Theodon; this in ancient times signified men, people, and also an excellent man (like the word ’baron’), in short, a prince.  There are authorities for all these significations:  but one must not delay over this point.  Herr Otto Sperling, who is well known for various learned writings, but has many more in readiness to appear, in a special dissertation has treated the question of this Teutates, God of the Celts.  Some observations which I imparted to him on that subject have been published, with his reply, in the Literary News of the Baltic Sea.  He interprets this passage from Lucan somewhat otherwise than I do: 

  Teutates, pollensque feris altaribus Hesus,
  Et Tamaris Scythicae non mitior ara Dianae.

Hesus was, it appears, the God of War, who was called Ares by the Greeks and Erich by the ancient Germani, whence still remains Erichtag, Tuesday.  The letters R and S, which are produced by the same organ, are easily interchanged, for instance:  Moor and Moos, Geren and Gesen, Er war and Er was, Fer, Hierro, Eiron, Eisen.  Likewise Papisius, Valesius, Fusius, instead of Papirius, Valerius, Furius, with the ancient Romans.  As for Taramis or perhaps Taranis, one knows that Taran was the thunder, or the God of Thunder, with the ancient Celts, called Thor by the Germani of the north; whence the English have preserved the name ‘Thursday’, jeudi, diem Jovis.  And the passage from Lucan means that the altar of Taran, God of the Celts, was not less cruel than that of Diana in Tauris:  Taranis aram non mitiorem ara Dianae Scythicae fuisse.

143.  It is also not impossible that there was a time when the western [213] or Celtic princes made themselves masters of Greece, of Egypt and a good part of Asia, and that their cult remained in those countries.  When one considers with what rapidity the Huns, the Saracens and the Tartars gained possession of a great part of our continent one will be the less surprised at this; and it is confirmed by the great number of words in the Greek and German tongues which correspond so closely.  Callimachus, in a hymn in honour of Apollo, seems to imply that the Celts who attacked the Temple at Delphi, under their Brennus, or chief, were descendants of the ancient Titans and Giants who made war on Jupiter and the other gods, that is to say, on the Princes of Asia and of Greece.  It may be that Jupiter is himself descended from the Titans or Theodons, that is, from the earlier Celto-Scythian princes; and the material collected by the late Abbe de la Charmoye in his Celtic Origins conforms to that possibility.  Yet there are opinions on other matters in this work by this learned writer which to me do not appear probable, especially when he excludes the Germani from the number of the Celts, not having recalled sufficiently the facts given by ancient writers