View source for Esus

==Lucan and the scholia==
===Lucan===
Lucan's ''Pharsalia'' or ''De Bello Civili'' (''On the Civil War'') is an epic poem, begun about 61 CE, on the events of [[Caesar's civil war]] (49–48 BCE). The passage relevant to Esus occurs in "Gallic excursus", an [[epic catalogue]] detailing the rejoicing of the various Gaulish peoples after [[Julius Caesar]] removed his legions from Gaul (where they were intended to control the natives) to Italy. The passage thus brings out two themes of Lucan's work, the barbarity of the Gauls and the unpatriotism of [[Caesar]].<ref name=Hofeneder2>{{cite book |title=Die Religion der Kelten in den antiken literarischen Zeugnissen |volume=2 |last=Hofeneder |first=Andreas |date=2008 |location=Wien |publisher=Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften }}</ref>{{rp|296}}

{{verse translation
|lang1=la
|Tu quoque laetatus converti proelia, Trevir,
Et nunc tonse Ligur, quondam per colla decore
Crinibus effusis toti praelate Comatae; 
Et quibus inmitis placatur sanguine diro
Teutates horrensque feris altaribus Esus
Et Taranis Scythicae non mitior ara Dianae.<ref>Lucan, ''De Bello Civilo'', 1.441-446</ref>
|Transferral of the warfare pleased you too, [[Treviri]],
and you, [[Ligures]], now shorn of hair but once in all of Long-Haired
Gaul unrivalled for your tresses flowing gracefully over your necks;
and the people who with grim blood-offering placate
Teutates the merciless and Esus dread with savage altars
and the slab of Taranis, no kinder than Diana of the Scythians.<ref>Translation from {{cite book |last=Braund |first=Susan H. |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |series=Oxford World's Classics |title=Lucan: Civil War |date=1992 }}</ref>}}

The substance of the last few lines is this: unspecified Gauls, who made human sacrifices to their gods Teutates, Esus, and Taranis, were overjoyed by the exit of Caesar's troops from their territory.<ref name=Hofeneder2/>{{rp|298–299}} The reference to "Diana of the Scythians" refers to the human sacrifices demanded by [[Diana Nemorensis|Diana at her temple in Scythian Taurica]], well known in antiquity.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Green |first=C. M. C. |title=Lucan ''Bellum Civile'' 1.444-46: A Reconsideration |journal=Classical Philology |date=January 1994 |volume=89 |issue=1 |pages=64–69 |doi=10.1086/367392 |jstor=269754 }}</ref>{{rp|66–67}} That Lucan says little about these gods is not surprising. Lucan's aims were poetic, and not historical or ethnographic. The poet never travelled to Gaul and relied on secondary sources for his knowledge of Gaulish religion. When he neglects to add more, this may well reflect the limits of his knowledge.<ref name=Deonna/>{{rp|4}}<ref name=Hofeneder2/>{{rp|296}}

We have no literary sources prior to Lucan which mention these deities, and the few which mention them after Lucan (in the case of Esus, [[Lactantius]] and [[Petronius]]) seem to borrow directly from this passage.<ref name=Hofeneder2/>{{rp|299}} The secondary sources on Celtic religion which Lucan relied on in this passage (perhaps [[Posidonius]]) have not come down to us, so it is hard to date or contextualise his information.<ref name=Hofeneder2/>{{rp|297}} This passage is one of the very few in classical literature in which Celtic gods are mentioned under their native names,{{efn|For the most part, classical sources describe Celtic gods under Greek or Roman names without further comment. [[Georg Wissowa]] emphasises that Lucan "stands almost alone" ({{lang|de|steht nahezu allein}}) apart from this tradition. [[Epona]], the Gallo-Roman horse god, is a notable exception; she appears frequently in classical literature, and never under an ''interpretatio''.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Georg |last=Wissowa |title=Interpretatio Romana: Römische Götter im Barbarenlande |journal=Archiv für Religionswissenschaft |volume=19 |url=https://archive.org/details/archivfrreligi19reliuoft/page/1 |date=1916–1919 |pages=1–49 }}</ref>{{rp|9–11}} Other Celtic gods mentioned under their own name in later literature include [[Belenus]], [[Ogmios]], [[Grannus]], and [[Andraste]].<ref name=Hofeneder3/>{{rp|24}}}} rather than [[interpretatio graeca|identified with Greek or Roman gods]]. This departure from classical practice likely had poetic intent: emphasising the barbarity and exoticness the Gauls, whom Caesar had left to their own devices.<ref name=Hofeneder2/>{{rp|298}}

Some scholars, such as de Vries, have argued that the three gods mentioned together here (Esus, Teutates, and Taranis) formed a divine triad in ancient Gaulish religion. However, there is little other evidence associating these gods with each other. Other scholars, such as [[Graham Webster (archaeologist)|Graham Webster]], emphasise that Lucan may as well have chosen these deity-names for their poetic stress and harsh sound.<ref name=Hofeneder2/>{{rp|299}}

===Scholia===
Lucan's ''Pharsalia'' was a very popular school text in late antiquity and the medieval period. This created a demand for commentaries and [[scholia]] (explanatory notes) dealing with difficulties in the work, both in grammar and subject matter.<ref name=Hofeneder2/>{{rp|312}} The earliest Lucan scholia that have come down to us are the [[Commenta Bernensia and Adnotationes Super Lucanum|''Commenta Bernensia'' and ''Adnotationes Super Lucanum'']], both from manuscripts datable between the 9th and 11th centuries.<ref name=Esposito>{{cite book |last=Esposito |first=Paolo |chapter=Early and Medieval ''Scholia'' and ''Commentaria'' on Lucan |title= Brill's Companion to Lucan |pages=453–463 |doi=10.1163/9789004217096_025 |date=2011 |editor-last=Asso |editor-first=Paolo |location=Leiden / Boston |publisher=Brill  |isbn=978-90-04-21709-6 }}</ref>{{rp|453}} In spite of their late date, the ''Commenta'' and ''Adnotationes'' are thought to incorporate very ancient material, some of it now lost; both are known to contain material at least as old as [[Servius the Grammarian]] (4th century CE).<ref name=Esposito/>{{rp|453–454}} Also interesting, though less credible, are comments from a [[Cologne]] codex (the ''Glossen ad Lucan''), dating to the 11th and 12th centuries.<ref name=Hofeneder2/>{{rp|312}} Below are excerpts from these scholia relevant to Esus:

{|class="wikitable"
|-
!Commentary
!Latin
!English
|-
|''Commenta Bernensia ad Lucan'', 1.445
|{{lang|la|Hesus Mars sic placatur: homo in arbore suspenditur usque donec per cruorem membra digesserit.}}
|Hesus [[Mars (mythology)|Mars]] is appeased in this way: a man is suspended from a tree until his limbs are divided as a result of the bloodshed (?).<ref name=HofenederCB/> 
|-
|''Commenta Bernensia ad Lucan'', 1.445
|{{lang|la|item aliter exinde in aliis invenimus. [...] Hesum Mercurium credunt, si quidem a mercatoribus colitur}}
|We also find it [depicted] differently by other [authors]. [...] They believe Hesus to be [[Mercury (mythology)|Mercury]], because he is worshipped by the merchants<ref name=HofenederCB>Translation after the German in {{cite book |title=Die Religion der Kelten in den antiken literarischen Zeugnissen |volume=2 |last=Hofeneder |first=Andreas |date=2008 |location=Wien |publisher=Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften |page=317}}</ref>
|-
|''Adnotationes super Lucanum'', 1.445.
|{{lang|la|Esus Mars sic dictus a Gallis, qui hominum cruore placatur.}}
|Esus is the name given by the Gauls to Mars, who is appeased with human blood.<ref name=HofenederAS>Translation after the German in {{cite book |title=Die Religion der Kelten in den antiken literarischen Zeugnissen |volume=2 |last=Hofeneder |first=Andreas |date=2008 |location=Wien |publisher=Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften |page=331 }}</ref>
|-
|''Glossen ad Lucan'', 1.445
|{{lang|la|Esus id est Mars.}}
|Esus, that is Mars.<ref name=HofenederG>Translation after the German in {{cite book |title=Die Religion der Kelten in den antiken literarischen Zeugnissen |volume=2 |last=Hofeneder |first=Andreas |date=2008 |location=Wien |publisher=Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften |page=334 }}</ref>
|}

The first excerpt, about the sacrifice to Esus, comes from a passage in the ''Commenta'' which details the human sacrifices offered to each of the three gods (persons were drowned in a barrel for Teutates, persons were burned in a wooden tub for Taranis). This passage, which is not paralleled anywhere else in classical literature, has been the subject of much commentary. It seems to have been preserved in the ''Commenta'' by virtue of its author's preference for factual (over grammatical) explanation.<ref name=Hofeneder2/>{{rp|318}} The ''Adnotationes'', by comparison, tell us nothing about the sacrifices to Esus, Teutates, and Taranis beyond that they were each murderous.<ref name=Hofeneder2/>{{rp|332}} The nature of the sacrifice to Esus described here is unclear; the Latin text is cramped and ambiguous. Early Celticists relied on drastic emendations to the text, which have not been sustained in later scholarship.<ref name=Hofeneder2/>{{rp|321}}{{efn|{{ill|Victor Tourneur|fr}} (1902) called the text "untranslatable" ({{lang|fr|intraduisible}}). He proposed to emend the bizarre {{lang|la|per cruorem}} ("as a result of bloodshed") to {{lang|la|percussor}} ("murderer, sacrificer") and to regard {{lang|la|membra digesserit}} as a poetic description, not literally referring to a separation of limbs. He thus arrived at the translation: "A man is hung on a tree until the sacrificer has killed him".<ref name=Tourneur>{{cite journal |last=Tourneur |first=Victor |title=Semicupium. Percussor |journal=Le musée belge: Revue de philologie classique |volume=6 |date=1902 |pages=77–81 }}</ref>{{rp|79–81}} [[Albert Bayet]] (1925) and [[Camille Jullian]] (1926) followed Tourneur's emendation of {{lang|la|per cruorem}}. Jullian went further to propose that {{lang|la|digesserit}} was a corruption of {{lang|la|disiecerit}} ("severed").<ref name=Hofeneder2/>{{rp|321}}}} To give a few difficulties: {{lang|la|digesserit}} here could refer to a process of decomposition or a violent severing of the limbs; {{lang|la|cruor}} means "blood" and "raw meat", but also metaphorically "murder";<ref name=Hofeneder2/>{{rp|322}} and {{lang|la|in arbore suspenditur}}, often read as suggesting that Esus's victims were [[hanging|hanged by the neck]] from a tree, is perhaps nearer in meaning to saying that his victims were "fixed to" or "suspended from a tree".<ref name=Deonna>{{cite journal |first=Waldemar |last=Deonna |title=Les Victimes d'Esus |journal=Ogam |volume=10 |date=1958 |pages=3–29 |url=https://bibliotheque.idbe.bzh/data/cle_76/OGAM_Tradition_Celtique_1958_nA55_.pdf#page=3 }}</ref>{{rp|9–10}}

As a result of this ambiguity, a very large number of interpretations of the sacrificial ritual to Esus have been given.<ref name=Hofeneder2/>{{rp|322}} It has been pointed out that hanging by the neck does not result in loss of blood; and that neither of these lead to a dislocation of the limbs. Suggestions include that the victim was tied to the tree in order to be dismembered; or dismembered by means of tree branches; or injured and then suspended from the tree, by their armpits or limbs.<ref name=Deonna/>{{rp|10–11}} This ritual has been compared with various legendary demises: the human sacrifices to [[Odin]],<ref name=Czarnowski>{{cite journal |first=Stefan |last=Czarnowski |title=L'arbre d'Esus, le taureau aux trois grues et le culte des voies fluviales en Gaule |journal=Revue Celtique |volume=42 |date=1925 |pages=1–57 |url=https://archive.org/details/revueceltiquejloth42/page/1 }}</ref>{{rp|16}}{{efn|[[Germanic mythology]] has it that Odin obtained knowledge of the [[runes]] by piercing himself with a javelin and suspending himself from a tree for nine days. This sacrifice was imitated by his devotees: King Wikar is thus sacrificed to Odin in ''[[Gautreks saga]]''; as are another king's nine sons in ''[[Ynglinga saga]]''; and [[Adam of Bremen]] tells us that men were hung from trees in the grove of the [[Temple at Uppsala]]. [[Stefan Czarnowski]] drew a parallel between these sacrifices and the sacrifice to Odin, suggesting that the "bloodshed" was a result of the injury by javelin.<ref name=Czarnowski/>{{rp|16}}<ref name=DuvalEsus/>{{rp|283}} {{ill|Françoise Le Roux|fr}} notes, as support for a relationship between the two rituals, that ritual hanging is almost unknown among the Celts, but very common within the cult of Odin.<ref name=LeRoux/>{{rp|50, 54}}}} the death of the mythological Welsh hero [[Lleu Llaw Gyffes]],<ref name=Sergent/>{{rp|395}} and the martyrdom of St [[Marcel de Chalon]].<ref name=Deonna/>{{rp|12}}{{efn|{{ill|Émile Thévenot|fr}} connected the ritual with the unusual torture of St Marcel de Chalon (d. 177/179) in an early medieval [[hagiography]]: after refusing to worship before Mars, Mercury, and [[Minerva]], the pagans tied the saint to two branches of a tree, forced together, which sprung back and detached the saints' limbs from his body. Thévenot suggested the hagiographer of St Marcel and scholiast of the ''Commenta'' drew from the same source for this pagan ritual.<ref name=Deonna/>{{rp|12}} {{ill|Waldemar Deonna|fr}} and {{ill|Paul-Marie Duval|fr}} are unconvinced by this parallel. Both argue that Thévenot's comparison does violence to the description in the ''Commenta'', and Deonna points out that the elements of this martyrdom are not unknown in other hagiographies.<ref name=DuvalEsus>{{cite book |last=Duval |first=Paul-Marie |chapter=Teutates, Esus, Taranis |orig-date=1958 |title=Travaux sur la Gaule (1946-1986), vol. II - Religion gauloise et gallo-romaine |location=Rome |publisher=École Française de Rome |date=1989 |pages=275–287 |series=Publications de l'École française de Rome |volume=116 |issue=1 |chapter-url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/efr_0000-0000_1989_ant_116_1_3668 }}</ref>{{rp|284}}<ref name=Deonna/>{{rp|21}}}} The violent end of the [[bog body]] known as the [[Lindow Man]]—throat slashed, strangled, bludgeoned, and drowned—has even been connected with this sacrificial ritual.<ref name=MacKillopEsus>{{cite encyclopedia |first=James |last=MacKillop |title=Esus, Hesus |encyclopedia=Dictionary of Celtic Mythology |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2004 |edition=Online |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198609674.001.0001/acref-9780198609674-e-2001 }}</ref><ref name=MacKillopLindow>{{cite encyclopedia |last=MacKillop |first=James |date=2004 |edition=Online |title=Lindow Man |encyclopedia=A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198609674.001.0001/acref-9780198609674-e-2996 }}</ref>

All three commentaries offer an ''[[interpretatio romana]]'' (i.e., the identification of a foreign god with a Roman god) which identifies Esus as [[Mars (mythology)|Mars]] (Roman god of war). The scholiast of the ''Commenta'', however, notes that other sources give an ''interpretatio'' of Esus as [[Mercury (mythology)|Mercury]],{{efn|1=The ''Commenta'' offers two sets of ''interpretatios'' of the three Celtic gods mentioned in Lucan. In the first set, Teutates is Mercury, Esus is Mars, and Taranis is [[Dis Pater]]. In the second set, Teutates is Mars, Esus is Mercury, and Taranis is [[Jupiter (god)|Jupiter]].<ref name=Hofeneder2/>{{rp|317}}}} for which they offer a rationale: Esus, like Mercury, was worshipped by merchants.<ref name=Hofeneder2/>{{rp|321}} It is not possible to demonstrate the authenticity of either of these equations, as we have no source outside these commentaries which pairs the name of Esus with that of a Roman god.<ref name=Deonna/>{{rp|13}} The evident confusion of the sources the scholiast had available to him has been taken to count against the evidentiary value of either of these ''interpretatios''.<ref name=DuvalDieux>{{cite book |title=Les Dieux de la Gaule |publisher=Payot |date=1976 |edition=2 |location=Paris |last=Duval |first=Paul-Marie }}</ref>{{rp|27}}<ref name=LeRoux/>{{rp|56}} {{ill|Max Ihm|de}} regards the equation of Esus with Mercury as unlikely, because the Trier monument depicts Esus and Mercury next to each other, as separate divinities.<ref name=Paulys>{{cite encyclopedia |title=[[wikisource:de:RE:Esus|Esus]] |encyclopedia=Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft |volume=VI, 1 |date=1907 |pages=694–696 |last=Ihm |first=Max |location=Stuttgart |publisher=Metzler }}</ref> On the other hand, a Mercury statue from Lezoux is sometimes believed to have a dedicatory inscription to Esus on its rear, which may count in favour of the existence of such an ''interpretatio''.<ref name=Meid>{{cite journal |last=Meid |first= Wolfgang |title=Keltische Religion im Zeugnis der Sprache |journal=Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie |volume=53 |issue=1 |date=2003 |pages=20–40 |doi=10.1515/ZCPH.2003.20 }}</ref>{{rp|35}}