Some people think that Taranis was the most feared and loved god in Europe in the Bronze Age. But none of the stories about Taranis have made it to the present day. During the Bronze Age, the Celts lived all over Europe and worshiped Taranis, who was the god of storms, weather, the sky, and fire. The gods were worshiped by many groups of Celts. This was true for the Celts who lived in Gaul, the deltas of the Danube and the Rhine, the Iberian Peninsula, Breton, Britain, and Ireland.
Taranis was known to all of them. So, he had to be a very important god to them. Seven Taranis chapels are still standing in Europe. One is in Britain, one is in Germany, one is in France, and one is in Serbia. People think that Taranis, whose name means “thunder” in proto-Celtic languages spoken in Europe, was the Celtic god of lightning and thunder. Some of his traits were like those of other Eurasian weather gods, like Thor, Perun, and Yahweh. The Romans were the first people to write about Taranis. Because of this, the Roman god of the sky, Jupiter, is the best person to compare him to.
A metal figurine is the only thing that can be touched that looks like Taranis. Like the Roman statues of Jupiter found at Le Chatelet, France, around the 2nd century BCE, it shows a man with a beard holding a lightning bolt in his right hand and a wheel with spokes in his left. In this case, the rims wheel led researchers to believe that the statuette was of Taranis and not Jupiter. Historians say that Taranis could have been a leader among the Celtic gods. He did have some flaws, though. There was a lot of change on Jupiter and Taranis.
Roman sources are the first to write down Taranis’ name. This is because the Celts of the Bronze Age did not have a common written language. In the first century CE, the Roman poet Lucan talks about the faith of the Celts in Gaul. He said that Taranis, Esus, and Teutates were the three most important gods. Lucan thought that Taranis and Teutates were like Jupiter and Mars, and that Esus was like Mercury. Teutates’ victims were drowned, while Esus’ victims were hung and cut up. In the “wicker man” tradition, criminals were stuffed inside a large figure made of thin wood. Some scholars think that this practice started with the cult of Taranis. It was then set on fire and burned.
A Taranis has many signs, but the most important ones are the lightning strike and the wheel with wheels on it. Taranis is shown by more than just chariots, storms, bulls, eagles, and different kinds of tools of war. People usually think of Taranis when they see lightning hits. Taranis is a Celtic god who rides a chariot and throws lightning bolts like spears. Before the Celts came to Britain, the Picts were a religious group who worshiped Taranis. In their art, lightning bolts are often shown.
A lot of different ancient societies respected the spoked wheel, but the Celts saw it as a special gift from Taranis. This sign can be found on many coins, amulets, and other Celtic European artifacts. Archaeologists can tell the difference between artifacts for Taranis and those for other sky gods because of the wheel. An important and well-known picture of Taranis and his wheel can be found on the Gundestrup pot, which was likely made in what is now Serbia.
In the minds of the Celts, the spoked wheel was a carriage. Like many holy figures, Taranis rode chariots through the sky and threw lightning bolts when he had to. The Celts thought that thunder meant Taranis’ chariot was coming. A carriage wheel was also used to represent the sun disc.
This vague idea of the “wheel of the year” was shown to the Celts by the wheel of Taranis, which was usually linked to Thor or the sun disc. The first wheels that were made had only four spokes, which represented the most holy days of the year, the solstices and equinoxes. In later years, the eight-spoked wheel was made bigger to include the four fire holidays of Samhain, Beltane, Imbolc, and Lughnasadh.
There are no stories from the past that talk about the Celtic sky god Taranis. In Ireland, Taranis is called Tuireann, and his code is kept alive in the book of stories called The Three Sorrowful Tales of Erin. Our story about Tuireann’s kids is called “The Sons of Tuireann.” In this story, three of Tuireann’s boys, Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharba, decide to kill Cian, who is their father’s sworn enemy.
As Cian waved his druidic sticks, he turned into a pig to hide from his brothers in the crowd. Thanks to Brian, Iucharba and Iuchar were able to find their food when they changed into hounds. The three sons killed Cian and then had Tuireann try to hide his body in the ground six times, but the ground wouldn’t take it. Cian’s son Lugh sought the “erec,” or blood fine, from the people who killed his father by going to Tara and appearing in the court of a Tuatha de Danann. He had to get three fruits, a pigskin, a knife, seven pigs, a brand-new dog, and three yells on a hill to get to the place.
The boys of Tuireann were not sure, but they had to follow the erec. Lugh told them that the apples had to come from the holy plants in the Hesperides so that the Roman hero Hercules could finish his task. Lugh didn’t think his brothers would be able to get through even one of the challenges because they were all so hard. The brothers were able to win by using both physical force and lies. In the seventh and final job, all three were tragically killed. When they got back to Erin, Tuireann went to see Lugh to beg that his boys would get better. By saying no, Lugh made his anger over Cian’s death even stronger. He sang a dirge over himself and his boys and then laid down with them to die.
