Sucellus

File:Nantosuelta-Sucellus.jpg.]]

He is usually portrayed as a middle-aged bearded man wearing a wolf-skin, with a long-handled hammer, or perhaps a beer barrel suspended from a pole. His companion Nantosuelta is sometimes depicted alongside him. When together, they are accompanied by symbols associated with prosperity and domesticity.

In a well-known relief from Sarrebourg, near Metz, Nantosuelta, wearing a long gown, is standing to the left. In her left hand she holds a small house-shaped object with two circular holes and a peaked roof – perhaps a dovecote – on a long pole. Her right hand holds a patera which she is tipping onto a cylindrical altar. To the right Sucellus stands, bearded, in a tunic with a cloak over his right shoulder. He holds his mallet in his right hand and an olla in his left. Above the figures is a dedicatory inscription and below them in very low relief is a raven. This sculpture was dated by Reinach, from the form of the letters, to the end of the first century or start of the second century.{{sfnp|Reinach|1922|pages=217–232}}

At least eleven inscriptions to Sucellus are known,{{sfnp|Jufer|Luginbühl|2001|page=63}} mostly from Gaul. One (RIB II, 3/2422.21) is from Eboracum (modern York) in Britain.

In an inscription from Augusta Rauricorum (modern Augst), Sucellus is identified with Silvanus:{{AE|1926|00040}}

:In honor(em) /

:d(omus) d(ivinae) deo Su/

:cello Silv(ano) /

:Spart(us) l(ocus) d(atus) d(ecreto) d(ecurionum)

The syncretism of Sucellus with Silvanus can also be seen in artwork from Narbonensis.{{sfnp|Duval|1993|page=78}}

In Italy, Silvanus was said to protect forests and fields. He presided over the boundaries of properties, together with a host of local silvani, three for each property. These were the silvanus of the home, the silvanus of the fields, and the silvanus of the boundaries.{{cite journal|last=Hyginus |title=De limitibus constituendi, preface }} Silvanus also takes care of flocks, guaranteeing their fertility and protecting them from wolves, which is why he often wears the skin of a wolf.{{cite book|title=Virgil, Æneid VIII.600-1; Nonnus II.324; Cato the Elder, De re rusticâ 83; Tibullus, I.v.27 }} When moving north into Gaul, Silvanus was syncretically merged with Sucellus to form the conflated Sucellus-Silvanus. It was Sucellus who carried the mallet and bowl. It has been suggested that the mallet was for construction and the erection of fence-posts (establishing boundaries), but this is far from certain.{{cite journal|last=Smith |first=William |title=A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. (1867) }}{{cite web |title=Deo Sucello Silvano |url=http://www.deomercurio.be/en/silvano.htm }}{{Dead link|date=March 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Green claims that Sucellus may also relate to a chthonic deity, especially in maintain boundaries between the living and dead.{{Cite book |last=Aldhouse-Green |first=Miranda J. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/797966528 |title=The gods of the Celts |date=2011 |publisher=The History Press |isbn=978-0-7524-6811-2 |location=Stroud, Gloucestershire |oclc=797966528}}

Sucellus has been frequently identified as a candidate for Gaulish Dis Pater, the Gaulish god of the underworld and progenitor of the Gauls described by Caesar.{{cite journal |last=Boucher |first=Stéphanie |title= Sucellus = Dispater? Remarques sur la typologie et les fonctiens du dieu gaulois |journal=Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire |volume=54 |issue=1 |date=1976 |pages=66–77 |doi=10.3406/rbph.1976.3077 }}

File:Sucellus BritMu022a.jpg.]]

In Gaulish, the root cellos can be interpreted as 'striker', derived from Proto-Indo-European *-kel-do-s whence also come Latin per-cellere ('striker'), Greek klao ('to break') and Lithuanian kálti ('to hammer, to forge').{{sfnp|Delamarre|2003|page=113}} The prefix su- means 'good' or 'well' and is found in many Gaulish personal names.{{sfnp|Delamarre|2003|pages=283-284}} Sucellus is therefore commonly translated as 'the good striker.'

An alternate etymology is offered by Celticist Blanca María Prósper, who posits a derivative of the Proto-Indo-European root *kel- ‘to protect’, i.e. *su-kel-mó(n) "having a good protection" or *su-kel-mṇ-, an agentive formation meaning "protecting well, providing good protection", with a thematic derivative built on the oblique stem, *su-kel-mn-o- (and subsequent simplification and assimilation of the sonorant cluster and a secondary full grade of the root). Prósper suggests the name would then be comparable to the Indic personal name Suśarman-, found in Hindu mythology.{{cite journal|last=Prósper |first=Blanca María |title=Celtic and Non-Celtic Divinities from Ancient Hispania: Power, Daylight, Fertility, Water Spirits and What They Can Tell Us about Indo-European Morphology |journal=The Journal of Indo-European Studies |volume=43 |number= 1 & 2 |date= 2015 |pages= 35–36}}

• The Dagda, a similar figure from Irish mythology

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{wiktionary|Sucellus}}

• {{cite book|last=Delamarre |first=Xavier |date=2003 |title=Dictionnaire de la Langue Gauloise |edition=2nd |location=Paris |publisher=Éditions Errance |isbn=2-87772-237-6 }}
• {{cite book|editor1-last=Deyts |editor1-first= Simone |date=1998 |title=À la rencontre des Dieux gaulois, un défi à César |location=Paris |publisher=Réunion des Musées Nationaux |isbn=2-7118-3851-X}}
• {{cite book|last=Duval |first=Paul-Marie |orig-year=1957 |date=1993 |title=Les dieux de la Gaule |location=Paris |publisher= Presses Universitaires de France / Éditions Payot }}
• {{cite book|last1=Jufer |first1=Nicole |first2=Thierry |last2=Luginbühl |date=2001 |title=Répertoire des dieux gaulois |location=Paris |publisher= Éditions Errance |isbn=2-87772-200-7 }}
• {{cite book|last=Reinach |first=Salomon |author-link=Salomon Reinach |date=1922 |title=Cultes, mythes et religions |publisher=Paris E. Leroux |url=https://archive.org/details/cultesmythesetre01reinuoft }}

== Further reading ==

{{refbegin}}

• Heichelheim F. M., Housman J. E. "Sucellus and Nantosuelta in Mediaeval Celtic Mythology". In: L'antiquité classique, Tome 17, fasc. 1, 1948. Miscellanea Philologica Historica et archaelogia in honorem Hvberti Van De Weerd. pp. 305–316. [DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/antiq.1948.2845] www.persee.fr/doc/antiq_0770-2817_1948_num_17_1_2845
• {{cite journal |last1=Béal |first1=Jean-Claude |last2=Peyre |first2=Pierre |title=Une statue antique de Silvain-Sucellus à Javols (Lozère) |journal=Revue archéologique de Narbonnaise |volume=20 |date=1987 |pages=349–368 |doi=10.3406/ran.1987.1313 |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/ran_0557-7705_1987_num_20_1_1313 |lang=FR}}
• {{cite journal |last=Hatt |first=Jean-Jacques |title=Le Sucellus-Silvain-Liber Pater de Javols (Lozère): signification d'une œuvre de sculpture gallo-romaine |journal=Revue archéologique de Narbonnaise |volume=24 |date=1991 |pages=133–140 |doi=10.3406/ran.1991.1382 |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/ran_0557-7705_1991_num_24_1_1382 |lang=FR}}
• {{cite journal |last=Baratta |first=Giulia |title=UNA DIVINITÀ GALLO-ROMANA: SUCELLUS. UN'IPOTESI INTERPRETATIVA |journal=Archeologia Classica |volume=45 |issue=1 |date=1993 |pages=233–47 |jstor=44366011 |lang=IT}}
• {{cite journal |last=Sergent |first=Bernard |author-link=Bernard Sergent |title=Sucellus et Viśvakarman |journal=Études Celtiques |volume=38 |date=2012 |pages=175–195 |doi=10.3406/ecelt.2012.2353 |url=http://www.persee.fr/doc/ecelt_0373-1928_2012_num_38_1_2353 |lang=FR}}

{{refend}}

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