Celtic Gods: The Gaulish Goddess, Temusio (Dark Flow)

Temusio
A Gaulish Goddess: Dark Flow

Temusio is a Gaulish goddess known from a single inscription found at Saint-Marcel-les-Châlon, France where she was probably the goddess of the town's thermal baths. It is also possible that she represents the real nam of the tutelary goddess of the Thames in London.



Synonyms:
Gaul: Dark Flow

Temusio is a goddess known from a single inscription found at Saint-Marcel-les-Châlon, Saône-et-Loire, France (CIL XIII 11223) where she is invoked as deae Temusioni (the goddess Temusio) where she was probably the patron goddess of the town's thermal baths. Equally, Temusio could have been the goddess of the Saône river, or at least the flood plains surrounding the river's banks.

In this respect Temusio's name is etymologically related to the hypothetical patron deity of London's Thames; Tamesis and can be be derived from the same reconstructed proto-Celtic lexical elements: *temeno- (dark) and *si-l-e/o- (drip, flow). Thus Temusio's name can also be interpreted as the: 'Dark Flow'. The dark flow being the waters that would burst the banks of the Saône in winter to inundate the flood plains beyond.

This leads us to the intriguing possibility that Temusio and Tamesis represent one and the same deity and that the goddess of the Thames should actually be called Temusio.



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