A Celtic God: Cobannus

Hi guys!

A statue of Mars Cobannus in the Getty museum

I'd like to summarize a small research project I've done for the course Continental Celtic last semester. We were supposed to write a small essay about a Gaulish inscription and say something interesting about it. Well, of course, I got too excited and I actually went to do research.. And since it's about Celtic religion and I know a lot of people are interested in that aspect of Celtic culture I'd like to share my findings with you :)

My inscription was from Bern, with the romantic name 'L-106'. It reads 'dobnoredo gobano brenodor nantaror' and it is written in Greek script. Rudolph Fellmann has translated it as 'To Cobannus who travels the world with his chariot, the inhabitants of Brenodurum (Bern) in the valley of the Aare.'
So I went to research who this god Cobannus is!

There seem to be two logical hypotheses that determine the function of Cobannus in the Gaulish pantheon (if we agree that there was one..) was the patron of smiths ór a war-god. 'Cobannus' literally means 'smith', like Old-Irish gobae, gobann. But his later name is Mars Cobannus, so he is equated by the Romans with their war god Mars. But why would they equate him with Mars if he was a god of smiths?

Well, there are a lot of other arguments, but neither of them satisfied me in picking one hypothesis. So I think Cobannus wás a god of smiths, but more a maker of weapons for battle. Smiths were very important in the time of the Gauls (and not only then) because they made the weapons with which a Celt could raid neighbouring provinces and earn his place in society. This would mean Cobannus was very associated with war, more even then, say, Vulcan in the pagan Roman religion. And as the Gauls don't seem to have gods with one 'purpose', so to say, he would be more a patron of weapons, or other war-materials. And when the Romans invaded Gaul they thought 'Oh well, he looks like Mars. So he must be him!'. Cute.

So that is what I think on the subject, it is a very interesting field of research because we don't know ánything. This research is only done by the name 'Cobannus'. Fun huh? :D My professor used to say 'you're having fun now, but when you're dealing with the study of Continental Celtic you wíll become depressed because we. know. nothing.' Fortunately I still love it! But then, I don't have to focus on this field 24/7.

Bye for now!
Lian

bibliography
Lambert, Pierre-Yves 'Recueil des Inscriptions Gauloises'

Fellman, Rudolph 'Die Zinktafel von Bern-Thormebodewald und ihre Inschrift' Archäologie der Schweiz 14 (1991-1994) 270-273

Lavagne, Henri 'Un Nouveau dieu de la Gaule Romaine: Mars Cobannus (avec l'appendice de M. P. Y. Lambert)' Comptes-rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 143 (1999) 689-720

Duval, Paul-Marie, 'Vulcain et les métiers du métal' Gallia 10 (1952) 43-57