Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/59

Rh war-goddess called the Mórrígu, which is important, as her name means the great queen. Why she should have been so called has always appeared a puzzle, but it becomes at once intelligible if we suppose her husband as war-god to have been once the supreme or great god of the Goidels: the rôle assigned her by Irish mythology is, caeteris paribus, not very unlike that of Here or Juno; but it is her name that chiefly concerns us at this point. It is further to be noticed that with the Mórrígu Irish literature is wont to associate another war-fury called the Bodb (or Badb) Catha; nor is it clear that the two names may not have originally referred to one and the same mythological being; but, be that as it may, one finds a Gaulish goddess who bore inferentially much the same name as the Irish Bodb Catha, as proved by an Allobrogic altar discovered in the commune of Mieussy in Haute-Savoie. In its present state it reads: Athubodvae Aug(ustae), Servilia Terentia (votum) s(olvit) l(ibens) m(erito). But as the stone is imperfect on the right side, it is conjectured that the full name was Cathubodvae, which has been supposed to stand for Catubodvae. Although our knowledge of Gaulish does not suffice to enable us to show that Athubodva was an impossible form, still Cathubodva appears to coincide in a manner which can hardly be the result of accident with the Irish Bodb Catha, in which we have the compound name analysed. This last meant the Bodb of war and carnage, to whom Irish literature makes frequent reference. The signification of the word bodva or bodb may readily be guessed from the fact that it corresponds letter