Aernus the Zoelae Protector
Cantabrian · deity · Roman period · Recorded classification
Name leads with the English phrase 'the Zoelae Protector'; attested form Deo Aerno (dative). Native etymon often linked to a word for high/rocky ground or to a tree-name. Filed under the Cantabrian/Asturian (northern) tradition as the tutelary god of the Asturian Zoelae, balancing the Lusitanian tutelary gods. Known only from the Bragança-area inscriptions, no narrative.
Domains
- community protection
- mountains high places
Epithets
- Deus Aernus the god Aernus (protector of the Zoelae)Latin votive inscriptions to Deus Aernus, Zoelae territory (CIL II; Hispania Epigraphica) (primary)
Sources
- Aernus was the protective god of the Zoelae, an Asturian people of the Conventus Asturum; his cult was confined to the area of Bragança, where an altar from Castro de Avelãs (CIL II 2606) was dedicated 'Deo Aerno' by the ordo Zoelarum.: CIL II 2606, Castro de Avelãs (Bragança) (inscription); A. Tranoy, La Galice romaine (1981); P. Le Roux, on the Zoelae cult (secondary)