Belatu-Cadros

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Belatucadros)
Jump to: navigation, search

In Celtic mythology, Belatu-Cadros, also rendered Belatucadros or Belatucadrus, was a deity worshipped in northern Britain, particularly in Cumberland and Westmorland. He may be related to Belenus and Cernunnos, and was equated in the Roman period with Mars. He appears to have been worshipped by lower-ranked Roman soldiers as well as by Britons.

Belatu-Cadros is known from approximately 28 inscriptions in the vicinity of Hadrian's Wall, England. The spelling of the god's name varies a great deal, and dedications to Balatocadrus, Balatucadrus, Balaticaurus, Balatucairus, Baliticaurus, Belatucairus, Belatugagus, Belleticaurus, Blatucadrus and Blatucairus are generally accepted as variants of Belatu-Cadros. The most common of these forms is Belatucadrus, which as a result is the name generally used in modern writings. In five of these inscriptions, Belatu-Cadros is equated with the Roman god Mars as Mars Belatucadrus.

The altars dedicated to Belatu-Cadros were usually small, simple and plain, and their low quality and the variant spellings, which might reflect a low standard of literacy, have led to the suggestion that this god was mainly worshipped by people of low social status.

The name is frequently glossed as ‘fair shining one’ or ‘fair slayer’ presumably because the first syllable of the name is analogous to the reconstructible Proto-Celtic element *belo- ‘bright.’ This element is reconstructed as *belo- for Proto-Celtic in the Proto-Celtic lexicon [1]. The element is linked to the Indo-European root *bhel- ‘shine’ [2]. However, a cursory glance at the Proto-Celtic lexicon [3] reveals that *belatu- is reconstructible for Proto-Celtic with the meaning ‘death’ and that *kadro- is a reconstructible element meaning ‘decorated.’ So the name Belatucadros may also be interpreted as a compound of two Gallic words descended from two Proto-Celtic elements *belatu- and *kadro- which together as a compound adjective would literally mean ‘[the] death-decorated [one].’ Indeed, this is hardly an original proposal for the meaning of the name of this god associated with Mars: MacCulloch as early as 1911 (p135) glossed this god’s name as ‘comely in slaughter’ [4]. So ‘fair shining one’ or ‘fair slayer’ is not the only gloss acceptable for this theonym.


  • Coulston, Jon C. & Phillips, E.J. (1988). Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani, Great Birtain, Volume I, Fascicule 6. Hadrian's Wall West of the North Tyne, and Carlisle (p. 55). New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-726058-6.
  • Fairless, K.J. (1984). "Three religious cults from the northern crontier region" (p. 225–228). In R. Miket and C. Burgess (eds.), Between and Beyond the Wall. Essays on the Prehistory and History of North Britain in Honour of George Jobey (pp. 224–242). Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers. ISBN 0-85976-087-1.
  • Green, Miranda J. (1992). Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend (p. 42). London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-01516-3.
  • MacCulloch, J. A. (1911). The religion of the ancient Celts. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN-10: 048642765X
  • Ross, Anne (1967). Pagan Celtic Britain. Routledge & Kegan Paul. ISBN 0-902357-03-4.


Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.