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Visucius
A Gaulish god: The Good One
Visucius is a Gaulish god known from ten inscriptions found in Germany, France and Spain. In many og these inscriptions he is associated with Roman Mercury indicating him to be a deity of trade and commerce. |
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Gaul, Celtib: The Good One
Visucius is a god known from ten separate inscirptions; seven from Germany, two from France and one from Spain. Three of the Greman inscriptions ([CIL XIII 06404]: Heidelberg, [CIL XIII 05991]: Esthal and [CIL XIII 04478]: Herapel) invoke the god alone, though all the other inscriptions invoke the deity as Mercurio Visucio (Mercury Visucius); thus the deity is linked with Mercury by Interpretato Romana. In the inscription from Pfalzburg, Bas-Rhin, France [CIL XIII 06118] Visucius is invoked as Mercurio Visuc(io) Solitumarus and is invoked along with Jupiter Optimus Maximus and Apollo. The inscription from Köningen, Germany invokes Visucius along with a female deity, Visucia who (etymologically at least) would seem to be the feminine equivalent of Visucius. The remaining inscriptions to this deity come from Gironde, Bordeaux, France [CIL XIII 00577]; Hockenheim, Germany [CIL XIII 06347]; Trier, Germany [CIL XIII 03660]; Varuswald, Germany [CIL XIII 04257] and Agoncillo in Spain [AE 1976, 327].
Unfortunately, depite the relatively large number of inscriptions no representations of this god have have been recovered, however her name can be interpreted on the basis of the reconstructed proto-Celtic as being composed of the elements: *wesu-/*wīsu-? (good), *ki- (demonstrative particle [this]), along with the Latinized masculine ending -us. Thus Visucius is 'The Good One'. The association of Visucius with Roman Mercury is also interesting; Mercury being the god of trade and profit, which would indicate that Visucius might also be a deity of trade (possibly trade in corn, which was Mercury's original function).
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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