Quangeius the Hound-God
Lusitanian · deity · Roman period · Recorded classification
Name leads with the English phrase 'the Hound-God'; attested votive form Quangeio (dative). Native theonym from *kuwon- ('dog'). The traveller/psychopomp characterisation is a scholarly inference from the canine root, not from any surviving myth or iconography. Known only from epigraphy.
Domains
- dogs canines
- roads travel
Powers
- guide travellers and the souls of the dead
Sources
- Quangeius is known from about eleven altars from Galicia to the Alentejo, concentrated in the Portuguese inner Beira around the Serra da Estrela, and is equated in one dedication with Jupiter Repulsor.: Quangeius corpus, inner Beira (Castelo Branco/Guarda) (inscription); J. d'Encarnação, Divindades indígenas sob o domínio romano em Portugal (1975) (secondary)
- His name derives from Proto-Indo-European *kuwon- ('dog'), prompting interpretation as a god of dogs and, by extension, of travellers, roads and the guidance of souls.: Olivares Pedreño, 'Celtic Gods of the Iberian Peninsula', e-Keltoi 6 (2005) (secondary)