Celtic Mythology

Dis Pater

Celtic gods & goddesses

Dis Pater

Dīs Pater was a Roman god of the underworld, later subsumed by Pluto or Hades (Hades was Greek). Originally a chthonic god of riches, fertile agricultural land, and underground mineral wealth, he was later commonly equated with the Roman deities Pluto and Orcus, becoming an underworld deity.
Dīs Pater was commonly shortened to simply Dīs. This name has since become an alternative name for the underworld or a part of the underworld, such as the City of Dis of The Divine Comedy, which comprises Lower Hell.
It is often thought that Dīs Pater was also a Celtic god. This confusion arises from the second-hand citation of one of Julius Caesar's comments in his Commentaries on the Gallic Wars VI:18, where he says that the Gauls all claimed descent from Dīs Pater. However, Caesar's remark is a clear example of interpretatio Romana: what Caesar meant was that the Gauls all claimed descent from a Gaulish god that reminded him of the Roman Dīs Pater, that is, a chthonic deity associated with prosperity and fertility.Different possible candidates exist for this role in Celtic religion, such as Gaulish Sucellus, Irish Donn and Welsh Beli Mawr, among others.

Theories about Dis Pater

Caesar was writing of the Gauls when he mentioned Dis Pater. However, two Irish gods are commonly mentioned as possibilities for Dis Pater: the Dagda and Donn. The Dagda qualifies because of his title Allothair, Father of All, and his association with riches and plenty.

Donn was the god of the dead, often confused with the Dagda. One legend about him says he was the first of his people, the Milesians, to die, which makes him an ancestor-god. At any rate he was, as MacKillop says, "an aloof, retiring deity" who preferred to stay on his island. (Another tradition has it that he came from Spain, a euphemism for the land of the dead.) Christian tradition turned Tech Duinn into a sort of Staten Island of souls, where they might linger before going to Hell.

Donn is only one of the many Irish death-gods. (He has staying power, though; until recent times he was associated with shipwrecks and other marine disasters.) Tethra, who ruled the otherworld and whose name was glossed as "sea", and Donn's grandfather, the Fomorian king Beli, were others. (MacKillop doesn't accept that Beli is a death-god, but says he resembles Dis Pater. He sees Beli and the Welsh ancestor-god Beli Mawr as overlapping. Presumably it is the ancestral aspect that connects all three.)

Dis Pater was sometimes associated with a goddess, Aerecura. They appear together in a couple of places, with her taking on Proserpine's attributes. An altar from Salzbach near Carlsruhe (Germany) shows both seated, the god holding an unrolled scroll, the goddess a basket of fruit. An inscription on the supporting block (socle) reads: I(n) h(onorem) d(omus) d(ivinae) d(eae) s(anctae) Aericur(ae) et Diti Pat(ri) Veter(ius) Paternus et Adie(ctia) Pater(na). (A map of sites where inscriptions to this goddess were found is here.)

Another, from Varhely in Roman Dacia, does not identify them, but the god is accompanied by the three-headed dog Cerebus, while she holds a key. A lead curse tablet from Bregenz (Lake Constance) mentions Ogmios as well as Dis Pater and Aerecura. She is associated with Silvanus in the Rhine Valley. (See here for two images of Aerecura.)

The cult of Aerecura and Dis Pater is similar that of Nantosuelta and Sucellus, but geographically distinct. There is a difference of opinion as to whether the two couples were the same deities, or two different couples with similar functions of propserity and benevolence. Nantosuelta in particular has very specific attritbutes that Aerecura does not share, so it seems unlikely that they were the same goddess. The Celtic pattern of local godddesses of the land also would argue against the two being identical.

Several inscriptions to Aerecura come from gravesites, which Nantosuelta's don't, but suggest that Green was right in saying that she was like Hecate.