Gobannus (orGobannos, theGaulish form, sometimes Cobannus) was aGallo-Romansmithing god.
A number of statues dedicated to him are preserved, found together with abronzecauldron dedicated toDeus Cobannos,[1] in the late 1980s and illegally[failed verification] exported to the United States, now in the Getty Museum in theGetty Center, in California.[2] He is mentioned in an inscription found in the 1970s inFontenay-près-Vézelay, readingAVG(VSTO) SAC(RVM) [DE]O COBANNO, i.e. dedicated toAugustus andDeus Cobannus.
The theonymGobannos, attested asDeo Cobanno on inscriptions,[3] is derived from theProto-Celtic stem *goben-, meaning 'smith' (cf.Old Irishgobae,Middle Welshgof,Middle Bretongof(f),Old Cornishgof 'smith'; cf. alsoGaulishgobedbi 'with the smiths' < *goben-bi or *gob-et-bi-). The same stem can be found in the Irish deityGoibniu (< *Gobeniū or *Gobanniō), and inGovannon (< *Gobannonos), the son of the goddessDôn inWelsh mythology, which may suggest a common origin of the name in Proto-Celtic legends. It is also attested in various personal names, such as the GaulishGobannitio,Gobannicnus, orGobano, the Old IrishGobain (Lat.Gobanus), theOld BretonRan Gof, as well as in the toponymsGobannium (nowAbergavenny) andSanctus Gobanus (Saint-Gobain).[4][5][6]
AProto-Indo-European (PIE) origin of the stem *goben- is controversial, and some scholars have proposed that it is restricted to Celtic.[4][5] It could be connected to Latinfaber ('craftsman'), via PIE *g(w)hobh-, although the former is generally derived from *dhHbh-ro- (cf. Armeniandarbin).[5]Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel has also proposed to derive it from PIE *g(h)eubh- ('curve, bend'), because bronze was hammered and bended, contrary to iron that was melted,[4] andVáclav Blažek has suggested a relation with theLithuanian goddess of fireGabija.[7]
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The best preserved dedication to Gobannus is found on theBern zinc tablet, where his name is writtenΓΟΒΑΝΟ (in the dative and in Greek letters). The tablet was found in the 1980s inBern. It is inscribed with an apparentlyGaulish inscription
Brenodor is probably a placename ( cf.Brennus);Nantaror may refer to theAare valley (containing as first elementnanto- "valley"; cf. Cornishnans, Welshnant).Dobnoredo seems to be anepithet ofGobano, maybe composed ofdubno- "world" (Old Irishdumh, c.f.Dumnorix,Donald,Devon) andrēdo- "travel" (Old Irishriad), orrēdā "chariot" i.e. "world-traveller" or "world-charioteer", so that the inscription may mean approximately "to Gobannus, the world-traveller, dedicated by the people of Brennoduron in the Arura valley".
Although calledzinc, the tablet is made of an alloy that also containslead andiron as well as traces ofcopper,tin andcadmium.[8] The zinc was possibly collected from a furnace, where the metal is known to aggregate,Strabo calling itpseudoarguros "mock silver". In 1546,Georg Agricola re-discovered that a white metal could be condensed and scraped off the walls of a furnace when zinc ores were smelted, but it is believed that it was usually thrown away as worthless. Since the tablet is dedicated to the god of the smiths it is not unlikely that zinc remnants scraped from a furnace were collected by smiths and considered particularly smithcraft-related.
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