Page:The Celtic Review volume 3.djvu/64

Rh more in common than is usually supposed. For example, we have among the Germans as among some sections of the Celts a most remarkable development of the worship of Matres and Matronae, a form of worship of a very primitive character. This similarity of underlying religious belief is also confirmed by the study of folk-lore, as any reader of Dr. Frazer’s Golden Bough can readily ascertain. At Varhély in Dacia, on an inscription made not long after 107 A.D., there is mentioned even a group of Eponae in the formula Eponab(us) et Campestrib(us) sacrum. In Noricum again there is a group called Alaunæ, who were worshipped along with Bedaios. It may be safely conjectured that in the countries east of the Rhine grouped goddesses abounded. Of the names of individual Celtic goddesses worshipped in these territories, especially in Pannonia and Dacia, that of Epona is by far the most prevalent. In Noricum we find the worship of Adsalluta closely associated with that of Savus, the river Save. At Saudörfel her name occurs on five inscriptions, on two of which it is associated with that of Savus. At Hrastnigg, too, her name occurs on an inscription which reads Adsal(l)ute Aug(uste).

Another goddess who deserves mention here is Noreia. Her name occurs on an inscription of the year 287 A.D. on Mount Avala, near Belgrade, in the formula D(ea)e Nor[e]ia[e] sacrum, and also at Hohenstein, near Pulst, in the phrase Noreiae Aug(ustae) sacr(um). There is a similar formula on an inscription between Pulst and Feistritz. At Hohenstein, near Pulst, she is identified with Isis in the formula Isidi Norei(ae), and similarly at Ulrichsberg, near Feistritz, in the Glan valley. At Trojana, near St. Oswald, the formula is Noreie August(ae), while at Cilli she is mentioned on one inscription, along with Jupiter and with Celeia, as ‘Noreia sancta.’ On another inscription she is mentioned along with Mars, Hercules, Victoria, and Noreia. At Kerschbach, near Windisch-Feistritz, her name occurs in the inscription [Marti A]ug(usto) e[t N]oreiae Be[g(ina)e et] Britania[e pr]o vic(toria) L. Sep[timii Severi p]ert(inacis) inv(icti). At VOL. III.