Menmandutæ or Menmandutiæ of the neighbourhood of Narbo. From the Pyrenæan district west of the Sordones no distinctive names of grouped goddesses have come down to us.[1] The Menmandutæ are commemorated on an inscription at Béziers, Hérault (cil xii 4223), where their name occurs in the dative on a votive tablet. A somewhat similar but unexplained name, ‘Minmantiis,’ has been found on an inscription at Périgueux (cil xiii, 940).
2. Gaul, south of Lugdunum (Lyons).—In this district, in which the territory of the Sordones ought, strictly speaking, to be included, the names of goddesses are frequent. They fall naturally into two main types, those of grouped goddesses and those of individuals. The former are often termed Matres or Matræ. With this name may be compared one of the Welsh names for the fairies, ‘Y Mamau’ (the mothers), a name which survives in the expression ‘Bendith y Mamau,’ the blessing of the mothers, used of fairy benefactions, and in that of ‘Y Foel Famau,’ the hill of the mothers, the highest point of the Clwydian range in Denbighshire. In the zone in question we find the Eburnicæ matræ at Yvours, on the Rhone, near Lyons (Orelli, 5935), on the inscription restored as Matr[i]s, au[g(ustis)] Eburnici[s], etc. These appear to have been the local tutelary deities of Yvours. The nearest grouped goddesses to the north of these that are recorded on inscriptions are the Mairæ of the neighbourhood of Dijon (Dibio), but to the north of these, again, no other grouped goddesses called Matræ or Matres are mentioned, until we reach the neighbourhood of the Rhine, where several groups are recorded. The nearest specifically designated groups to the south of the Eburnicæ Matræ are the Obelenses Matres at Cossillac, between Ville-Dieu and Villeneuve-de-Berg, dép. Ardèche, arrond. Privas and the Nemetiales at Grenoble, Isère. The ‘Obelenses Matræ’ appear to derive their name from a place, ‘Obelum’ or ‘Obela,’ and seem to have been local tutelary goddesses; they are called on the inscription in
- ↑ At Luchon, however, there are eleven votive tablets to the nymphs, at Bagnères de Bigorre there are two, and at Auch one.
