Nemetona

File:Altrip Rhein Sueden.jpg

The Rhine at Altrip in the former territory of the Nemetes, where an inscription to Nemetona was found.<ref name="altrip"/>

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;<ref name="Koch1351"/><ref name="beck">Beck, pp. 237-238.</ref> evidence of her veneration is found in their former territory along the Middle Rhine<ref name="altrip">CIL 13, 6131.</ref><ref name="ae2007"/> as well in the Altbachtal sanctuary in present-day Trier, Germany.<ref name="beck"/><ref name=Koch1351>Powers Coe, p. 1351.</ref><ref name="finke">Finke 324.</ref> She is also attested in Bath, England, where an altar to her was dedicated by a man of the Gallic Treveri people.<ref name=Koch1351/><ref name="rib140">RIB 140.</ref>

Etymology

Nemetona's name is derived from the Celtic root nemeto-, referring to consecrated religious spaces, particularly sacred groves.<ref name="beck"/><ref name=Koch1351/> She has been considered a guardian goddess of open-air places of worship.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The same root is found in the names of the Romano-British goddess Arnemetia<ref name="Koch1351"/> and the Matres Nemetiales (known from an inscription in Grenoble).<ref name="beck"/>

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.<ref name=Koch1351/><ref name="finke"/><ref name="altrip"/> Separate inscriptions to Nemetona and to Loucetius have been recovered from the same site in Klein-Winternheim near Mainz.<ref>Jufer & Luginbühl, pp. 14, 39.</ref><ref name="kleinw">CIL 13, 7253 (the inscription to Nemetona on bronze).</ref> The Altrip site was further notable for yielding a terra cotta depiction of the goddess.<ref name=Koch1351/>

One inscription from Eisenberg appears to identify Nemetona with Victoria:<ref name="ae2007">AE 2007, 1044.</ref>

[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".<ref>Beck, p. 251, fn. 1321.</ref>

References

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

External links

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