09/01/2015
WHO WAS ENDOVELICUS ?
Endovelicus (also Endouellicus, Endovélico in Portuguese), was an Iron Age god of public health and safety, worshipped in pre-Roman and Roman Lusitania and Gallaecia. He was associated with chthonic oracles and healing,
After the Roman invasion, his cult spread to most of the Roman Empire, but was always most popular in the Roman provinces of Lusitania (covering most of what is now Portugal) and Betica (located in Southern Spain). Thus he is considered part of the Roman mythology and the related Lusitanianand Gallaecian mythology.
Endovelicus has a temple in São Miguel da Mota in Alentejo, Portugal, and there are numerous inscriptions and ex-votos dedicated to him in the Museu Etnológico de Lisboa (the Ethnological Museum of Lisbon). The cult of Endovelicus prevailed until the 5th century, just when Christianity was spreading in the region.
Endovelicus was a supreme solar healing god, thus a god of Medicine. Some suspect he was also a god who wore several faces, one of which may have been an "infernal" one, since all solar gods went down to the infernos and returned with healing power.