Surf Wiki
Save to docs
general/gaulish-goddesses

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Nemetona

Celtic goddess

Celtic goddess

Nemetona, or 'she of the sacred grove', is a Celtic goddess with roots in northeastern Gaul. She is thought to have been the eponymous deity of the Germano-Celtic people known as the Nemetes; evidence of her veneration is found in their former territory along the Middle Rhine as well in the Altbachtal sanctuary in present-day Trier, Germany. She is also attested in Bath, England, where an altar to her was dedicated by a man of the Gallic Treveri people.

Etymology

Nemetona's name is derived from the Celtic root nemeto-, referring to consecrated religious spaces, particularly sacred groves. The same root is found in the names of the Romano-British goddess Arnemetia and the Matres Nemetiales (known from an inscription in Grenoble).

Inscriptions

Surviving inscriptions often associate Nemetona with Mars (sometimes given the Celtic name Loucetius). She is paired with "Loucetius Mars" in the inscription at Bath, and with "Mars" at Trier and Altrip. The Altrip site was further notable for yielding a terra cotta depiction of the goddess.

One inscription from Eisenberg appears to identify Nemetona with Victoria: :[In h(onorem) d(omus)] d(ivinae) Marti Lou/[cetio et] Victoriae Neme/[tonae] M(arcus) A(urelius) Senillus Seve/[rus b(ene)f(iciarius) l]egati urnam cum / [sortib]us et phiala(m) ex / [vo]to posuit l(ibens) l(aetus) m(erito) / [Grat]o et Seleuco co(n)s(ulibus) / X Kal(endas) Maias :"In honour of the divine house, to Mars Loucetius and Victoria Nemetona, Marcus Aurelius Senillus Severus, a protégé of the general, set up an urn with its lots and serving-dish in free, cheerful, and well-deserved fulfilment of his vow on the tenth day before the Kalends of May in the consulship of Gratus and Seleucus (22 April 221)."

Noémie Beck considers the identification of Nemetona with Nemain to be "inaccurate and irrelevant".

Notes

References

  • H. Finke (1927), "Neue Inschriften", Berichte der Römisch-Germanischen Kommission 17, 1-107 and 198–231.
  • Paula Powers Coe, "Nemetona", p. 1351 in

References

  1. Beck, pp. 237-238.
  2. ''[[Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. CIL]]'' 13, 6131.
  3. Powers Coe, p. 1351.
  4. Finke 324.
  5. RIB]]'' 140.
  6. ''CIL'' 13, 7253 (the inscription to Nemetona on bronze).
  7. ''[[Année Épigraphique. AE]]'' 2007, 1044.
  8. Beck, p. 251, fn. 1321.
Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

gaulish-goddesses nature-goddesses martian-deities
Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Nemetona — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report