Gobannus
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Gobannus (or Gobannos, the Gaulish form) was a Gallo-Roman god normally taken to have been a patron of smiths. A number of statues dedicated to him are preserved, found together with a bronze cauldron dedicated to Deus Cobannos, in the late 1980s and illegally exported to the USA, now in the Getty museum, California [1]. He is mentioned in an inscription found in the 1970s in Fontenay-près-Vézelay, reading AVG(VSTO) SAC(RVM) [DE]O COBANNO, i.e. dedicated to Augustus and Deus Cobannus. The best preserved dedication to Gobannus is found on the Berne zinc tablet, where his name is written ΓΟΒΑΝΟ (in the dative and in Greek letters).
The name is from a Proto-Celtic word for smith, *goban-;[2] the name of the god is also continued in Old Irish Goibniu and Welsh Govannon. In Modern Irish "smith" is gabha.
[edit] References
- ^ US Epigraphy project, inscription number CA.Malibu.JPGM.L.96.AB.54
- ^ Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, University of Wales. "Proto-Celtic—English lexicon." (See also this page for background and disclaimers.)
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