Alcis

The Alcis are known only from a single ethnographic passage in Tacitus' Germania (c. 98 CE). Tacitus reports that among the Naharvali there is a grove 'of immemorial sanctity' cared for by a priest 'in female attire' and that the deities worshipped there are called Alcis. He further notes a functional resemblance to Castor and Pollux in Roman terms but insists the cult is indigenous rather than imported. No mythic birth or narrative origin is preserved in the surviving sources; the sole attestation frames them as established local cult deities associated with a sacred grove.

Tacitus explicitly states that the Alcis 'have no images,' and records only that they are venerated 'as brothers and as youths.' There is no ancient pictorial or idol description in the surviving evidence. Later modern devotional or artistic depictions (for example contemporary neopagan renderings) are modern reconstructions and are not attested in the primary ancient source.

Tacitus provides no direct account of specific powers, deeds, or mythic functions for the Alcis. Roman interpretatio equates them with Castor and Pollux, and modern scholarship commonly situates them within the Indo‑European 'Divine Twins' motif (whose members elsewhere act as rescuers, protectors, or healers). Such functional attributes for the Alcis are comparative reconstructions based on parallels rather than direct attestation and therefore remain hypothetical.