Atepomarus in Celtic Gaul was a healing god. Mauvières (Indre), Apollo was associated with this god in the form Apollo Atepomarus.
At some of Apollo's healing sanctuaries (as at Sainte-Sabine, Burgundy) small figurines of horses were associated with him.
The title also appears as Atepomerus.[1]
Scholarship suggests the name is a compound of at- (intensifier), -epo- (the Celtic word for "horse") and -marus ("large, great").[2][3] Thus, the epithet is sometimes translated as "Great Horseman" or "possessing a great horse".[4][5]
Pierre-Yves Lambert rejects his connection with horses and suggests an etymology based on *ad-tepo, related to 'protection, refuge'.[6]
A character named Atepomarus appears with a Momoros (fr) as a pair of Celtic kings and founders of Lugdunum. They escape from Sereroneus and arrive at a hill. Momorus, who had skills in augury, sees a murder of crows and names the hill Lougodunum, after the crows. This myth is reported in the works of Klitophon of Rhodes and in Pseudo-Plutarch's De fluviis.[7][2][8][4]
The name appears as a theonym attached to Graeco-Roman deities Apollo and Mercurius.[4][9] An inscription of Apollo Atepomarus was found in Mauvières, tied to the Gallic tribe of the Bituriges.[10][11]