos) is a Gaulish god known from the Italian and Swiss sides of the Greas St Bernard pass from the evidence of Roman Writers, Italian inscriptions, the shrine of Val d'Aoeste, Italy and over 30 inscriptions found in Switzerland. He is equated with Roman Jupiter and is a god of high places and summits and was probably the protective deity of the Great St Bernard Pass.



Synonyms: Poininus, Pyninus, Puoenino, Phoeninus, ?Penninos
Gaul: God of the Summit

Poeninus is a deity known from Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy) both from the writings of Titus Livius (Livy) and Servius (who give the site of the god's worship as the Great St Bernard Pass, Italy and equate the god with IOM, Jupiter Optimus Maximus) as well as votive plaques found at the iron age shrine dedicated to this deity at Val d'Aoste, Italy. This shrine was active well into the Roman age and represents the highest temple to any deity in the Romano-Celtic pantheon. In fact the peak above this point was known as Summus Poeninus (the summit of Poeninus). Another homonymic theonym for Poeninus is Pyninus known from an inscription at the Great St Bernard Pass where he is equated with Jupiter, as is Poinnius, known from an inscription found at Tirnovo, Bulgaria (CIL III 06143) where he is equated with the Roman god Silvanus. However, the vast majority of inscriptions (over 30) come from the Swiss side of the Great St Bernard pass and in 15 of these he is invoked as Jupiter Poeninus.

The deity's name is derived from the reconstructed proto-Celtic element *kwenno- (generally taken to mean 'head' but also meaning summit). With the q/p substitution of P-Celtic this gives the Cymric word pen (head/summit) and with the deific particle in/on and the masculine ending us giving an interpretation '[male] God of the Summit'. The same name form is also found in the English mountain range, the Pennines; though whether the name simply originates in the same Brythonic root penn or commemorates a putative Brythonic form of the deity Poeninus, whose name can be rendered as ?Penninos remains a matter of conjecture.

The equating of Poeninus with Jupiter indicates that he was considered as a thunder/lightning god in the same mould as Jupiter himself and may well have been the protector deity of the Seduni Veragri the tribe that inhabited the region where the god was worshipped. In this respect he may have been a deity of the 'protector of the tribe' type.



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