D) The Gaulish Goddess Nantosuelta

The goddess Nantosuelta is known from a single inscription and two reliefs* which portray her as the consort of the famous Gaulish god Sucellus generally understood as ‘Good Striker’,679 mentioned in ten dedications from France (Ancey-Mâlain, Lyons, Metz, Vichy, Vienne), Switzerland (Yverdon and Augst), Germany (Mainz and Worms) and Britain (York), and is represented on many a relief* with his typical curly hair and beard, long-shafted hammer and olla*(fig. 5).680 Nantosuelta is an atypical goddess who differentiates herself from the other goddesses by characteristic attributes of her own which remain enigmatic. The difficulty in deciphering the essence of Nantosuelta resides in the etymology* of her name, on which scholars disagree, and her attributes, which have been the subject of conflicting interpretations.

Fig. 5: Statue in bronze of Sucellus from Prémeaux, wearing typical Gaulish garments and holding the olla* and the long-shafted hammer in his hands. In the Musée de Beaune. Deyts, 1992, p. 85.
Fig. 5: Statue in bronze of Sucellus from Prémeaux, wearing typical Gaulish garments and holding the olla* and the long-shafted hammer in his hands. In the Musée de Beaune. Deyts, 1992, p. 85.
Notes
679.

Lambert, 2006, p. 57 argues that this etymology* is actually not possible, for the verb *kell, ‘to strike’ is not attested in this form in Celtic.

680.

For the references of the inscriptions, see RDG, p. 63. For studies of the iconography, epigraphy and etymology* of Sucellus, see among others Germain, R., Le dieu au maillet, Comité d'édition de la Société culturelle et de recherches du pays gannatois, Gannat, 1970 ; Chassaing, Marcel, Une passion: l’archéologie: Le Dieu au maillet, Imp. Rozé, Orbec, 1986 ; Lussien-Maisonneuve, Marie-Josèphe, ‘Un dieu-au-maillet dans le Nord de la France’, in Bulletin des musées royaux d'art et d'histoire, 1974, pp. 101-110 ; Flouest, Ed. & Gaidoz, M. H., Le Dieu gaulois au maillet sur les autels à quatre faces. I. L'Autel de Mayence, II. Les Autels de Stuttgart, E. Leroux, Paris, 1890 ; Pilane, Alfred, Pro Segora. Le Dieu au maillet (gallo-romain) expliqué par les monnaies des Segours de l'Evre et par les trouvailles des mines de Bélié, Farré et Frelon, Cholet, 1940 ; Blanchet, A., Note sur deux représentations de Sucellus et sur l'aire de répartition des figures de ce dieu celtique, Imp. Nationale, Paris, 1953 ; Toulec, Daniel, Le Silvanus gallo-romain: l’assimilation Silvanus-Sucellus. Epistemologie, Méthodes et Sources, Thèse de Doctorat, Histoire, Université Paris 1, Paris, 1993 ; Green, 2001, pp. 75-86 ; Thévenot, 1968, pp. 131-142 ; Deyts, 1992, pp. 85-93 ; Duval, 1957, pp. 60-63 ; De Vries, 1963, pp. 99-105 ; Lajoye, 2008, pp. 53-59 ; Vendryes, 1997, p. 44 ; Olmsted, 1994, pp. 300-304 ; Linckenheld, 1929, pp. 50-55 ; Reinach, 1896, pp. 49-50 ; Evans, 1967, pp. 257-258 ; Drexel, F., ‘Die Götterverehrung im römischen Germanien’, in BRGK, 14, 1923, p. 22 ; Schmidt, 1957, p. 170.