the Alcis
Continental Germanic · numen · continental germanic mythic origins · Recorded classification
ONE RECORD FOR TWO BEINGS, BECAUSE THE SOURCE GIVES ONE NAME. Tacitus names a pair in the plural and gives no individual names; splitting them would invent two designations the evidence does not have, and refusing them would lose a cult with a grove and a priest. TACITUS'S OWN EQUATION WITH CASTOR AND POLLUX IS ON THE RECORD AS HIS, AND NO EDGE IS DRAWN TO THE DIOSKOUROI: an ancient writer's interpretatio is a fact about how a Roman described a cult, and this registry records it as prose rather than as a relation between beings. Carries a verified-solitary verdict.
Domains
- the sacred grove
Sources
- The Alcis are the twin gods of the Naharvali's grove, attested only by Tacitus, whom he equates with Castor and Pollux.: Reference treatments of the Alcis and of the Nahanarvali in Tacitus's Germania. (secondary)