Taranis

Taranis (sometimes Taranus or Tanarus) is a Celtic thunder god attested in literary and epigraphic sources.

The Roman poet Lucan's epic Pharsalia mentions Taranis, Esus, and Teutates as gods to whom the Gauls sacrificed humans. This rare mention of Celtic gods under their native names in a Latin text has been the subject of much comment. Almost as often commented on are the scholia to Lucan's poem (early medieval, but relying on earlier sources) which tell us the nature of these sacrifices: in particular, that victims of Taranis were burned in a hollow wooden container. This sacrifice has been compared with the wicker man described by Caesar.

These scholia also tell us that Taranis was perhaps either equated by the Romans with Dis Pater, Roman god of the underworld, or Jupiter, Roman god of weather. Scholars have preferred the latter equation to the former, as Taranis is also equated with Jupiter in inscriptions, but both have been compared with Caesar's enigmatic references to a Gaulish pantheon.

The equation of Taranis with Jupiter has caused some scholars to identify Tarannis with the "wheel god" of the Celts. This god, known only from iconographic sources, is depicted with a spoked wheel and the attributes of Jupiter (including a thunderbolt). No direct evidence links Taranis with the wheel god, so some scholars have expressed scepticism about this identification.

Various inscriptions attest to Taranis's worship, dating from the 4th century BCE to the 3rd century CE. Scholars have drawn contradictory conclusions about the importance of Taranis from the distribution of these inscriptions.