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Tabalenos
A Galician God, also known as Tabalienus: He who is the Cast
Tabalenos (Taballaenus) is a Galician and Celtiberian god known from an insription at Tabala, Turkey (a town and region dedicated to this deity). He is also known from Grases, Spain. He was the patron deity of spear hunters. |
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Galician, Celtib: He who is the Cast
Tabalenos is notable for being one of the few Galician (the Celtic colony in what is now Turkey) deities that we know by name. An inscription to this god having been found at Tabala, Turkey. This inscription also invokes the Roman goddess, Artemis and thus provides us with some clue as to this god's attributes.
He must have been one of the major deities of the region for the area (Tabala) still bears his name. His association with Artemis would also suggest that he was a hunter deity, for Artermis' main vocation was to roam mountain forests and uncultivated land with her nymphs in attendance hunting for lions, panthers, hinds and stags. This probable role is strengthened by the probable interpretation of Tabalenos' name which can be derived from the reconstructed proto-Celtic elements: *tab(a)l- (to throw), *en- (in) and the masculine ending -os. This yields the interpretation 'He Who is the Cast'. It would seem that Tabalenos was the patron of hunters with the weapon being cast probably being a spear.
The same deity is also known from Grases, Spain (AE 1965, 109) where he is named Tabalienus and assimilated with the local deity Dulovius.
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