Gaelic Folklore (35): The Celtic Goddesses Healer

The Celtic Goddesses Healer

Introduction

The evidence for a healer-goddess in Celtic Europe during the early first millennium AD is based almost entirely upon iconographical and epigraphic evidence. Certain concepts need to be introduced here in order that the role of the Goddess as healer may be better understood.

First, there is a strong link between religion and medicine: this is something that is evidenced both in the classical and in the Celtic world. Sick people in antiquity relied upon the healing skills of the supernatural powers at least as much as upon empirical medicine. Indeed, at many therapeutic sanctuaries in Gaul and Britain, doctors were present as well as priests, for example at Fontes Sequanae and Bath; it is even possible that the two roles were sometimes combined in the one individual.

Second, the perception of the numinous in water is important. There is abundant evidence in non-Mediterranean Europe from at least the later Bronze Age—say around 1300 BC—that water was a central focus of ritual activity. During the later Iron Age this activity began to manifest itself in the development of healing sanctuaries on the sites of thermal springs, a phenomenon which burgeoned in the Romano-Celtic phase in the Rhineland, Gaul and Britain.

Third, the evidence for healing cults in Celtic Europe demonstrates a very close link between healing, regeneration and fertility, which may account for the fact that many Celtic divine healers were perceived as female, and for the strong association between curative cult establishments and the mothergoddesses. There is evidence that many devotees of healing-deities were women; the fact that most stone altars were dedicated by men probably does not reflect anything other than economic or social factors. Women may not normally have had the means to erect expensive stone monuments as readily as their male counterparts. However, the cult of Apollo Vindonnus at Essarois in Burgundy seems—from the exvotoes— to have been patronized by women. The lady wearing a torc whose wooden image was dedicated at the thermal shrine of Chamalières in the first century AD was probably a devotee, but it is just possible that she may have been the goddess herself. There is a small amount of evidence for the association of women with the healing professions: at Grand in the Vosges, a stone of Romano-Celtic date depicts the inside of a chemist’s shop with a female chemist at work with mortar and herbs. An inscription and image on a tombstone at Metz betray the presence of a female doctor in the first century AD.

Fourth, we must be wary of positing theories- about the status of women in Celtic society from the importance of the Goddess. Having sounded this note of caution, it is, however, interesting that classical literary references to Celtic women contain many allusions to the contrast between their status and that of their more lowly Mediterranean sisters.

Sequana Of Burgundy

Sequana was a water-spirit, the personification of the River Seine at its source, Fontes Sequanae. Here, in the valley of the Châtillon Plateau, a spring of fresh, pure water wells up from the ground and was the focus of religious devotion from the later first century BC. The spring is pure but it contains no genuine mineral properties. Sequana is special in that she is not paired with any Roman goddess; her name is known from about ten inscriptions, and there is a bronze cult-statue of Sequana herself. In 1963, during the excavation of buildings dating to the Roman period, more than 200 wooden votives were discovered in water-logged ground, apparently pre-dating Roman levels and originally set up perhaps around the sacred pool. The pre-Roman activity centered upon the pool itself; there is no evidence of permanent structures at this time. Shortly after the Roman occupation of the region the sanctuary was monumentalized and the spring canalized. It was now an extensive religious complex, containing two temples, porticoes, a dormitory and reservoirs, still centered on the sacred spring and pool. The votive images were now of stone. In common with the activities at classical healing shrines, sick pilgrims visited the sanctuary bearing offerings—possibly bought at the shrine shop—bathed, slept, and asked for a cure with gifts of models of themselves or their afflictions. Eyes, chest, genitals, limbs—these were just a few of the complaints represented by the votives. The eye problems so prevalent at many shrines could have been due to poor hygiene or malnutrition: a lack of animal fat can cause night-blindness. The votive model breasts in bronze and silver may denote milk deficiency, a serious problem for child-rearing in antiquity. Sequana was not a specialist: she healed all afflictions.

Sequana

Sirona And Her Peers

There is a group of continental healer-goddesses who have a common characteristic: namely, the possession of a male partner. It is the case with the healers, as with other divine couples like Mercury and Rosmerta, that the native goddess seems often to possess a wider variety of functions and concerns than her consort and, in addition, is the less influenced by Graeco-Roman traditions. These goddesses usually have completely native names, and symbolism which is less influenced by Graeco-Roman art forms than their male companions. In addition, they show evidence of independent identity: they are not mere female ciphers attached to the cults of male divinities.

Sirona

Sirona

Sirona is the divine partner of the Celtic healing Apollo, normally called Apollo Grannus (a native epithet associated with Grand in the Vosges). But she occurs alone, for example at Corseul in Brittany, where she is called Tsirona; her high rank is shown by inscriptions where she is linked with the spirit of the emperor. Sirona was venerated alone also at Baumburg in Noricum (Austria). Her cult was widely distributed and may well have pre-dated the Roman occupation of Gaul and elsewhere. Sirona was at her most popular among the Terveri: the main cult-centre was at Hochscheid, a spring sanctuary in the Moselle Basin, to which we shall return. But, elsewhere among the Treveri, Sirona was invoked at Nietaldorf, Bitburg and Sainte-Fontaine, and among the neighbouring Mediomatrici at Sablon, Metz. Sirona’s spring-cult is evidenced at Wiesbaden, Mainz and Luxeuil and even at Brigetio in Hungary, where, in the third century AD, a temple was set up to Apollo Grannus and Sarana. In the second century AD a temple was erected at Hochscheid, on the site of a spring whose waters supplied a cistern. The evidence of coins suggests that this building replaced an earlier shrine, perhaps of wood. Pilgrims offered presents of coins, figurines, etc. It seems to have been a wealthy shrine for so remote a region, perhaps a personal endowment by a prosperous trader or villa-owner who had occasion to be grateful to the guardians of the spring. 

The imagery here is interesting and Sirona’s is the more informative. There were large stone statues of Apollo and Sirona; he is entirely Classical, but Sirona is represented as a woman in a long robe and a diadem, a snake round her right forearm, and a bowl of three eggs held in her left hand. The serpent/egg symbolism is essentially regenerative as well as curative. The snake’s skin-sloughing habit gives it symbolism of rebirth and perhaps also the idea of sloughing off disease. Clay figurines brought to the shrine as gifts show Sirona seated, like a mother-goddess, with a small lapdog, which is perhaps indicative of healing. There is an Irish historical link between women and lapdogs which is suggested by Cormick as being possibly associated with the use of these animals as ‘hot-water bottles’ to comfort period pains. The imagery of the couple in bronze at Malain in Burgundy is essentially similar to that at Hochscheid: this group has a dedicatory inscription beneath the images. On other sites, the fertility aspect of Sirona’s cult is evidenced by the imagery; for example, at Sainte-Fontaine, where the goddess bears corn and fruit, and at Mainz and Baumburg where she is accompanied by ears of corn. This symbolism of the earth’s abundance bears out the association between healing springs and the mother-goddess cult. Sirona’s name is interesting: it is philologically related to ‘star’, so perhaps associated with night and darkness. There could be a link with the moon, the female menstrual cycle and the darkness of the womb.

Sirona and Apollo

Ancamna and Damona

These two continental goddesses are distinctive in their apparent polyandry, changing partners from site to site. Ancamna is known only from epigraphy. She was a Treveran deity, partner of Lenus Mars at Trier. But at Moehn, a rural sanctuary where Lenus was also venerated, Ancamna was coupled with Mars Smertrius, another native version of the Roman god. Is this the same deity with two names, or are they separate entities? Mars’s association with healing is common in the Celtic world, where his war role was transmuted into that of a guardian-protector against disease, as at Mavilly, where he appears (with a goddess) dressed as a warrior, but accompanied by a ram-horned snake, symbol of regeneration. Mavilly was particularly renowned for the cure of eye disease. Damona’s name means ‘divine cow’ or ‘great cow’, and this may reflect her role as a goddess of wealth and fertility. But first and foremost she was a healer, worshipped especially in Burgundy; she had a number of partners, but her main sanctuary was at Alesia, where she was coupled with Apollo Moritasgus. The two were venerated at a shrine with a pool in which sick pilgrims bathed in the hope of a cure. No image of Moritasgus survives but there is a fragment of Damona’s statue, showing a strong link between her iconography and that of Sirona: a carved stone head is crowned with corn-ears and a hand entwined with a serpent’s coils. At Bourbonne-Lancy, Damona’s consort was Borvo, another spring-god, and an inscription from the curative shrine relates to Damona’s association with the therapeutic sleep enjoyed by pilgrims seeking a healing dream or vision from the divine healers. The names of both Borvo and Moritasgus mean ‘bubbling’ or ‘seething’ water. 

At another Burgundian shrine, Arnay-le-Duc, Damona’s partner is yet another god, Abilus. Again a fragmentary image of the goddess represents her with a stone snake curled round a human arm. It is worth remembering that the Graeco-Roman healer-god, Asklepios, is often depicted with a coiled serpent. The polyandrous nature of Damona’s cult supports her status as an independent native divinity whose identity was not based on her association with any one god. Her rank is further enhanced by epigraphic evidence from the curative sanctuary of Bourbonne-les-Bains, where Damona was worshipped alone.

Ancamna and Mars Smertius

Other Gaulish Spring Goddesses

Many other spring-goddesses are recorded only on inscriptions, often again associated with male partners: Bormana and Bormanus were venerated in southern Gaul; Luxovius and Bricta at Luxeuil. Others were lone goddesses: Telo was the eponymous spring-spirit of Toulon in the Dordogne; Januaria at Beire-le-Châtel in Burgundy is mentioned on a statue of a figure playing pan-pipes. We have little clue as to Januaria’s precise function, though she was worshipped at a curative shrine. The musical instrument may indeed be a symbol of healing sleep, just as in vernacular myth healing deities such as Cliodna were associated with music—this time with singing birds. The name of the Treveran goddess Icovellauna may be linked with water-imagery: she was venerated at Trier and at the thermal springs of Sablon, Metz. Aveta was a spring goddess of the Treveri, to whom pilgrims at Trier offered small clay figurines of mother-goddesses with baskets of fruit, with dogs or with babies.

Sulis: Healer And Avenger

The site of Bath, Aquae Sulis, was sacred before the Roman period: this is implied by the presence of eighteen Celtic Iron Age coins from the lowest levels. Early in the Roman period—just fifteen years or so after the occupation—a great temple, baths and a huge religious precinct were constructed around the great spring, which pumps out hot water beside the River Avon at a rate of a quarter of a million gallons a day; a huge altar was set up in front of the temple, and a reservoir containing the main spring enclosed by a low stone wall. This was a great Neronian or Flavian building programme using Roman engineers.

There were major alterations c. AD 200, which argue for a new slant to the cult: the temple was enlarged but the reservoir, which had been visible all over the precinct, including the baths, was enclosed in a huge vaulted hall, restricting both physical and visual access to it, and making the water more remote and mysterious. Pilgrims could now only approach the spring through a dim passageway—does this imply Otherworld symbolism?

The goddess at Bath was Sulis, a native deity, but she was equated with Minerva, which seems a curious conflation. If Sulis really is a healer-goddess, as her presence at the hot spring implies, then she may be linked with Minerva because the latter was perceived as goddess of the craft of medicine. But in addition there is a philological link between the name Sulis and the sun—the sun and healing were closely linked in the Celtic world.  Indeed the solar association may have come about at least partly because Sulis’s springs were hot.

The cult of Sulis flourished until the mid-fourth century AD. The springs have genuine medicinal properties which are good for such ailments as arthritis and gout; this must have gained Sulis a reputation for being able to cure everything. There were many devotees who donated ivory and bronze model breasts, spindle-whorls and jewellery. But unlike—say—Sequana’s shrine, very few anatomical votives have been found. Pilgrims visited the shrine perhaps for a physical cure, or perhaps more often for spiritual refreshment. Immersion, purification, imbibing the water and thus the spirit of the goddess, the healing sleep, sacrifice, festivals and prayers all must have taken place here, as well as the offering of gifts. The spring appears to have been the focus of personal contact with the goddess, to whom prayers, vows, requests and thanks were made. Stone altars record gratitude for Sulis’s help. Money, rings, brooches and combs as well as other personal offerings were cast in, some by women, perhaps sometimes on impulse.

Ritual activity is represented at Bath: a priest of Sulis, Calpurnius Receptus, died here aged 75. A haruspex (literally ‘gut-gazer’) may have been present in a personal rather than an official capacity. Part of a head-dress was found, suggesting liturgical regalia. About 12,000 coins come from the reservoir.

This seems a large quantity but it works out as only an average of c. 24–48 coins a year. The presence of silver, pewter and bronze vessels could represent a ritual purpose (the drinking or pouring of the sacred water), but they could also have been offerings.

The question needs to be asked as to whether the assumption that Sulis is primarily a healer-goddess is valid. The only real evidence is her presence at the site of a major thermal spring. The third-century Roman writer Solinus refers to Bath having springs ‘furnished luxuriously for human use …over them Minerva presides’. There is no mention of healing. The inscriptions dedicating altars to the goddess do not specifically mention the curing of disease, whilst this does occur at Fontes Sequanae. Most importantly, there is a significant lack of anatomical votives, which are such clear indications of healing cults elsewhere. Certainly, I think, we have to reconsider Sulis’s role, even though the hot springs must have played a genuine part in the establishment of the cult.

Sulis / Minerva

The diversity of Sulis’s cult is nowhere shown more clearly than in the extraordinary group of 130 lead and pewter curses or defixiones from Bath found in the reservoir where they had been cast by vengeful devotees. This aspect of the goddess’s nature and powers is seemingly at variance with the role of benevolent healer. Sulis was clearly perceived as an avenger of wrongs. Water and curses have a well-established link; as late as the nineteenth century in Wales, a man was imprisoned for inscribing a curse on a lead sheet and throwing it into a well. In a sense the named or unnamed malefactor was being symbolically sacrificed to the goddess. The ‘fixing’ was an important element of the defixio, so that the curse would not rebound on the curser. The choice of lead or pewter is significant both practically and symbolically. The curses are very harsh, associated with fertility, sleep, blood and internal disorders.

So there is a strong link with disease in this negative aspect of Sulis’s cult: Docimedes has lost two gloves. He asks that the person who has stolen them should lose his mind and his eyes in the temple where she appoints. Docilianus, son of Brucerus to the most holy goddess Sulis. I curse him who has stolen my hooded cloak, whether man or woman, slave or free, that the goddess inflict death upon him, and not allow him sleep or children, now and in the future, until he has brought my hooded cloak to the temple of her divinity.

The cult of Sulis, whatever its precise nature, was popular and successful, attracting people over a wide area and over long periods of time—nearly four centuries. If we are right to interpret her cult as primarily that of a healer, then the reversal of benevolence and vengeance is interesting. What the goddess could give she could also take away, especially if the evil deed was perpetrated within her sacred space.

Healing And The Mother-Goddesses

The symbolism of the divine female healers has already demonstrated a close link between curing, fertility and regeneration. The mother-goddesses themselves, often in their distinctive triadic form, appear at thermal spring-sanctuaries, presumably as healers themselves. There is a natural link between the mother, childbirth and women’s health before, during and after pregnancy.

The Mothers were perceived as protectors and nourishers of children. Good examples of mother-goddesses at springshrines include those at Vertault and Bath. At Aix-les-Bains, pilgrims at the curative shrine worshipped the Matres Comedovae, the med element perhaps referring specifically to health. The Matres Griselicae were the eponymous healers at Greoulx, the Glanicae at Glanum, and the

Nemausicae at Nîmes, all in Provence. At Arrington in Cambridgeshire, a recent discovery consists of the burial of an infant who died of hydrocephalus: he was placed in a coffin on top of which was a group of clay figurines, including a mother-goddess of distinctively Rhenish type. Was she placed in his grave as a symbolic mother but also as a healer, so that he would be whole in his life in the Otherworld?

The association between mothers and healers is enhanced by certain aspects of their symbolism, notably the presence with them of such animals as dogs and snakes. Dogs were associated with self-healing, and there were sacred dogs at the great healing sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus in Greece. In Britain, images of dogs were notable occurrences at the healing shrine of Nodens at Lydney. We have seen the association between dogs, Sirona and Aveta. Snakes were potent symbols of rebirth and fertility, again associated with healing.

-Conclusion

From our own experience in modern times we know that health figures prominently in, for example, governmental responsibility and spending. Health is a fundamental concern to humankind and must always have been so. In antiquity, many diseases that to us are commonplace and curable were neither understood nor capable of effective treatment. So the gods played a crucial role in the physical and spiritual well-being of the community.

In the Celtic world, we know of many great healing-cults which were more or less influenced by the imagery and belief-systems of the Classical world. But I think it fair to say that some of the most interesting cults were those centred upon the goddesses; Sulis, Sequana, Sirona and their sisters in healing all presided over important popular sanctuaries to which pilgrims were attracted from far afield, drawn by the successful reputations of the goddesses.

The links between healing and fertility are interesting, and these appear to be specific to the female healers. Perhaps more fascinating still is the reversal of beneficence and malignancy in Sulis’s cult, where curing and cursing were both under the goddess’s jurisdiction.

The healing deities may have played a large part in people’s lives not only because they attended to their physical well-being but also perhaps because they offered spiritual renewal. This is not usually evidenced archaeologically but it is more than likely that pilgrims prayed to these divinities for many and complex reasons other than those of pure health.

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the healing-goddess cult is the manner in which it has survived into modern Christianity all over Europe. There are numerous instances of shrines to the Virgin Mary as a healer to whom pilgrims have come in recent years as suppliants, bearing gifts identical to those found in such sanctuaries as Fontes Sequanae. I will give just one example, from Malta, where Melleiha Bay, a subterranean shrine to Mary, cut into the rock, is associated with a natural spring. The gifts which decorate the walls include wax or silver models of limbs, hearts or eyes, baby clothes, shoes, crutches, plaster-casts, X-rays, pictures of children, even crash-helmets: all offered to Mary in hope or thanksgiving. There is a legend that the statue of Mary was often moved to a more respectable place within the main church later built above the original shrine but that, during the night, she always moved back down the forty steps to her old position by the spring. The dedications have been taking place for more than two hundred years and probably much longer; the shrine itself is said to be eight hundred years old. The link between divine female presence, spring-water and healing, shown here, is indistinguishable from perceptions of pagan Celtic pilgrims in the early first millennium AD.

Miranda Green, The Concept Of The Goddess, Chapter Two.

Gaelic Folklore (30): Ancient Celtic Goddesses

 Ancient Celtic Goddesses 

The extant remains of the Celtic forms of religion afford abundant testimony to the great variety of divine names which were associated therewith. No student of Celtic religion can fail to be impressed with the number of Celtic deities, who appear to have been local or tribal in character.

Even where a certain deity appears to have become non-local, it will generally be found on investigation that the sphere of the extended worship has fairly well-defined areas and centers. Some of the names of Celtic deities fortunately bear in their very forms unmistakable evidence as to their original character, so that we have an insight not only into the religious conceptions of the later and more developed stages of civilization, but also into the earlier ideas from which they sprang. It is possible, also, to see in this way how variation in the degree of civilization both locally and temporally is reflected in the forms of religion.

In dealing with the religion of the Celtic world, it is of prime importance to bear in mind at the outset that Celtic civilization was very far from being homogeneous in character, and that we must expect to see this absence of homogeneity reflected also in the religious evolution.

The inscriptional evidence that has come down to us is associated almost entirely with districts that were highly Romanized. We are thus enabled to see what districts during the Empire were those in which the conceptions of certain deities had been so developed as to make it possible to identify them with the gods of Rome. These, too, were the chief districts of trade and commerce among the Celts, and, though the earlier and the later trade-routes through Gaul, for example, were not the same, yet the routes which were important in Roman times had already risen into some prominence in the earlier period. Archaeology cannot render greater service to the study of Celtic religion than by mapping out the distribution of Celtic civilization.

The religion of the rich is never quite the same as that of the poor: that of the farmer is never absolutely identical with that of the sailor: that of the townsman always differs in some degree from that of the countryman: the merchant and the craftsman do not usually worship quite the same gods as the soldier. The gods of fashionable health-resorts vary no less than their worshippers, and the study of the forms and degrees which civilization assumed in Celtic lands may help to bring these variations more and more home to us.

Attention will be directed to the Celtic goddesses in the various districts from which evidence concerning them has come down to us. It may here be stated at the outset that there are great gaps in the available evidence concerning the goddesses in question; for example, our information from the western part of Gaul is extremely slight, while from the district of the Pyrenees, though the names of gods abound, practically no names of individual goddesses have survived. These facts will become clearer, when we take the various inscriptional zones in order, as follows:

(1) The Pyrenees,

(2) Gaul south of Lyons,

(3) Gaul between Lyons and the lower Rhine,

(4) Other districts of Transalpine Gaul,

(5) Cisalpine Gaul,

(6) Britain,

(7) Noricum and the Celtic zone of the Danube.

1.The Pyrenees district.

The only goddesses with a distinctive name known from inscriptions in this district are the Niskai of the Amelie-les-Bains tablets in the Pyrenees Orientales in the ancient territory of the Sordones. These tablets are eight in number. Some of the words, such as kantamus, rogamus, sanate, omnes, non, amiki, illius, quidquid, si, are clearly Latin, but there are other words which are apparently in some form of Celtic speech. One of these words, peisqi, raises problems similar to those raised by the Coligny Calendar and the Rom tablets. The identification of Niskas with the root contained in the English 'nixies'= water-sprites, following as it does the word kantamus, is not at all improbable. The river-name

Vernodubrum from this district is undoubtedly Celtic, but the names Iliberris and Caucoliberris seem to be of a non-Celtic form. In the territory of the Sordones, where grouped goddesses are frequent, the nearest to the Sordones being the Menmandutae or Menmandutiae of the neighbourhood of Narbo. From the Pyrenaean district west of the Sordones no distinctive names of grouped goddesses have come down to us.The Menmandutae are commemorated on an inscription at Beziers, Herault, where their name occurs in the dative on a votive tablet. A somewhat similar but unexplained name, 'Minmantiis’, has been found on an inscription at Perigueux.

2. Gaul, south of Lugdunum (Lyons).

In this district the names of goddesses are frequent. They fall naturally into two main types, those of grouped goddesses and those of individuals. The former are often termed Matres or Matrae. With this name may be compared one of the Welsh names for the fairies, ' Y Mamau ' (the mothers), a name which survives in the expression ' Bendith y Mamau,' the blessing of the mothers, used of fairy benefactions, and in that of ' Y Foel Famau,' the hill of the mothers, the highest point of the Clwydian range in Denbighshire.

We find the Eburnicae matrae at Yvours, on the Bhone, near Lyons, on the inscription restored as Matr[i]s, au[g(ustis)] Eburnici[s], etc. These appear to have been the local tutelary deities of Yvours. Recorded on inscriptions are the Mairae of the neighbourhood of Dijon (Dibio).

To the south of the Eburnicae Matrae are the Obelenses Matres at Crossillac, and the Nemetiales at Grenoble, Isere. The ' Obelenses Matrae ' appear to derive their name from a place, 'Obelum' or 'Obela,' and seem to have been local tutelary goddesses; they are called on the inscription in the dative Matris Aug(ustis) Obelesibus. The Nemetiales are also called Matres, and were doubtless the protecting goddesses of the 'nemeta ' or sacred enclosures. Their name occurs on an inscription in the dative as Matris Nemetiali[b(us).

The inscription Icotiis may represent 'Icotiae' or 'Icotii.' It occurs at Cruviers, dep. Gard. The Tangonas [Matres] are mentioned on an inscription at Venasque, dep. Vaucluse,  in the dative [Matribus] Tangonis. The name 'olatonse' occurs on an imperfect inscription at Nimes in the dative olatonis. On an inscription of Le Plan d' Au(l)ps, arrond. de Brignolles,  which reads Matribu[s] Almahabu[s], etc., we have an adjective applied to Matres which contains an intervocalic 'h' such as is characteristic of the inscriptions found in the neighborhood of German territory. In Nimes itself, a great center of the Matres worship, we have the Matres Namausicse of the Marpefio Na/xavcri/ca/So inscription. There is a specifically designated group of Matres in Southern Gaul: Matres Gerudatiae, found in the dative 'Matribus Gerudatiabus’ on a votive tablet at Saint-Esteve, dep. Var. The inscriptions the Matres in this district have no local designation. For example, at Aix one inscription has the words Matrib[us] conservatricibus, while another has Matrib[us] simply:

(1) Saint-Henry de Ventabren: Ma[t]ris,

(2) Aries: 'Mat]ribus' are associated on an inscription with Fortuna Arelatensis,

(3) Apt and at Montbrun: Matribus,

(4) Vaison: Matrabus on three inscriptions, Matribus on three, and Matris on one,

(5) Sahune and at Dieule-fit,  dp. Drome: Matris,

(6) Vienne, Lyons, and Grenoble: Matris augustis,

(7) llon-daz: Matris Mithres,

(8) Saint-Innocent: Matris au[gustis],

(9) Geneva: Matr(ibus) aug(ustis),

(10) Brienne: Mat(ribus),

(11) Nimes: Matris,

(12) Narbonne: [M]a[t]ribus,

(13) Lyons: M. a. t. r on and Matris and Matribus, 

(14) Moirans, Saint- Vit and Besancon: Matrabus,

Along with these examples may be given that of Le Bourget, where we have a dedication 'Mercurio et Matr[is],' and that of Allmendigen, near Thun, where we have Iovi, Matribus, Matronis, Mercurio, Minervse, Neptuni, and once more Matribus and Minervse. It is clear from this that Lyons and the districts around it were prominent centres of the Matres worship.

The three inscriptions of Spain at Porcuna, where M alone represents Matribus, which is qualified by Veteribus, that of Duraton (Matribus) and that of Muro de Agreda, prov. Soria, where we have Matrubos, are isolated and stand on a somewhat different footing from the others.

The grouped goddesses of the south of Gaul are not, however, Matres only. We have here also in great prominence, especially in Nimes, the Proxumse or Proximse,

(1) Saliers, Bouches-du-Rhône, at Vaison,  Nimes and Clansayes: Proxsumis suls,

(2) Avignon: Proxsumis,

(3) Lourmarin: P(roxumis),

(4) Orange: Proxs(umis),

(5) Vaison: Proxsumis and Proxumis,

(6) Beaucaire: Nimes: Proxum(is),

(7) Barron: Proximis Ledaa,

(8) Nimes: [Pr]oxxumis, Proxsumis, in various degrees of completeness, and Proxumis, more or less completely.

With the Matres, as with the Matronoe of Cisalpine Gaul, may be associated the grouped goddesses called Junones, who are mentioned on a votive inscription at Nimes, as Junonib(us) Montan(is), and at Aigues-Mortes, Gard, as Junonibus Aug(ustis). These Junones appear to have been also worshipped in the zone of the central health resorts; for example, an inscription at Neris-les-bains, dep. Allier, of the Antonine period, reads 'Numinibus Augustorum et Iunonibus Neriomagienses.' On an inscription also between Langres and Toul we have Deabus Iunonibus, at Bordeaux  there is an inscription Iunonibus Iulise et Sextiliae.

In Southern Gaul, as in Spain, we also find the worship of the nymphs prominent under their Latin name:

(1) Saint Saturnin-d'Apt, Lez, Castel: two inscriptions each,

(2) Vaison: two, one being dedicated Nymphis Augustis and also an inscription with the same words at Bourguin,

(3) Goul, Apt, Carpentras, Rasteau, Vercoiran, Castera-Veveril, Castillon, Alzey and Mombach: one each,

(4) Les Fumades, near Allegre, dep. Gard: six inscriptions, one of which has the words Nymphis Augustis,

(5) Uzes: there is a record of the dedication of a temple to the nymphs in the first century a.d,

(6) Nimes: five votive tablets to nymphs occur,

(7) Puech, in Provence, there are three votive tablets to nymphs.

In the zone of the south of France, too, we find another name of a group of goddesses like those already described, in the case of the Baginae, the companions of Baginus, the local deities of Mt. Vanige and the village of Besignan: the names 'Bagino et Baginahabus' occur on an inscription at Bellecombe, canton du Buis.

Dep.Gard: There is a goddess Perta commemorated: the name occurs in the dative Pertse.

Aix-en-Diois, Drome: Bormana, the companion of the god Bormanus occurs on an inscription 'Bormano et Bormana',

Saint Vulbaz (earlier Saint Bourbaz), canton Lagnieu: Bormana on an inscription of the phrase Bormanae Augustas.

Saint Saturnin d'Apt: an inscription to another goddess, Albiorica, whose name is given in the dative Albiorice. She was doubtless regarded as the companion of Albiorix.

Viens, dep. Vaucluse,  there is an inscription to Bergonia, a name doubtless cognate with Brigindu and Brigantia.

Pertuis, dep. Vaucluse, arrond. Apt (Dexsivse), and at Cadenet in the same district, on the hill of Castelar, three times: The goddess Dexsiva, she may either be the eponymous goddess of the Dexivates, or a goddess of fortune.

Trets: Trittia, the local goddess of an old town in the arr.of Aix,

Carnoules, dep. Var: Trittiae,

Pierrefeu, dep. Var Trittae.

Montaren near Alais, dep. Gard, Saint Honore-les-bains, dep. Nievre: [R]iton[a]e, the name Ritona is the name of a river-goddess, that of the modern river Rieu.

Beziers: an inscription in honour of a goddess, who may be either Bicoria or Tricoria;

Bagnol-sur-Ceze, dep. Gard: an inscription to a goddess Diiona (cf. Dibona, Divona) This was probably the eponymous nymph of the brook la Vionne or l'Andiole, which flows into the Ceze. The name occurs in the nominative, Diiona. The form of the name suggests that in this dialect of Celtic there was a tendency to drop intervocalic ' v.'

Le Prugnon near Antibes: The remaining name of an individual goddess from this district is Thucolis. She appears to have had a priestess or priestesses.

It will be readily seen from the evidence of these inscriptions that, in the south of Gaul, group-goddesses were far more widely worshipped than individual goddesses. The latter appear to be in this district highly localized in character, and perhaps were often regarded only as members of groups. On the other hand, individual gods are numerous, while grouped gods are rare. Here, too, we do not find traces of the worship of one deity at the expense of others, but the ancient type of worship of groups seems to hold its own.

3. The district between Lugdunum and the Lower Rhine.

 This is a large district, which may be roughly regarded as extending from Lugdunum to Treves (Augusta Treverorum) and thence to Cologne and to the mouth of the Rhine. From this large and important district many inscriptions containing names of Celtic deities have come down to us, and in this respect it stands in very marked contrast to the districts in the west of Gaul. Except in the neighborhood of Cologne, grouped goddesses are here conspicuous by their absence. In their stead we find several individual goddesses, often associated with some god, and some of these goddesses appear to have attained to more than a strictly local worship.

In accordance with the plan already adopted of dealing with the group-goddesses first, the worship of Matres may be first considered.

(1) Langres: Matra[b(us), Matra, Majtris, and Ma]trab[us. These, together with the Mairse of Dijon, may be regarded as forming the northerly representatives of the group-goddesses of the Rhone valley and its neighborhood, If we now cross into the Rhine valley, we reach another zone of Matres or Matra. In this zone the Matres are generally qualified by some local or descriptive adjective.

(2) Bonn: 'Matiribus domes ticis',

(3) Andernach: 'Matribus suis',

(4) On the road from Zahlbach to Mainz: 'Iovi optimo maximo et Matribus',

(5) Frankfort on the Main: Matribus,

(6) Heddernheim: Matribus,

(7) Ell, in Alsace: Matrabus,

(8) Berkum: Matribus suis.

The Matres that are qualified by local or other adjectives are distributed as follows:

(1)Colonia Trajana (Xanthen): Brittae Matres, Maxacae matres, and Arsacse matres,

(2) Beeck, near Xanthen: Matribus Brittis,

(3) Cologne: the Malvisae, a group of goddesses commemorated in the terms 'iabus Malvisis et Silvano', (The name as ' Malvisis ' occurs also at Nieukerk Netherlands.) the Matres Mediotautehae, the Axsinginehae Matronae,

(4) Castel, near Mainz: The Ollogabiae, the name Ollogabiae apparently means ' All-seizing,' from Olios = Welsh Oil, and gab- = Welsh gaf- (in gaf-ael), and Old Irish gabim.

Another important name of group-goddesses in the Rhine district is that of Matronae, a name widely used among certain German tribes, who are thought to have adopted the religion of the Gauls. This name was also a favourite one in Cisalpine Gaul.

(1) Tetz, near Jülich: the Matronae Cantrusteihiae, (also found at Hoeylaert, near Brussels, Belgium),

(2) Altenberg, near Cologne, Rodingen, near Jülich; the Gesahenae Matronae,

(3) Rodingen and Bettenhofen: Gesahenae Matronae, the Etrahenae,

(4) Odenhausen, near Berkum: The Ascricinehae Matronae,

(5) Odendorf, near Euskirchen: The Ascricinehae,

(6) Bürgel, near Sollingen: the Matronae Rumanehae et Maviaitinehae,

(7) Sinzenich: Matronis Tummaestis.

The prominence of the worship of group-goddesses in this district is very remarkable. Of the other types of group- goddesses the Mairae of the neighbourhood of Dijon are of interest:

(1) Dijon: Dis Mairis,

(2) Til-Chatel, dep. Cote d'Or, Deae Eponae et dis Mairabus, genio loci and deabus Mairis.

In this zone there is no reference to the Proximae, but between Langres and Toul there is an inscription 'Deabus Iunonibus'.

Coming now to the Rhine valley,

(1) Cologne: Iunonibus [G]abiabus,

(2) Bonn: [Matribus or Iunonibus do]mesticis [Lugo]vibus comfedonibus,

(3) Zulpich: Iunonibus domesticis,

(4) Piitzdorf: Iunonibus,

(5) Altenhoven in the neighbourhood of Aachen: Iunonibus.

 It is not improbable that the Iunones were the Matres or Matronae of the district. On the other hand, inscriptions to nymphs are conspicuous by their absence from the Rhine valley though they are frequent elsewhere.

When we come to the individual goddesses of the zone now under consideration, we find several names which are attested by inscriptions. For example, there is Damona, the companion of Borvo, ' the Boiler,' the god of certain hot springs. The form of the name Damona suggests that it is a parallel to Epona, the former being a goddess of cattle, the latter of horses. It is possible that originally both were deities of corresponding animal form. Damona appears to be associated with the root dam-, which we find in the Irish dam (an ox), and in the Welsh dafad (a sheep), for an older damat-. The inscriptions on which Damona's name occurs are  chiefly from Bourbonne-les-Bains, dep. Haute-Marne:

‘Borvoni et Damonae,'

'Deo Apollini Borvoni et Damonae,'

'Borvoni et Damonse,'

'Deo Borvoni et Damone,'

'Borvoni et Damonae,'

‘Damonae Augustae,'

'Deo Borvoni et Damonae,’

'Borvoni et Damonae.'

The other district in which inscriptions to her are found is Bourbon-Lancy, dep. Saone-et-Loire,

'Borvoni et Damonaa,’

'Bormoni et Damonae.'

The form Bormoni shows the influence of Bormanus. Aquae Bormonis appears to have been the old name of Bourbon-Lancy. In Damona we not improbably have an old tribal animal goddess, who came to be associated with Borvo, a god of hot springs, as his name implies.

Another individual goddess, whose name appears to be associated with the zone now under consideration, is Litavis. This name occurs in conjunction with that of the god Cicolluis, identified with Mars. Some of the inscriptions on which the name is thought to occur are very imperfect:

(1) Matain, dioc. Langres: 'Marti Cicollui et Litavi, Marti Cicollui et Bellonae (Litavis was regarded as a goddess of war. 'Litavis' would appear to be identical with that of the Welsh Llydaw, e.g. a lake called Llyn Llydaw in the Snowdon district. It appears, too, to be the basis of the name of the Aeduan Litavicus or Litaviccus (Caes. B. G. vn. xxxvii.  and also of Convictolitavis, who is mentioned in the same passage. The name Litaviccus occurs also in the genitive Litavicc(i) on an inscription in the first century from Monthureux-sur-Saone, dep. Vosges. It occurs also in the dative on an inscription at Langres, as well as on silver coins of the Aeduans. A place-name of the same basis, too, Litavicrarus, occurs on an inscription at Langres in the will of a member of the tribe of the Lingones of the first century a.d. The inscription reads 'Ante ce[l]lam memoria que est Litavicrari.' The name Litavis is also probably contained in that of Cobledulitavus, found on an altar in the museum of Perigueux, Dordogne, set up by a priest of the altar of Lyons. The inscription reads [Tutelae Vesonnse] et deo Apollini Cobledulitavo . . . v. s. 1. m. The name of Litavis may be safely regarded as that of one of the most prominent deities of the Lingones, and, as derivatives of this name are found among the Aeduans, her worship probably extended to the latter tribe as well),

(2) Aignay-le-Duc, dep. Cote-d'Or: 'Deo Marti Cicollui et Litavi’.

In the zone now under consideration there are two other names of goddesses that are found mainly along with the Latin names Mercurius and Apollo. There are Rosmerta, named along with Mercury, and Sirona, named along with Apollo:

(1) Aix: Vssiae Ros[mertae?] Mercuri[o] v.s.l.m.,

(2) Gissey-le-Vieil, dep. Cote-d'Or: Aug(usto) sa[c(rum)] Deae Rosm[er]tae,

(3) Alise-Sainte-Reine: it is doubtful whether the inscription should read [Ro]sme[rtae] or Sme[rtullo],

(4) Langres: Deo Mercurio et Rosmerte,

(5) Grand: Mercurio et [Ros]mertae,

(6) Worms: Deo Mercuri(o) et Rosmerte,

(7) lzey: [Deo Merc]urio et R[osmerte],

(8) Spechbach, near Lobenfeld: [Mercu]rio [et Ros]mert(a)e,

(9) Cologne: Mercu[rio et Rosjmerte,

(10) Andernach: Merc[urio et] Rosmertae, and Me[rcurio et R]o[smertae],

(11) Huttigweiler: [Mercujrio [et Ro]sm[e]r[tae],

(12) Nider-Emmel, Zumeth, Bernkastel: D[eo] Me[rc]urio [et] Ro[s]me[rtae],  Mer[curio e]t Rosm[ertae], and Deo Mercurio et d(e)?e [R]osmertae,

(13) Reinsport on the Moselle:  Deo Mer[c]urio et Rosme[r]te,

(14 )Soulosse: D(eo) M(ercurio) et Rosmerte, and also Mercurio (et) Rosmert(ae) sacr.vicani Solimariac(enses),

(15) Mt. Sion, dep. Meurthe- et-Moselle: 'Deo Mercurio et Rosmertae',

(16) Metz: 'Deo Mercurio et Rosmertae’,

(17) Wasserbillig, Luxembourg: Deo Mercurio et deae Rosmertae,

(18) Chatenoy, dep. Vosges: ' Mercurio et Rosmertae sacrum'.

From this we may gather that Rosmerta was worshipped largely in the neighbourhood of the Rhine, and in the neighbourhood of Langres. The origin of the name is doubtful. The root may be smer(t)-, brilliant, so that Ro-smerta would mean the exceedingly brilliant one. The same root appears to occur in other proper names, such as Smertus, Smertullos, Smertomara, Smertorix, Smertuccus, Smertulitanos, and the old British tribe of the Smertae, as well as Atesmerius. We have also Smerius, Smertalus, Smertu, and Cantesmerta. From this it will be seen that the root in question was extensively distributed in personal names.

The next goddess, Sirona, is widely associated in the area in question with Apollo, her name being also written as Dirona or Dirona. The distribution of her inscriptions is as follows:

(1) Baumburg, Apollini Granno [et Si]ronae,

(2) Rome, Apollini Granno et sanctae Sironae sacrum,

(3) Bordeaux, Sironae,

(4) Luxeuil, Apollini et Sironae,

(5) Bitburg, Apollin[i Granno] et Siro[nae],

(6) Nierstein, Deo Apollini et Sironae,

(7) Mainz [Deae] Sirona ...,

(8) Grossbottwar am Marbach, a.d. 201, Apo[lli]ni et Sironae ,

(9) Maximiliansau, Deae Sironae,

(10) Wiesbaden, Sironae,

(11) Andernach DirfonaeJ,

(12) Graux, dep. Vosges, Apollini et Sironae,

(13) Sept-Fontaines, near Saint- Avoid, in Lorraine, Deae Dironae,

(14) Corseul, dep. Cotes-du-Nord, arrond. Dinan, cant. Plancoet, Sirona.

From these inscriptions Sirona may be regarded as the companion of Grannus, whose name we have in Aquae Granni (Aix-la-Chapelle) and in Granheim. The name Sirona was not improbably that of the Earth, regarded as a goddess, and it probably meant the 'long-lived one.' Another name for Apollo besides Grannos in this district is Mogounos, (whence Moguntiacum).

Of the other names of goddesses in the zone now under consideration Icovellauna  occurs near Divodurum (Metz).  Icovellauna occurs like Mogontia at Le Sablon, near Metz, and may have meant the 'protectress of health.'

Epona  is one of the most widely distributed of the names of Celtic goddesses. The goddess Epona is commemorated on numerous inscriptions :

(1) At Guidizzolo between Mantua and Verona,

(2) At Siguenza,

(3) At Also-Ilosva in Dacia,

(4) At Waitzen in Pannonia,

(5) In Carinthia,

(6) In Zollfeld,

(7) At Mariasaal, Herculi et Eponae aug(ustae),

(8) At Cilli, Eponae aug(ustae) sacrum : Iovi o(ptimo) m(aximo) Eponae et Celeise sanctee,

(9) At Windenau near Marburg in Steier-mark, Eponae aug(ustae) sacrum,

(10) At Pforing near Ingolstadt in Rhaetia, Campestribus et Eponae,

(11) At Mount Eudrik in Moesia, Epone,

(12) At Karlsburg in Dacia, Epone regin(ae) sanc(tae),

(13) At Varhely in Dacia, not long after a.d. 107, Eponabus et Campestribus,

(14) At Salona, [Iovi optim]o maxsi[mo . . . Epo]ne [. . . Marti] Cam[ulo],

(15) At Rome, associated on various inscriptions with the Matres Sulevae,

(16) At Carvoran,

(17) At Auch- indavy, near Kirkintulloch in Scotland,

(18) At Lyons,

(19) At Naix in the department of Meuse,

(20) At Metz,

(21) At Solothurn,

(22) At Til-Chatel in the diocese of Langres, Deae Eponae et dis Mairabus,

(23) At Andernach, Eponae sacr(um),

(24) At Heinzerath, Kreis Bernkastel, on two inscriptions.

There is a place called Epona, now Ep6ne, in the department of Seine-et-Oise, arrond. Mantes, and there are also two places called Eponiacum:

(1) Eppenich, near Aachen,

(2) The modern Appoigny, dep. Yonne.

Eponicus occurs as a man's name on an inscription at Rome. The zone of distribution of the Epona inscriptions will give a fair conception of the districts where her worship was most prominent. As her name shows, she was pre-eminently a goddess of horses.

Among the other names of goddesses which occur in this zone or its neighboring districts, may be instanced that of Clutoissa or Clutoidda, which occurs on an inscription not far from Noviodunum in Gaul. Her name occurs on two inscriptions, one from the village of Mesves-sur-Loire in the depart-ment of Nievre, near a spring with a reputation for healing fevers. The inscription reads, Aug(usto) sacrum, deae Cluto[i]dae, etc. It occurs, too, on a patera from Etang-sur-Arroux, dep. Saone-et-Loire. There is no evidence that Clutoida was more than a purely local goddess of a healing spring.

At Bourges there is an inscription to Solimara, a word which probably means 'the large-eyed', Solimarae sacrum. Solimaros occurs over a wide area, for example at Cilli, Sziszek, Scherschell, Martigues, Orange, Brignon, dep. Gard, near Ledignan, Nimes, Bordeaux, Paris, Breitenbach, Gustavsburg (Mainz), Heddernheim, and on the gold coins of the Bituriges Cubi (before B.C. 58), which were found at Amboise, Vendeuil Caply, dep. Oise, as well as in Yivonne (dep. Vienne), and in Vernon. A Gallo-Roman name Solimarius occurs at Apt, Bordeaux, and at Niersbach in the Prussian Rhine-province. A name of the form Solimario occurs on an inscription at Nimes. There was a place called Solimariaca on the Roman road from Metz to Langres between Neufchateau (Vosges), and Toul (Meurthe-et-Moselle).This word, too, appears to underlie the names Sommere, dep. Saone-et-Loire, Saumeray, dep. Eure-et-Loire; Saumery (Solimariaca), dep. Loiret; Le Saulmery, dep. Loiret; Saumery, dep. Loir-et-Cher; as well as the Italian Sumirago in the province of Milan in the district of Gallarate.

On the Celtic inscriptions of Volnay we have the name of a goddess Brigindu in the dative Brigindoni. It is her name that probably underlies that of Brigendonis, now Brognon, in Cote d'Or, arrond. Dijon, as well as the Ager Briendonensis in the Macon country. It is possible, too, that Gregory of Tours meant this goddess, when he said that the Gauls worshipped Berecynthia. He says that there was an image of this goddess which was carried on a vehicle to ensure the success of the fields and vineyards (pro salvatione agrorum et vinearum). Before this image the people danced and sang.

Other names of isolated goddesses are Abnoba or Deana Abnoba, the presiding deity of the Black Forest on the German side of the Rhine;

Brixia, of Brixia (Breuchin), near Luxeuil,

Aventia in the territory of the Helvetii from whom Aventicum derives its name,

Naria Nousantia mentioned on an inscription at Grissach, near Landeron, canton Neuenburg. The inscription is on a votive tablet set up by a certain T. Frontinus Hibernus,

Saint-Marcel-lez- Chalon, dep. Saone-et-Loire: a local goddess called Temusio,

Lorraine:  Nantosvelta, who is named along with a god Sucellus.

4.The Remainder of Transalpine Gaul.

In dealing with the west and north-west of Gaul we cannot but be struck by the great scarcity of names of goddesses from these districts. This is due, we may be sure, not to any absence of goddesses but to the slight extent to which the Gallo-Roman fashion of setting up votive tablets had penetrated to these regions. It is to be noted that in the neighborhood of Cherbourg the goddesses of cross-roads (Quadrivise) were objects of worship, but we have no evidence of the worship of Matres or Matronse in these districts. There is a solitary inscription to a spring-goddess Acionna at Fleuri, near Orleans, where we have the words Aug(ustae) Acionnae sacrum.

At Perigueux a goddess Stanna, perhaps a spring- goddess of the Petrucorii, is mentioned on three inscriptions in conjunction with a god Telo, the spring-god of Tolon, now Le Toulon, near Perigueux, dep. Dordogne. The root of Stanna is not improbably sta-, to stand, and may have been originally given to the earth-goddess as 'the abiding one.' The name Telo may possibly underlie the name of Toulon-sur-Mer (Telo Martius), and the place-name Telonnum, a town of the Aeduans, Toulon-sur-Arroux, near Autun, dep. Saone-et- Loire, and also the present commune called Lipostey, dep. Landes.

Another goddess of the southern area of Gaul, whose distinctive name was generally omitted, was Divona or Devona, a name which means simply ' the goddess.' The name occurs as that of the spring 'Fontaine des Chartreux ' in Cahors, dep. Lot, and then as that of Cahors itself. Divona is also given by Ausonius as the name of the spring of Bordeaux, and is probably to be read on an inscription at that town: Divionae. This form, too, seems to underlie that of the modern Divonne, dep. Ain, as well as that of Dewangen in Germania magna, given by Ptolemy n, xi, as Arjovova.

There is also a local goddess Dunisia, whose name occurs on an inscription at Bussy-Albieu, dep. Loire, The name probably means,'the goddess of fortresses.'

The name ' athubodvae ' occurs on an inscription of Fins-de- Ley, dep. Haute- Savoie. It has been thought to stand for Cathu-bodvae, and so to be the equivalent of the Irish Bodb-Catha, a goddess of war, but this identification is very far from being certain.

5. Cisalpine Gaul.

In this district inscriptions to the grouped goddesses called Matronse are numerous, for example:

(1) Verona, Iunonib(us), Matronis,

(2) Marzana, Matrona[b(us); Isorella, Matronis ; Calvisano, Matronabu[s]; Manerbio, Matronab(us),

(3) Nuvolento, in the province of Brescia, and on about forty-seven other inscriptions.

As already mentioned, the Matronae appear to have been worshipped, too, on German territory. In this district, also, the Iunones were widely worshipped, and we find inscriptions naming them about twenty-seven times.

Another group of goddesses is called Dervones or Dervonnse, ‘the spirits of the oak': these are called on the inscription of Cavalzesio, near Brescia, Fatis Dervonibus, and, on another we read Matronis Dervonnis.

With these may be compared the Silvanae, who are mentioned once on an inscription of Verona in the dative, Silvana- bus. In Cisalpine Gaul inscriptions to the god Silvanus are frequent.

Of individual goddesses Epona seems to have been worshipped in Cisalpine Gaul, as we see from an inscription at Guidizzolo between Mantua and Verona, as well as from an inscription at Siguenza. The goddess Epona is mentioned by Iuvenal, viii. 154-157, and, according to the scholiast on the passage, she was a patron of muleteers as well as of horsemen. Plutarch, Parallel, c. xxix., p. 312 E, states that she was born of a mare. Reverting to the grouped goddesses, it may be here stated that inscriptions to nymphs occur only about four or five times in Cisalpine Gaul.

6. Britain.

In Britain the grouped goddesses most widely worshipped were the Matres:

(1) Winchester: Matrib(us) Ital[i]s, Germanis, Gal[lis], Brit(annis),

(2) London: Matr[ibus],

(3) Chester, the singular Deae Matri,

(4) Doncaster, Matribus,

(5) Ribchester: Deis Matribus,

(6) Micklegate: Mat(ribus) Af(ricanis), Ita(licis), Ga(llicis),

(7) Carrawburgh: Matribus com[munibus],

(8) Aldborough: I(ovi) o(ptimo) m(aximo) Matribus M . . .,

(9)Lowther: Deabus Matribus tramarin(is), those who set it up being a vex(illatio) Germa[norum],

(10) Lough, near Plumpton Wall in Cumberland: same as 9, Deabus Matribus tramarinis,

(11) Old Carlisle: [Dea]bus Ma[tribus],

(12) Skinburness, near Silloth: Matribus Par(cis),

(13)Binchester: Mat(ribus) sac(rum),

(14)Newcastle-on-Tyne: Dea[bus] Matribus tramarinis patri(i)s,

(15) Matfen Hall: we have Deabus Matribu[s],

(16)Chesters: Deabus Matribus communibus,

(17) Housesteads:Ma[tribus] on two inscriptions, the second of which was set up by a cohort of Tungri, (18) Carvoran: two inscriptions, one reading Matri . . . , the other Matrib(us),

(19) Cambeckfort in Cumberland: we find the formula M[at]ribus omnium gentium,

(20) Walton-House-Station: Matribus t[ra]ma[rinis],

(21) Stanwix and Dykesfield: Matribu[s djomesticis, that is the guardians of the foreign soldier's home,

(22) Carlisle: Matrib(us) Parc(is),

(23) Bowness and York: Matribus suis,

(24) Bisingham: Matribus tramarinis,

(25) Burnfoot Hall and Castlecary: Matribus,

(26) Newcastle, Backworth, Matr(ibus) and Matrum.

In Britain, too, there are inscriptions to nymphs:

(1) Great Boughton: Nymphis et Fontibus,

(2) Blenkinsop Castle: Deabus Nymphis,

(3) Risingham: Nymphis venerandis,

(4) Nether Croyfarm, near Croyhill: Nymphis,

(5)Greta Bridge: the singular Deae Nympha[e],

(6) Newtown of Irthington: Deae Nymphae Brig(antia).

Whatever doubt there may be as to the local connections of some of the other deities we have here undoubtedly a goddess of Britain. It may be noted also that an inscription at Benwell, near Newcastle-on-Tyne, is set up to the three Lamias (Lamiis tribus).

Coming now to the individual goddesses, we have the following mentioned on inscriptions in Britain. Ancasta is mentioned in the formula Deae Ancastae on an inscription at Bittern, near Southampton.

The name Belisama does not occur in Britain as the name of a goddess, but only as that of an estuary, probably the Mersey or the Kibble, called by Ptolemy II. iii. 2. In the south of Gaul, however, the name occurs as that of a goddess, as, for example, on the Celtic inscription in Greek characters of Vaison, Vaucluse, ‘Segomarus, son of Villonus, a citizen of Nemausus, made for Belisama this temple. At Pont de Saint-Liziers in Les Couserans there is an inscription with the formula Minervae Belisamae sacrum. It is from her name that the place-name Belismius has probably arisen, a name surviving in Blismes (Nievre), Blesmes (Marne), and Blesmes (Aisne). The name Belisama is probably a superlative from the root bel-, which is found in the Welsh rhy-fel, war. The name Belismius occurs as a man's name on an inscription at Caerleon-on-Usk.

Of British goddesses, Brigantia is one of the most important:

(1) Greetland: D(eae) Vict(oriae) Brig(antiae) et num(inibus) A(u)g(ustorum),

(2) Adel near Leeds: Deae Brigan[tiae],

(3) Cumberland: she is called a nymph in the words Deae Nymphae Brig(antiae),

(4) Birrens near Middleby: Brigantiae s(acrum).

It is not improbable that Brigantia was the tribal deity of the powerful tribe of the Brigantes of the north of England.

Another goddess whose name occurs on inscriptions in Britain is Epona. She is mentioned on an inscription at Carvoran in the formula Deae Eponae, and at Auchindavy, near Kirkintilloch, in Scotland,

in the middle of the second century, along with Mars, Minerva, the goddesses of the fields (Campestres), Hercules, Epona, and Victory. With this inscription may be compared the inscriptions of Rome, on which Epona is mentioned along with several other deities.

A goddess Lata, or Latis, is mentioned on inscriptions at Kirkbampton: Deae Lati and Birdoswald: Dae Lati.

On two inscriptions, one at Chesters: Dea(e) Rat . . . and the other at Birdoswald: Dae Rat, a goddess is mentioned, whose name is given in an abbreviated form as Rat. There is not enough evidence to associate her with Ratae, the old name of Leicester.

It may be here noted that, in the case of the names of gods found in Britain, the chief links with the continent are for the most part with the district around Cologne, Treves, and Mayence, but there are sometimes unexpected links with other districts. Grannus ( = Apollo), who was largely worshipped in the neighbourhood of the Rhine, is mentioned on an inscription found at Musselburgh, near Edinburgh, but we find Ialonus, whose name occurs on an inscription at Nlmes, mentioned also on an inscription at Lancaster.

Leucetios, the Mars of the neighborhood of Mainz, is mentioned on an inscription at Bath.

Maponos ( = Welsh Mabon) is mentioned three times as a god in Britain, as well as in a place-name Maponi, but on the continent there are no traces of him as a god.

British references:

(1) Ribchester, county Durham: to Deo sancto Apollini Mapon(o),

(2) Ainstable, near Armthwaite, Cumberland: Deo Mapono,

(3) Hexham, in Northumberland: Apollini Mapono.

Mogons ( = Apollo) was worshipped in Britain by Vangiones in the Roman army, as may be seen from the formula Deo Mogonti, which occurs on inscriptions at Plumpton Wall (Old Penrith), Netherby, and Risingham.

The god Silvanus, too, who was widely worshipped in Spain, in Cisalpine Gaul, in the neighborhood of the Rhine, in the south of Gaul, and in central Europe, is also mentioned in Britain on about sixteen inscriptions. On one at Housesteads he is identified with Cocidius by a certain prefect of a cohort of Tungrians. This wide worship of Silvanus in the Celtic world is very suggestive of the form into which the early tree-worship of the Celts had developed.

The name Maponos, identical as it is with the Welsh Mabon, suggests that Modron, who is represented in Welsh legend as his mother, was an ancient British goddess, whose name in Roman times would be Matrona, a derivative of the root matr- (mother). This very name, it may be noted, is the original of that of the river Marne. Some of the river-names of Wales appear to be formations of this type, and the suggestion naturally arises that they also were names of goddesses.

For example, the name Aeron, in Cardiganshire, may stand for Agrona, the goddess of war.

Tarannon may have meant the goddess of thunder.

The river Dee, Deva (Welsh Dyfr-dwy), means simply the goddess.

The two streams, Dwyfor and Dwyfach, near Criccieth in Carnarvonshire, probably mean 'the great goddess' and 'the little goddess' respectively.

The name Ieithon, a stream in Radnorshire, may mean ' the goddess of speech.

'Crawnon,' in Breconshire, may mean ' the goddess of storage.'

7. The Transrhenane and Danubian districts.

In these wide zones the task of separating Celtic and Germanic deities is well-nigh impossible, but its very difficulty suggests that to both peoples the popular substratum of religion had far more in common than is usually supposed. For example, we have among the Germans as among some sections of the Celts a most remarkable development of the worship of Matres and Matronae, a form of worship of a very primitive character. This similarity of underlying religious belief is also confirmed by the study of folk-lore, as any reader of Dr. Frazer's Golden Bough can readily ascertain. At Varhely in Dacia, on an inscription made not long after 107 A.D., there is mentioned even a group of Eponae in the formula Eponab(us) et Campestrib(us) sacrum.

In Noricum again there is a group called Alaunas, who were worshipped along with Bedaios.

It may be safely conjectured that in the countries east of the Rhine grouped goddesses abounded.

Of the names of individual Celtic goddesses worshipped in these territories, especially in Pannonia and Dacia, that of Epona is by far the most prevalent.

In Noricum we find the worship of Adsalluta closely associated with that of Savus, the river Save. At Saudorfel her name occurs on five inscriptions, on two of which it is associated with that of Savus. At Hrastnigg, too, her name occurs on an inscription which reads Adsal(l)ute Aug(uste).

Another goddess who deserves mention here is Noreia:

(1) Mount Avala, near Belgrade: an inscription of the year 287 a.d., D(ea)e Nor[e]ia[e] sacrum,

(2) Hohenstein, near Pulst: Noreiae Aug(ustae) sacr(um),

(3) At Hohenstein and at Ulrichsberg: she is identified with Isis “Isidi Norei(ae)”,

(4) Trojana: Noreie August(ae),

(5) Cilli: one inscription, along with Jupiter and with Celeia, as 'Noreia sancta.' On another inscription she is mentioned along with Mars, Hercules, Victoria, and Noreia,

(6) Kerschbach: [Marti A]ug(usto) e[t NJoreiae Re[g(ina)e et] Britania[e pr]o vic(toria) L. Sep[timii Severi p]ert(inacis) inv(icti),

(7) Weihmorting, in the district of Griesbach in Lower Bavaria: Noreiae Aug(ustae) sacrum, while at

(8) Khamisa: she is mentioned along with the Di Manes on an inscription set up by a certain Artorius, whose name is the original of the Welsh Arthur.

In Istria it may be noted that there is also a goddess Noriceia, who was also called Veica, as we see from the dedication Veicae Noriceiae.

The name Celeia, which is mentioned along with Noreia, is that of the town Cilli in Noricum, a town which was also wor shipped as a goddess, as is shown by inscriptions from the beginning of the third century a.d. On these she is called Celeia Augusta and Celeia sancta. As a goddess she is named on inscriptions along with Noreia in one case and Epona in another.

That Noricum was largely Celtic in its religion may be gathered from the prominence there of the worship of the god Belinos, a name which forms the second element in the British Cuno-belinos, the Welsh Cyn-felyn.

In the course of this investigation it has become very evident how large a part was played in Celtic as well as in at least some forms of Germanic religion by the worship of grouped goddesses. It is from these that the individual goddesses appear in some cases to have been detached, or else developed by a kind of process of unification and generalization. In some cases, topographical connections operated towards individualization, in others the growing conception of the earth as 'the Mother' par excellence, while in other cases the individual goddesses seem to have been the human representatives of previous goddesses of animal form. Of the latter type were doubtless Epona and Damona. In spite of the existence of certain individual goddesses, however, it is most remarkable that the grouped goddesses held their own, especially in certain districts. How far we may base ethno-logical conclusions upon this is very uncertain, since under similar conditions of civilization similar religious ideas are apt to prevail. It is noticeable, however, that the worship of the Matres and the Proximae held their ground even in districts which came under the full influence of Roman civilization.

The Celtic Review III, 1906-1907, Professor E. Anwyl