Airon of the Deep Wells

Airon is one of the few Celtiberian deities whose cult place can be identified with precision. A Roman-period votive altar dedicated 'Deo Aironi' was found at the Fuente Redonda, a circular walled spring-well near Uclés (Cuenca) in the hinterland of the Celtiberian-Roman city of Segobriga, marking the site as a sanctuary of an indigenous god of subterranean waters. The god's name enjoyed a remarkable afterlife: across central Spain dozens of deep pools, sinkholes and wells are still called 'pozo Airón' and are the object of folk legends about bottomless, life-taking waters, which scholars such as Alberto Lorrio have traced back to the pre-Roman divinity. His character is therefore reconstructed as chthonic and aquatic, tied to wells, springs and the dangerous depths of the earth.

Domains

• wells and springs
• underworld waters

Powers

• to draw the unwary down into bottomless wells and pools
• to preside over sacred springs and grant the favours sought there

Sources

• Lorrio Alvarado, A. J. & Sánchez de Prado, M. D., 'La necrópolis romana de Haza del Arca y el santuario del Deus Aironis en la Fuente Redonda (Uclés, Cuenca)', Iberia 5, 2002
• Marco Simón, F., 'Religion and Religious Practices of the Ancient Celts of the Iberian Peninsula', e-Keltoi: Journal of Interdisciplinary Celtic Studies 6, 2005
• Olivares Pedreño, J. C., Los dioses de la Hispania céltica, Real Academia de la Historia / Universidad de Alicante, 2002