Dusios

In the Gaulish language, Dusios^[1] was a divine being^[2] among the continental Celts^[3] who was identified with the god Pan of ancient Greek religion and with the gods Faunus, Inuus, Silvanus, and Incubus of ancient Roman religion. Like these deities, he^[4] might be seen as multiple in nature,^[5] and referred to in the plural (dusioi), most commonly in Latin as dusii. Although the Celtic Dusios is not described in late-antique sources independently of Greek and Roman deities, the common functionality of the others lay in their ability to impregnate animals and women, often by surprise or force. Dusii continue to play a role in the magico-religious belief systems of Gaul and Francia as a type of incubus in early-medieval paganism and Christianity.

^ Xavier Delamarre, Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise (Éditions Errance, 2003), p. 158. The Latinized form would be dusius, most often in the plural dusii.
^ Perhaps a deus. As late as the 13th century, Thomas Cantipratensis asserted that some people still regard groves as consecrated to dusii and entered them to sacrifice to "their own gods" (suis diis, dative plural of deus); see discussion under Surviving tradition below. The 19th-century Celiticist Henri d'Arbois de Jubainville regarded the dusii as divinities who might be compared to aquatic deities of the Homeric tradition in Greece as lovers who begat children with mortal women; see "Esus, Tarvos trigaranus," Revue Celtique 19 (1898), pp. 228, 234–235, 251 online. With reference to a highly speculative etymological connection between dusios and the English word "dizzy," Arbois de Jubainville saw the effects of these spirits as comparable to those of the Greek nymphs or Italic lymphae. J.A. MacCulloch, The Religion of the Ancient Celts (Forgotten Books edition 2007, originally pub. 1911), p. 232 online thought that the dusii "do not appear to represent the higher gods reduced to the form of demons by Christianity, but rather a species of lesser divinities, once the object of popular devotion."
^ Galli as designated by Augustine and Isidore (see following). In antiquity, Galli refers both to inhabitants of the geographical region Gallia as it was delineated by the Greeks and Romans, and to peoples who spoke a form of Celtic (that is, who spoke gallice, "in Gaulish") or who were perceived by the Greeks and Romans as ethnically "Celtic." See J.H.C. Williams, Beyond the Rubicon: Romans and Gauls in Republican Italy (Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 1–17 et passim.
^ Both ancient Greek and Latin categorize nouns within three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Although grammatical gender is distinguished from biological gender, Latin places humans (homines), animals (animalia), and anthropomorphic beings perceived as having sexual characteristics in their gender-specific category. Some "monsters" are neuter (the sea monster ketos in Greek, for instance). The dusii are masculine in both grammatical gender and in their sexual behavior in all the sources in which they appear, with the possible exception of Gervase of Tilbury, who seems to think they can also be female; see below. The Greco-Roman deities to whom they are compared are aggressively masculine, often depicted as ithyphallic.
^ The multiplicity of the group of deities to which the dusii belong — Pan/panes, Faunus/fauni, Inuus/inui, Silvanus/silvani, Incubus/incubi — is related to the question of monotheistic tendencies in ancient religion: "Lower gods were executors or manifestations of the divine will rather than independent principles of reality. Whether they are called gods, demons, angels, or numina, these immortal beings are emanations of the One": Michele Renee Salzman, "Religious koine in Private Cult and Ritual: Shared Religious Traditions in Roman Religion in the First Half of the Fourth Century CE," in A Companion to Roman Religion (Blackwell, 2007), p. 113. The name of Pan was sometimes etymologized as meaning "All"; although scientific linguistics has shown this derivation to be incorrect, it appears in the Homeric Hymn to Pan (6th century BC) and influenced theological interpretations in antiquity, including the speculations of Plato: see H.J. Rose and Robin Hard, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology (Routledge, 2004), p. 215 online, and David Sedley, Plato's Cratylus (Cambridge University Press) pp. 96–97 online, where Pan as "all" is connected to the logos: "This is the climax of the divine etymologies." The "all-ness" of Pan accounted for his multiple manifestations, reflected by nominal plurals. On the distinction between modern scientific and ancient theological etymology, see Davide Del Bello, Forgotten Paths: Etymology and the Allegorical Mindset (Catholic University of America Press, 2007).

[1] Xavier Delamarre, Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise (Éditions Errance, 2003), p. 158. The Latinized form would be dusius, most often in the plural dusii.

[2] Perhaps a deus. As late as the 13th century, Thomas Cantipratensis asserted that some people still regard groves as consecrated to dusii and entered them to sacrifice to "their own gods" (suis diis, dative plural of deus); see discussion under Surviving tradition below. The 19th-century Celiticist Henri d'Arbois de Jubainville regarded the dusii as divinities who might be compared to aquatic deities of the Homeric tradition in Greece as lovers who begat children with mortal women; see "Esus, Tarvos trigaranus," Revue Celtique 19 (1898), pp. 228, 234–235, 251 online. With reference to a highly speculative etymological connection between dusios and the English word "dizzy," Arbois de Jubainville saw the effects of these spirits as comparable to those of the Greek nymphs or Italic lymphae. J.A. MacCulloch, The Religion of the Ancient Celts (Forgotten Books edition 2007, originally pub. 1911), p. 232 online thought that the dusii "do not appear to represent the higher gods reduced to the form of demons by Christianity, but rather a species of lesser divinities, once the object of popular devotion."

[3] Galli as designated by Augustine and Isidore (see following). In antiquity, Galli refers both to inhabitants of the geographical region Gallia as it was delineated by the Greeks and Romans, and to peoples who spoke a form of Celtic (that is, who spoke gallice, "in Gaulish") or who were perceived by the Greeks and Romans as ethnically "Celtic." See J.H.C. Williams, Beyond the Rubicon: Romans and Gauls in Republican Italy (Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 1–17 et passim.

[4] Both ancient Greek and Latin categorize nouns within three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Although grammatical gender is distinguished from biological gender, Latin places humans (homines), animals (animalia), and anthropomorphic beings perceived as having sexual characteristics in their gender-specific category. Some "monsters" are neuter (the sea monster ketos in Greek, for instance). The dusii are masculine in both grammatical gender and in their sexual behavior in all the sources in which they appear, with the possible exception of Gervase of Tilbury, who seems to think they can also be female; see below. The Greco-Roman deities to whom they are compared are aggressively masculine, often depicted as ithyphallic.

[5] The multiplicity of the group of deities to which the dusii belong — Pan/panes, Faunus/fauni, Inuus/inui, Silvanus/silvani, Incubus/incubi — is related to the question of monotheistic tendencies in ancient religion: "Lower gods were executors or manifestations of the divine will rather than independent principles of reality. Whether they are called gods, demons, angels, or numina, these immortal beings are emanations of the One": Michele Renee Salzman, "Religious koine in Private Cult and Ritual: Shared Religious Traditions in Roman Religion in the First Half of the Fourth Century CE," in A Companion to Roman Religion (Blackwell, 2007), p. 113. The name of Pan was sometimes etymologized as meaning "All"; although scientific linguistics has shown this derivation to be incorrect, it appears in the Homeric Hymn to Pan (6th century BC) and influenced theological interpretations in antiquity, including the speculations of Plato: see H.J. Rose and Robin Hard, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology (Routledge, 2004), p. 215 online, and David Sedley, Plato's Cratylus (Cambridge University Press) pp. 96–97 online, where Pan as "all" is connected to the logos: "This is the climax of the divine etymologies." The "all-ness" of Pan accounted for his multiple manifestations, reflected by nominal plurals. On the distinction between modern scientific and ancient theological etymology, see Davide Del Bello, Forgotten Paths: Etymology and the Allegorical Mindset (Catholic University of America Press, 2007).

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