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Erge
A Gaulish God: The Blessed
Erge (Iirgii) is a Gaulish and Iberian god known from a number of inscriptions found in the region of region of Mount Montsérié, France. He would seem to be a god of high places and possible of language and contarcts. |
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Gaul, Iberia: The Blessed
Erge is a god known from a large number of inscriptions, all clustered around the region of Mount Montsérié in the Hautes-Pyrénées, France. Indeed, there are no fewer than 12 inscriptions to this deity from Montsérié itself, two from Montégut, three from Hautaget and three from the Vallée de la Neste, each of these in the Hautes-Pyrénées. These inscriptions are all dedicated either to Erge deo or deo Erge. One further inscription at Montsérié is dedicated to Iirgii (obviously the same deity, despite the spelling). In addition there is a single inscription at Valcabrère in the Haute-Garonne, dedicated to Erge deo Andossus (there are also two further insciriptions of unknown provenance which can be ingored in terms of this present discussion). This region corresponds to the territory of the Volcae Tectosages in Aquitania. This region was the meeting-point of three peoples, the Celts, the Basque and the Iberians and there are place-names and deities named in all three languages to be found here.
Recently, a new inscription from Valacabrére in France (CIL XIII 00226) has been brought to my attention. In this inscription Erge is invoked as Erge deo Andosso, thus he is equated with Andossus (who elsewhere is equated with Roman Hercules). In a Celtic context, Hercules emerges as the god of language and contracts, a lwagiver. Could this have been an aspect of the cult of Erge?
This leaves us with several problems, as the inscriptions dedicated to Erge are singularly uninformative in terms of elucindating this god's nature. As a result we are left with attempting to interpret the god's name. In Basque belief there is a god Erge, who is seen as a spirit (generally considered to be evil) that takes men's lives; this may also be related to the proposed Iberian -erker. However, we also have a possible proto Indo-European root for this name in *arg'-/*erg'- (white, brilliant) or *erkw- (to light up, to glorify). There are also cognates in the reconstructed proto-Celtic lexicon: *erko- (heaven) and *erg-e/o- (go). Obviously the PIE and PCI (proto-Indo-European and proto-Celtic) terms are related and bring with them the impression of 'high places', 'blessedness', 'holiness' and 'illumination'. It is also possible that the Basque Erge is a loan word with the meaning inverted from the original PIE/PCI. Thus an interpretation of Erge might be 'the blessed'. It is possible that this passed into Iberian and from there into Basque.
If you would like to try the foods of the time of the ancient Celts, then why not have a look at the ancient recipes section of this site. For the foods of the time when some of these tales were written down, take a look at the Medieval recipes section of the site and, in particular, the recipes from The Forme of Cury.
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