OGMIOS | SMERTRIOS / SMERTULLUS | HERCULES

Another deity mentioned on the ‘Pilier des nautes’ was SMERT[---]. The rest of the name is unfortunately broken off. SMERT could stand for
  • Smertrios (attested only once (CIL XIII 11975 (Liesmich, Germany)
  • Smertullus
  • For the etymology, cf. the name of the goddess Rosmerta:Ro-smerta ‘Grande-Pourvoyeuse’, the 'Great Purveyor').
Iconography:
  • On the ‘Pilier des nautes’, the depiction of Smert[---] is very similar to depictions of Hercules fighting the Hydra with the latter resembling a snake. (We also see a deity holding a snake on the Gundestrup cauldron).
Etymology:
  • See e.g. Delamarre 2003, 277, s.v. smero/smerto- ‘prévoyant, qui prend soin de , pourvoyeur’.
SYMBOLISM | INTERPRETATION | EVIDENCE
  • The snake or serpent is a common chthonic symbol: it this context, the serpent could be a symbol of regeneration and/or the connection betweent he world of the living and the dead (see e.g. UniMichigan; Wikip.;)
  • Other common representations of Hercules in Gaul also provide a link between the two realms: Hercules and the apples of the Hesperides which were used in order to establish contact with the ‘Otherworld’.
  • HERCULES & SMERTULLUS/SMERTRIOS
    Moreover, Hercules and Smertullus seem to have similar characteristics: the hero, the semi-god and the champion of immortality. A dedication to Smertullus from Lyon, which can be associated with a (barbed) Hercules, further supports the association of these two deities, though on the few epigraphic attestations of Smertullus his name ‘The Purveyor’ was rather used as an epithet to describe the function of a local Mars, Dispater and Jupiter.
    • JUPITER SMERTRIOS (Iou[i] Smer(trio) - Grignan, AE 1987, 756);
    • MARS SMERTRIOS (Marti Smertrio et [---] Vindoridio Boud[a]nae (Liesenich, CIL XIII 11975 = ILS 9303);
    • MARS SMERTULIANUS (Marti Sme[rtuli]t[a]no et [Anc]amnae, C(aius) G() Sec[---] : Mohn, CIL XIII 4119 = AE 1983, 718);
    • DIS SMERTRIOS AUGUSTUS ([D]iti Smer[trio] Aug(usto) M Claud(ius) Rufus [et I]ulia Gemellina aedem fecerunt l(ibentes) m(erito) - Grossbuch, AE 1950, 98 = ILLPRON 121);
    • APOLLO AUGUSTUS ATESMERTUS ( AE 1984, 641: Apollini Augusto Atesmerti
    • ATESMERTA (AE 1925, 98 Atesmert(a)e)
  • HERCULES & OGMIOS
    Lucian of Samosata (c. A.D. 120-190) wrote that Hercules was equated with Ogmios, the ‘god of eloquence’. It is, however, doubtful whether Ogmios is attested on any Latin inscription.
    • For example, there is a dedication Ogl(…) Aug(usto, -ae?) sac(rum)
      - CIL XIII 11295  |  Was it a dedication to the "August Ogmios"? It's very uncertain!
  • Consequently we have to wonder whether Ogmios really existed. Euskirchen recently assumed that he did, while Bauchhenß that he did not.
  • TRIAD: OGMA | DAGDA | LUGH
  • There is of course the Irish Ogma – a strong man and champion like Hercules – who made up a triad together with Dagda and Lug. In Roman times, we also learn about another myth after which the Gauls were the descendents from Hercules and not from Dispater (as in Caesar’s account, supra)139, but this might not be more than an attempt to integrate Gauls into the Graeco-Roman civilised world by creating a mythological ancestry.
  • Altogether it seems that the meaning and appearance of the Gallo-Roman
    Hercules was enriched by a variety of deities, like Smertullus, Ogmios and Herakles, a process that might have already started in the 2nd century B.C. This created a particular kind of Hercules - the Hercules gallicus attested at Allife in Italy.
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Ralph Haeussler