Maponos – Mabon – Celtic God Youth and Hunting in Gaul and Northern Britain

Maponos was the Celtic god of youth, healing and hunting among the Celts of Gaul during the Iron Age and era of the Roman Empire. 

The cult of Apollo Maponos was popular in Gaul and northern Britain. The pagan god, Apollo Maponos, was venerated by the Roman soldiers stationed around Hadrian's Wall during the occupation of the island.

The popularity of Maponos continued in the form of Mabon in the mythology of Wales.

Maponos means “Great Youth”, “Great Son”, “Divine Son” and “Divine Son of the Great Mother”. 

The mother of Maponos in Gaul was the goddess Dea Matrona or the “Great Divine Mother”. The goddess, Dea Matrona, was the protective spirit of the River Marne in the south-east of Paris. 

The deity, Dea Matrona, was the embodiment of the triple-goddesses of the same name who bestowed gifts of fertility and prosperity. 

The goddess, Dea Matrona, in Gaul was another personification of Modron in Welsh mythology. 

The Celts and Romanised Celts in Gaul portrayed Maponos as a god of youth, music and hunting. His title of “The Divine Hunter” inferred he enjoyed hunting as a typical pursuit of young warriors.

The Catuvellauni lived in the around the River Marne and were particularly associated with the cults of Dea Matrona and Maponos during the Iron Age. 

Historians believe the Catuvellauni were one of the tribes who settled in England during the Belgic migration in 100 BC.

The veneration of Dea Matrona and Maponos was enhanced among the Britons as the Catuvellauni became one of the largest and most prosperous tribes in Britain. 

The Romans paired Maponos with Apollo, the Roman god of healing and the sun, possibly because Apollo was the Roman ideal of youth. 

An inscription dedicated to Apollo Maponos was found at a healing spring in Bourbonne-les-Bains in north-eastern France. Maponos became a god of healing among the Romano-Gallic inhabitants of Gaul because of his association with Apollo. 

The popularity of Maponos as a Romano-Gallic god was evident at a healing spring called Les Roches in Chamalières. Chamalières is near Clermont-Ferrand in central France. 

Over three thousand wooden votive offerings were made to Maponos in Chamalières as a deity of hunting and healing. Some of the offerings took the form of sculptures of limbs. The hoard of Celtic artefacts in 

Chamalières is one of the largest ever found in France.

An inscription dedicated to Maponos in Chamalières was engraved on one of a small number of lead curse tablets. The curse tablets suggested Maponos was possibly one of the gods of the Underworld because of his association with the River Marne near Paris.

The Gallic tribe of the Lingones venerated Maponos as a regional pagan god around Bourbonne-les-Bains in north-eastern France and Chamalières in central France.

The cult of Apollo Maponos was popular among all ranks of the Roman army stationed around Hadrian's Wall in northern Britain. Inscriptions were found of the veneration of Apollo Maponos as well as Maponos as a god in his own right.

The prefect in charge of the Roman legions stationed at a Roman fort near Hadrian's in Corbridge in Northumberland dedicated an altar to Apollo Maponos

 (Wikimedia Commons- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roman_altar,_North_Nave_Aisle,_Hexham_Abbey_-_geograph.org.uk_-_749305.jpg ). The present-day site of the altar is Hexham Abbey. 

 Hexham Abbey is also home to another altar dedicated to Apollo Maponos by a centurion at the fort.

A tribune from the same fort dedicated an altar to Apollo Maponos in the village of Corbridge.

The acting commander and prefect of a Roman fort honoured Apollo Maponos with a monument in the present-day village of Ribchester in Lancashire. The fort was built near Hadrian's Wall.

Maponos was also honoured as an important Celtic god by the Roman soldiers stationed near Hadrian's Wall.

A silver plaque dedicated to “Dea Mapono”, or the “god Maponos”, was discovered at the Roman fort of Vindolanda to the south of Hadrian's Wall. The Roman fort of Vindolanda is now found near the village of Bardon Mill in Northumberland. 

Roman soldiers paid homage to the pagan deity as the cult of Mabon as an incarnation of Maponos was popular in northern Britain.

The Lochmaben Stone in Dumfriesshire in Scotland is an ancient boulder dating to 3000 BC which was once surrounded by a large Druidic stone circle. The druids considered the area sacred to the god, Mabon, because of a healing well. 

The cult of Mabon spread to Wales and remained popular after the withdrawal of the Roman legions in 410 AD. Ruabon Mountain near Wrexham in Wales means 'Mabon's Hill'. 

The Welsh hero, Mabon ap Modron, was another personification of Maponos. Mabon was the son of the Modron, “the Great Mother goddess” and Mellt, meaning “lightning”.

According to the Mabinogion, Mabon was abducted from his mother, the goddess Modron, when he was only “three nights old”. Mabon was taken to a place in the Otherworld called Caer Loyw where he was imprisoned. 

Caer Loyw means “city of light” and is located the present-day Gloucester. The “city of light” was closely associated with the cult of Mabon as a sun-god in Wales. 

The kidnapping of Mabon when he was an infant and the reason he was imprisoned remained a mystery in the legend. 

Some scholars believe the imprisonment of Mabon referred to the mid-winter solstice as a sun-god who is released after the shortest day of the year or 21st December.

Culhwch was set the impossible task of bringing the tusks (razor), bristles (comb) and jaw (shears) of the fierce, white boar, Twrch Trwyth. Only Mabon possessed the exceptional skills necessary to hunt and kill Twrch Trwyth as he was the greatest hunter in the land.

The quest to find Mabon was aided by King Arthur, the uncle of Culhwch, and his brave knights.

Culhwch and King Arthur's knights eventually found Mabon after asking for his whereabouts from different animals. 

The magical Salmon of Llyn Llyw knew the place where Mabon was held prisoner because it was the oldest animal on the earth.

The sadness of Mabon was heard by King Arthur's knights as they approached the prison of Caer Loyw in the Otherworld. Mabon was rescued by two knights called Cei and Bedwyr so that the pagan god could take part in the hunt for the boar.

Mabon hunted the boar known as Twrch Trwyth as soon as he was freed. He snatched the tusks, bristles and jaw of the ferocious boar, Twrch Trwyth while riding swiftly on a horse called Gwynn Mygdwn, or the “White Brown-mane”. 

Culhwch cut the hair and shaved the beard of Ysbaddaden, the father of Olwen, with the body parts which were taken from the boar, Twrch Trwyth.

Ysbaddaden died shortly afterwards which allowed Culhwch to marry his beloved, Olwen.

Mabon was portrayed in the Mabinogion as a benevolent ancient, deity. He was a god who was always willing to help mankind.

The cult of Maponos may have been present in Iberia (Spain and Portugal) where he was known as Mabonios.

The Blanchard's Stone discovered in Vermont in New Hampshire in the USA also referred to Mabon in the Ogham inscriptions engraved on the stone.

“According to Barry Fell discovered in Vermont, is 'a prayer for rain inscribed in a form of Gaelic used by Iberian Celts' (Academia - https://www.academia.edu/21466006/The_Blanchard_Stone_Vermont ).

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