In the Celtic Mythology Gallic, Taranis is, with Esus and Teutatès, one of the Gods of a Celtic triad attested by the Latin poet Lucain. It is a god of most important of the Gallic Pantheon. Its name means “thundering it” ( tarann in Breton and Welsh).

Taranis would be mainly the god of the sky, the lightning and the thunder.

Its worship is attested in Great Britain, in the Rhineland, Dalmatie, Provence, Auvergne, Brittany and Hungary. Its first representations take form little before the Roman conquest. Animated time whereas, under the influence of his neighbors, Gaulle starts to represent his Gods in the forms of statues and their pupil of the furnace bridges and the places of worships more important than formerly. One found seven furnace bridges devoted to Taranis, all bearing of the inscriptions in Greek or Latin, through continental Europe. One can also mention splendid the Chaudron of Gundestrup (200 or 100 before Jesus Christ) found to the Denmark. This cauldron is one of the more beautiful pieces which we have illustrating, inter alia, large Taranis.

This God would be generally represented like a man of ripe age, bearded and virile whose distinctive attributes are the solar wheel, a sceptre and esses (flashes). He is sometimes accompanied by animals: Horse (animal with the role Psychopompe), eagle or Snake.

Taking into consideration other mythology of the Antiquity, one makes sometimes the following bringings together:

• the Roman god Jupiter (with the Lightning)
• the Greek god Zeus (in Fulmen)
• the Germanic god Thor (with the Hammer)
• the Slavic god Svarog (god of the sky/blacksmith and celestial dragon fire-eater)

See too

Belenos