Dis Pater in the Gallic Wars

Joannes Richter

Dis Pater1
Julius Caesar writes in Commentarii de Bello Gallico that the
Gauls considered Dis Pater to be an ancestor.
All the Gauls assert that they are descended from the
god Dis, and say that this tradition has been handed
down by the Druids. For that reason they compute the
divisions of every season, not by the number of days,
but of nights; they keep birthdays and the beginnings of
months and years in such an order that the day follows
the night.
In thus interpreting the Gauls' god as Dis, Caesar offers one of
his many examples of interpretatio Romana, the re-
identification of foreign divinities as their closest Roman
counterparts. The choice of Dis to translate whatever Celtic
divinity Caesar has in mind - most likely Cernunnos, as the two
are both associated with both the Underworld and prosperity -
may in part be due to confusion between Dis Pater and the
Proto-Indo-European deity *Dyeus, who would have been
addressed as *Dyeu Phter ("Sky Father"). This name is also the
likely origin of the name of many Indo-European gods,
including Zeus and Jupiter, though the name's similarity to Dis
Pater may be in part coincidental.
Dis Pater was originally a god of wealth, much like the Roman
god Pluto (from Greek Πλούτων, Ploutōn, meaning "wealthy"),
who was later equated with Dis Pater. Dis is contracted from
the Latin dis (from dives meaning "rich"), and pater ("father"),
the literal meaning of Dis Pater being "Wealthy Father" or
"Father of Riches".
1
Source De Bello Gallico, Boek VI, chapter 18
“Dives” however has been derived from “divus” = God, which
also correlates to “Deus” and “Dyaus”. This link would relate
“Dis” to the standard Indo-European sky-god “Dyaus”and it
would be interesting to check the formula to generate a divine
name from the relevant pronouns of the first person singular.

The Gallic Wars

The Gallic Wars were a series of military campaigns waged by
the Roman proconsul Julius Caesar against several Gallic
tribes, lasting from 58 BC to 51 BC. Caesar documented Dis as
he approached the Rhine 53 BC at the border near Trier.

Fig. 1: Map de Bello Gallico Liber6

GNU-Lizenz für freie Dokumentation, Map_Gallia_Tribes_Towns.png:

Feitscherg - derivative work: Alecconnell

2
Aericura
In southern Germany and the Balkans, Dis Pater had a Celtic
goddess, Aericura, as a consort. Representations of Erecura are
most commonly found in the Danubian area of Southern
Germany and Slovenia, but they also occur in Italy, Great
Britain, and France. Her inscriptions are concentrated in
Stuttgart and along the Rhine, in the neighborhood of Caesar's
expedition of 53 BC.

Fig. 2: Inscriptions for Aericura

GNU Free Documentation License, by QuartierLatin1968 (Owen Cook)

3
The German Pronouns around 865 AD
Some documents ranging from 865 AD until 868 AD do
contain the pronouns of the 1st and 2nd person in old German
language. As an example the following lines by Otfrid von
Weißenburg (a town in the Alsace-area at the French/German-
borderline, in the neighborhood of Caesar's expedition of 53
BC)2:
Original:
Wolaga elilenti! Harto bistu herti,
thu bist harto filu suar, thaz sagen ih thir in alawar!
Translation:
Oh foreign countryside! Thou art so hard,
Thou even art very hard, and this I am telling you for
sure!
The old-German language obviously did use the pronouns
„Thou“ and „I“ as „Thu“ respectively „Ih“. It must be noted
that the German personal pronouns for the first and second
person singular “Ih” and “Thu” are identical to the equivalent
English pronouns “I”, respectively “Thou”.

Now we will use the personal pronoun “I” for the first person
singular to insert it into the formula for generating the divine
names, which will result in a divine name “Dis”.

2
History of German Literature, Naumann & Göbel, ISBN 3-625-10421-0

4
Formula for generating the divine names
The divine name (e.g. Dyaus, Deus, Zeus and Theos)
• will normally start with a character D, Z, Th or Þ
• will usually be closed by a character S.
In order to generate a divine name we would just insert the
personal pronoun of the first person singular between the
leading and the trailing character. In Provençal language Diéu
will be generated by D and iéu.
Now in English and German the divine name Dis is to be
created by a “D”, followed by the pronoun “i” and a a trailing
character “s”.
In Italian the procedure is similar: Dio is generated by
concatenating a “D” and the pronoun “io”. Spanish
concatenates “D”, “yo” and a trailing character “s” to generate
the divine name “Dios”. Romanian concatenates “Z”, “eu” to
generate the divine name “Zeu”. For the mayor European
languages the formula for generating the divine names has
been defined as (see the appendix for an overview):
• Romanian: “Z” + “eu” = “Zeu”
• Provençal: “D” + “iéu” = “Diéu”
• Italian: “D” + “ió” = “Dió”
• Spanish: “D” + “yo” + “s” = “Dios”
• Portuguese: “D” + “eu + “s” = “Deus”
• English: “D” + “i” + “s” = “Dis”
• old-German: “D” + “ih” + “s” = “Dis”

5
Germanic Deities
The Wikipedia site List of Germanic deities and heroes
documents a series of divine names, derived from Proto-
Germanic *Tīwaz. Attested consorts and sexual partners are
unnamed, possibly Zisa3. These deities do not refer to children.
Attestations for these names have been found in the Poetic
Edda, Prose Edda, skaldic poetry, and Hadrian's Wall altar.

• Týr (Old Norse),

• Tīw (Old English)
• Tīg (Old English)
• Ziu (Old High German)

The leading characters “Ti” resp. “Zi” in these names allow us

to generate some of their names from the pronouns “I” and
similar alternatives:
• Old English: “T” + “i(w)” = “Tiw”
• Old English: “T” + “i(g)” = “Tig”, respectively
• Old English: “T” + “ich” = “Tig”, which may be related
to the German pronoun “ich”4.
• Old High German: “Z” + “i(u)” = “Ziu”, which may
related the neighbouring area Sutsilvanic :“D” + “jou”
= “Diéu” (which is to be located in the Alpes).

3
Zisa is as an etymological double of Tyr or Ziu and Grimm suggests that
Zisa may be the same figure as Tyr's unnamed wife, mentioned by Loki in
the 13th century Poetic Edda poem Lokasenna.
4
Similar pronouns are gothic-Dutch “ik”, ags. “ic and Icelandic “ek”

6
Transition Zones
Transition Zones of dialects in remote mountainous areas
demonstrate the fundamentals for the formula:
• Romance: “D” + “jau” = “Diéu”
• Sursilvanic : “D” + “jeu” = “Diéu”
• Sutsilvanic :“D” + “jou” = “Diéu”
• Sicilian dialect: “D” + “iu” = “Diu”
The French variant “D” + “je(u)” = “Dieu” may have been
derived from the Provençal formula: “D” + “iéu” = “Diéu”, in
which the “u” has been lost.
Of course later migration phases may have influenced the
divine names and the pronouns locally, overriding the Gallic
words by Germanic or Romance alternatives.
For similar characters a correlation between the divine names
in Indo-Europan to Hebrew and Arabian languages has been
suggested5.
Pre-Christian Estonian6 deities included a sky-god known as
Jumal or Taevataat (Sky Grandfather) in Estonian,
corresponding to Jumi and Jumala in Finnish, and Jumo in
Mari. These names and the entries in the corresponding
Swadesh list do not correspond to the above formula.

5
See: Hieroglyphs in Indo-European Languages and The Hermetic Codex
6
Source: Estonian mythology

7
Conclusion
The specified formula for generating the divine name, in which
the divine name is being derived by concatenating a character
“D” (respectively Z, Th or Þ), “the pronoun of the first person
singular (for English and old-German “I”) and a trailing
character “s” works perfectly for English and old-German
languages:
• English: “D” + “i” + “s” => “Dis”
• old-German: “D” + “ih” + “s” => “Dis”
Julius Caesar identified the divine name Dis as the creator deity
for all Gallic tribes. Up the time of Caesar's conquest the Gallic
people had not been influenced by Christianity and we may
consider the divine name Dis and its pronouns (Thu and Ih) as
genuine Indo-European words, inherited from the PIE-
language.
Including German and English the specified formula for
generating the divine name is operable for Romanian.
Romance, Provençal, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, English,
old-German and Sicilian.

8
Appendix: List of Pronouns (1st & 2nd person)
Language “You” “I” God Source
(sing.)
Langue d'Oc Tu ieu , jo Dieu Swadesh
Romanian Tu eu Zeu Swadesh
Sicilian Tu iu Diu Swadesh
(Iu-piter)
Romance Ti jau, eau Dieu Swadesh
Sursilvanic jeu Dieu
Sutsilvanic jou Dieu
(Diou-piter)
Spanish tú, usted yo Dios Swadesh
Portuguese Tu eu Deus Swadesh
Provençal Tu iéu Diéu Swadesh
Old-German Thu Ih Dis
Italian Tu ió Dió Swadesh
French Tu je(u) Dieu Swadesh
English Thou I Dis Swadesh
(& You7)
Arabian ‫أنت‬ ‫أنا‬ ‫ال‬ Swadesh
Hebrew IHVH Swadesh
Table 1: Correlation of pronouns (1st and 2nd person)

7
Thou is the original personal pronoun for the 2nd person singular