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Tridamos
A Celtic God, also known as Tridamus: Three-fold Bovine One
Tridamos (Tridamus) is a Brythonic god known from a single inscription now located at Michaelchurch, England. He may have been a god associated with the fertility of cattle herds and crops. |
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Bryth: Three-fold Bovine One
Tridamos is a god known from a single inscribed altar that now resides at Michaelchurch, Herefordshire though the precise provenance of this inscription is not known. The inscription [RIB 304] is dedicated to deo Tridam[o] by a certain Bellicus.
No other inscriptions to this deity are known and he is not equated with any Roman god. Thus our only clues as to this god's attributes come from his name which can be interpreted on the basis of the reconstructed proto-Celtic lexicon as being derived from *tri- (three) and *damo- (cow). Thus Tridamos is the 'Three-fold Bovine One'.
The altar, though its precise provenance remains unknown would seem to derive from the tribal territory of the Dobunni tribe. From what we know of the Dobunni they appear to have been a tribe of farmers and craftsmen. By analogy with the similarly named Tarvos Trigaranus (bull with three cranes) it may well be that Tridamos was a fertility deity and may have been linked with the fercundity of crops and herds.
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