Page:The Celtic Review volume 3.djvu/51

36 Sinzenich in the same neighbourhood, ‘Matronis Tummaestis.’ The prominence of the worship of group-goddesses in this district is very remarkable. Of the other types of group-goddesses the Mairæ of the neighbourhood of Dijon are of interest. One inscription at Dijon is dedicated Dis Mairis; another from Til-Châtel, dép. Côte d’Or, arrond. Dijon, of A.D. 250 or 251, is dedicated Deæ Eponæ et dis Mairabus, genio loci. Another inscription of the same locality has the words deabus Mairis. In this zone there is no reference to the Proximæ, but between Langres and Toul there is an inscription ‘Deabus Iunonibus.’ Coming now to the Rhine valley, we have on an inscription at Cologne the words Iunonibus [G]abiabus. At Bonn there is an inscription which has been interpreted as [Matribus or Iunonibus do]mesticis [Lugo]vibus com[edonibus]. At Zülpich, at any rate, the expression ‘Iunonibus domesticis’ occurs. There is also an inscription bearing the word Iunonibus at Pützdorf, near Altenhoven in the neighbourhood of Aachen. It is not improbable that the Iunones were the Matres or Matronæ 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 Dămŏna the companion of Borvo, ‘the Boiler,’ the god of certain hot springs. The form of the name Dămŏna 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. Dam-ona 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 Dămŏna’s name occurs are chiefly from Bourbonne-les-Bains, dép. Haute-Marne, arrond. Langres. The expressions, in which it occurs are, ‘Borvoni et Damonæ,’ ‘Deo Apollini Borvoni et Damonæ,’ ‘Borvoni et Damonæ,’ ‘Deo Borvoni et Damone,’ ‘Borvoni et Damonæ,’