Mogons
Celtic god
Mogons (also Moguns, Mogontis and, in the plural, Moguntes; from a Celtic word meaning 'great') was an ancient Celtic god worshipped chiefly in the north of Roman Britain, in the military zone of Hadrian's Wall. His name is usually rendered 'the Great One'. It is known from a small group of Latin dedications, set up mainly by members of the frontier garrison, and from a handful of related divine names in Gaul and the Rhineland. On one altar from Netherby he is coupled with the native god Vitiris. Because the name occurs in many spellings and is sometimes invoked in the plural, several scholars have doubted whether it named a single deity. No classical author mentions him, and no image or interpretatio romana attaches to his cult, the evidence for him being wholly epigraphic and onomastic.
Name
Mogons is named only in Latin inscriptions and in a few Gaulish theonyms, no Greek or Roman author recording him. In Britain the name is spelt in several ways, among them Mogons, Moguns and Mogontis, and, with loss of the g, Mounus, together with the plural forms Mountes and Moguntes.
The name Mogons is generally derived from the Celtic stem mago- or mogo-, and glossed 'the Great One'. Helmut Birkhan analysed it as an Indo-European nt-stem *mogont-s, cognate with Sanskrit mahānt and Avestan mazant ('great').
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Mogons” is celtic god. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Mogons and Celtic, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “celtic god” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q321547. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Mogons”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Mogons primary sources, Mogons archive and Mogons research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Mogons”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Mogons” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.