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Taenos
A Galician God: Caster of Fire
Taenos is a Galician and god known from an inscription found at Ankara, Turkey where he is invoked with the Greek father of the gods, Zeus. Taenos appears to be a Celtic lightning god. |
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Galician: Caster of Fire
Taenos 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 Ankara, Turkey where he is assimilated by Interpretato Romana (or more accurately in this Interpretato Graecii) with the supreme deity of the Graeco-Roman pantheon, Zeus as Zeus Taenus.
Though difficult to interpret Taenos' name is probably related to the reconstructed proto-Celtic term *ti-ni- (melt) which in turn is derived from the reconstructed proto-Indo-European *teyh1- (become hot). The first element of Taenos' name is also probably related to the Cymric word taenu (to cast or cover) and the god's name can be interpreted as 'Caster of Fire'. This would be entirely compatible with his syncretization with Zeus who, as well as being the father and patriarch of the Olympian gods was also a god of weather and caster of thunderbolts. Thunderbolts themselves are associated with fire in that when they strike trees those trees burst into flames. Thus Taenos may well rank as a member of the Celtic lightning gods (cf Taran/Taranos.
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