Taranis, also known as Taranus, is the Celtic god of thunder. He is often portrayed as a bearded man with a wheel. The Romans syncretized him with their thunder-god Jupiter.
Origin[]
Taranis presumably has his origin in the Proto-Indo-European god Perkwunos.
Roman Sources[]
In Roman sources, they say that the Celts made human sacrifice in his honor through a giant wooden man, but there doesn´t seem to exist any evidences of human sacrifice in Celtic lands.
the Roman poet Lucan in his epic poem Pharsalia mentions Taranis as a Celtic deity to whom human sacrificial offerings were made. The solar or thunder "wheel-god" named by Lucian.
Gallery[]
The figure holding the broken wheel is more tentatively thought to be Taranis by scholars, this depiction is also represented in a number of Iron Age images; there are also many wheels that seem to have been amulets.
Gallo-Roman Figurine of Jupiter-Taranis (Celtic wheel god), Le Chatelet Gourzon, Haute Marne, France