1. Meaning of Name: Olmstead gives us “of conflicts”, and “the warrior”. Green has no suggestions. Mackillop says, “powerful”. None are remotely certain of their etymologies.1
2. Pronuncation: Kam-UL-us, with the “a” like the “u” in “but”, and the “u” like in “put”.
3. Other Names and Epithets: Very many. Olmstead and Green between then give: Armogios, Cocidios, Caturix, Latobios, Magenios, Marmogius, Medocios, Meduriris, Mogetious, Mogios, Mullo, Nabelcus, Neto, Riocaletis, Rigonemetis, Rudianus, Rudiobus, Segomo, and Sinatis.2
4. Interpretatio Romana: Mars and Mercury.3
5. Irish Equivalent: There are suggestions in obsolete works that Cumhail, the father of Fionn, has a name derived from him. No scholar accepts that today. I personally tend to think that the deeds of warrior heroes such as Cuchulainn might also have some relation, but this is UPG.
6. Indo-European Equivalent: None.
7. Realm: Ueronados/Upper World God
8. Iconography: Green shows that horses, horsemen, and infantry, sometimes with shields, sometimes with severed heads, are associated with several by-names of this God. Mackillop mentions that He is ram-horned.4
9. Significance: Kondratiev says of an equivalent of him that “he is the God who sets the boundaries of the civilized world and protects them by force of arms”. Thus he is a God of defense of the tribe, or war, and of warriors. He is also a God of boundaries and borders, and, by this as well as his association with Mars, can be linked to fields, and to agriculture.5
- Olmsted, Gods of the Celts and Indo-Europeans, pp. 334-335; Green, Dictionary, p. 141; Mackillop, p.74 ↩
- Green, Dictionary, pp. 143-144, 181; Olmsted, Gods of the Celts and Indo-Europeans, pp. 319-320, 322-323, 324-328 ↩
- Olmsted, Gods of the Celts and Indo-Europeans, pp. 328-329; Green, Dictionary, p. 208-209 ↩
- Green, Dictionary, pp. 209, 181, 188, Mackillo ↩
- Kondratiev, Basic Celtic Deity Types ↩
