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
- Airon is a Celtiberian chthonic god of deep wells and springs, attested epigraphically at the Fuente Redonda sanctuary near Uclés in the territory of Segobriga and surviving in Iberian folklore as the 'pozo Airón'.: 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 (secondary); Marco Simón, F., 'Religion and Religious Practices of the Ancient Celts of the Iberian Peninsula', e-Keltoi: Journal of Interdisciplinary Celtic Studies 6, 2005 (secondary); Olivares Pedreño, J. C., Los dioses de la Hispania céltica, Real Academia de la Historia / Universidad de Alicante, 2002 (secondary)