Celtic/Gaul Goddesses

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Celtic/Gaul Goddess Info  

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Abnoba



Abnoba is a Gaulish goddess who was worshipped in the Black Forest and surrounding areas. She has been interpreted to be a forest and river goddess, and is known from about nine epigraphic inscriptions. One altar at the Roman baths at Badenweiler, Germany, and another at Mühlenbach identify her with Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt.
According to Tacitus's Germania, Abnoba also was the name of a mountain, from a grassy slope of which flows the source of the River Danube. Ptolemy's Geography also mentions the mountain as the source of the Danube. The surrounding range, in Ptolemy, is the Abnobaia ora (the nominative case, given here, is not in Ptolemy), Latinized to Abnobaei montes.
Pliny the Elder also gives us some statements about Abnoba. He says that it arises opposite the town of Rauricum in Gaul and flows from there beyond the Alps, implying that the river begins in the Alps, which it does not. If Rauricum is to be identified with the Roman settlement, Augusta Raurica, modern Augst in Basel-Landschaft canton of Switzerland, Pliny must be confusing the Rhine and its tributaries with the Danube.
The Danube begins with two small rivers draining the Black Forest: the Breg and the Brigach, both Celtic names. The longest is the most favorable candidate: the Breg. The Abnobaei montes would therefore be the Baar foothills of the Swabian Alb near Furtwangen im Schwarzwald.
etymology
The two main etymologies of the word segment it as either Ab-noba or Abn-oba. Conceivably it may be derived from Proto-Celtic *Ab[o]-nōb-ā. Proto-Celtic *-nōb- is in turn derived from Proto-Indo-European *nebh-. One meaning is 'wetness'. The first segment would be from *ab-, 'water', as in Old Irish ab, from *aba, 'flow'. One interpretation would be 'river-wetness'.
Furtwangen in the mist.On the other hand, it seems somewhat redundant to call a river wet. Redundancy is common in river names, but usually in names renamed in a different language. The geography of the Breg river suggests another interpretation. The root, *nebh-, can mean 'wet', but more often it means 'fog', 'cloud', 'mist'. Some photographs of Furtwangen indicate that the valley of the Breg is sometimes so filled with a ground fog that you can only see the tops of the buildings. Abnoba therefore would mean 'misty stream' with the implication of upland stream.
The other segmentation relies heavily on Celtic Avon type names, such as the Abona, a river of Gaul. This *ab- is the same as the one above, but the -n- seems to add connotations of a river-daemon. If this is the form of Abnoba, then the -oba remains unexplained. It is possible that the two different Abnobas do not have the same derivation, and further, that the people who used the names confused them together.

 

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Erecura



Erecura (also found as Herecura, Aerecura, Eracura) was a goddess worshipped in ancient times, often thought to be Celtic in origin, mostly represented with the attributes of Proserpina and associated with the Roman underworld god Dis Pater. She appears with the latter in a statue found at Oberseebach, Switzerland and in several magical texts from Austria, once in the company of Cerberus, another, probably, with Ogmios. A further inscription to her has been found near Stuttgart, Germany. She may originally have been an earth goddess, associated with such attributes of fertility as the cornucopia and apple baskets; she may also have been associated with Silvanus and the Rhine Valley.
Representations of Erecura are most commonly found in the Danubian area of Southern Germany and Slovenia, but they also occur in Italy, Great Britain, and France. Her inscriptions are concentrated in Stuttgart and along the Rhine.
A male deity called Arecurius or Aericurus is named on an altar-stone in Northumberland, England.
Etymology
This theonym is of unclear origin. It has been connected with Latin aes, aeris 'copper, bronze, money, wealth', era 'mistress' and the name of the Greek goddess Hera.

 

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Agrona

Agronā is the reconstructed Proto-Celtic name for the river Aeron in Wales. The river's name literally means 'carnage'. It is hypothesized that there may have been an eponymous river-goddess associated with strife or war.

 

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Ancamna

In Gallo-Roman religion, Ancamna was a water goddess worshipped particularly in the valley of the Moselle River. She was commemorated at Trier as the consort of Mars Lenus, and at Möhn as the consort of Mars Smertulitanos.
Inciona is also apparently invoked along with Lenus Mars Veraudunus on a bronze ex voto from Luxembourg; it is unclear what connection, if any, exists between Inciona and Ancamna. Jufer and Luginbühl link Ancamna with two other consorts of the Gaulish Mars, Litavis and Nemetona, noting that none of these appear to be warrior goddesses themselves; instead, they suggest that Ancamna might have been associated with a spring.
The name Ancamna may be derived from the Proto-Celtic *anko-abonā, denoting ‘crooked river.’ The name *ank-ab(o)nā presumably developed into Gaulish *Ankabna, being transcribed in Latin letters as Ancamna. This apparent semantic connotation has led Dr. John Koch at the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies to suggest that this personality may personify “meandering freshwater flow”. This theory, if it is correct, may imply a parallel between Ancamna and such beings as Nantosuelta, which may be another name for the same personified aspect of nature.

 

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Andarta

In Celtic polytheism, Andarta was a warrior goddess worshipped in southern Gaul. Inscriptions to her have been found in Bern, Switzerland as well as in southern France. She may also be related to the goddess Andate identified with Victory in Britain, according to Cassius Dio. Like the similar goddess Artio, she was associated with the bear.

 

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Andraste



Andraste, according to Dio Cassius, was a Celtic war goddess invoked by Boudica while fighting against the Roman occupation of Britain in AD 61:
I thank thee, Andraste, and call upon thee as woman speaking to woman those over whom I rule are Britons, men that know not how to till the soil or ply a trade, but are thoroughly versed in the art of war and hold all things in common, even children and wives, so that the latter possess the same valour as the men. As the queen, then, of such men and of such women, I supplicate and pray thee for victory, preservation of life, and liberty against men insolent, unjust, insatiable, impious.
She is mentioned only once. She may be the same as Andate, mentioned later by the same source, and described as 'their name for Victory', i.e. the Goddess Victoria. Thayer asserts that she may be related to Andarta also. The goddess Victoria is related to Nike, Bellona, Magna Mater, Cybele, and Vacuna—goddesses who often are depicted on chariots.
Andraste and hares
Many Neopagan sources describe the hare as sacred to Andraste. This seems to derive from a misreading of the passage in Dio Cassius in which Boudica releases a hare from her gown:
“ "Let us, therefore, go against (the Romans), trusting boldly to good fortune. Let us show them that they are hares and foxes trying to rule over dogs and wolves." When she had finished speaking, she employed a species of divination, letting a hare escape from the fold of her dress; and since it ran on what they considered the auspicious side, the whole multitude shouted with pleasure, and Buduica, raising her hand toward heaven, said: "I thank thee, Andraste, and call upon thee as woman speaking to woman..." ”
The hare's release is described as a technique of divination, with an augury drawn from the direction in which it runs. This appears to be similar to the Roman methods of divination which ascribe meaning to the directions in which birds fly, with the left side being auspicious and the right side inauspicious.
Taking an augury at this point before a battle is thus a means of testing the 'good fortune' of which Boudica speaks, with no implication that the hare is sacred to Andraste. More importantly, the unflattering comparison of the Romans with 'hares and foxes' is not consistent with the reverence one would expect if the hare were a symbol of the Goddess. Boudica is evidently giving thanks to Andraste for the omen of victory and not addressing the hare as Andraste.

 

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Arduinna



In Celtic mythology, Arduinna (Arduina, Arduinnae, Arduinne) was the eponymous goddess of the Ardennes Forest and region, represented as a huntress riding a boar (primarily in the present-day regions of Belgium and Luxembourg). Her cult originated in what is today known as Ardennes, a region of Belgium, Luxembourg and France. She was later assimilated into the Gallo-Roman mythology of goddess Diana.
In The Gods of the Celts, author Green states that some depictions of Arduinna show her riding a boar. However, Deyts notes that the bronze Gallo-Roman statue of a woman in a short belted tunic, riding a boar sidesaddle and holding a knife, bears no inscription, and was simply assumed to be Arduinna by the 19th century antiquarian who discovered it - perhaps because the modern symbol of the Ardennes region is also a boar.
Arduinna is known from two inscriptions:
Düren, Germany deae Arduinnae (CIL XIII 0784 cool
Rome, Italy Arduinne (CIL VI, 00046)
Etymology
The name Arduinna derives from the Gaulish arduo- meaning height. It is also found in several placenames, such as the Ardennes Woods (Arduenna silva), in personal names Arduunus and Arda — the latter from coinage of the Treveri, — and the Galatian Αρδή. The name Arduenna silva for "wooded heights" was applied to several forested mountains, not just the modern Ardennes: it is found in the départements of Alleuze, Haute-Loire and Puy-du-Dôme.
In 565, St. Walfroy (Wulfilaïc) preached to the local population of Villers-devant-Orval to persuade them to abandon worship of Arduinna.

 

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Aufaniae

The Aufaniae were one name for Celtic mother goddesses worshipped throughout Celtic Europe. They are known only from symbolical inscriptions and they appear to have been found mainly in the German Rhineland.