Page:The Celtic Review volume 3.djvu/59

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44
THE CELTIC REVIEW

also given by Ausonius as the name of the spring of Bordeaux, and is probably to be read on an inscription at that town [Div]onae. This form, too, seems to underlie that of the modern Divonne, dép. Ain, arrond. and canton Gex, as well as that of Dewangen in Germania magna, given by Ptolemy II, xi, 14, as Δηουόνα. There is also a local goddess Dunisia, whose name occurs on an inscription at Bussy-Albieu, dép. Loire, arrond. Montbrison, canton Böen. The name probably means, ‘the goddess of fortresses.’ The name ‘athubodvae’ occurs on an inscription of Fins-de-Ley, dép. Haute-Savoie, arr. Bonneville, canton Taninges. It has been thought to stand for Cathu-bodvae, and so to be the equivalent of the Irish Bodb-Catha, a goddess of war, but this identification is very far from being certain.

5. Cisalpine Gaul.—In this district inscriptions to the grouped goddesses called Matronæ are numerous, for example they are mentioned along with Iunones at Verona, Iunonib(us), Matronis; at Marzana, Matrona[b(us)]; Isorella, Matronis; Calvisano, Matronabu[s]; Manerbio, Matronab(us) (2); at Nuvolento, in the province of Brescia, and on about forty-seven other inscriptions. As already mentioned, the Matronæ appear to have been worshipped, too, on German territory. In this district, also, the Iunones were widely worshipped, and we find inscriptions naming them about twenty-seven times. Another group of goddesses is called Dervones or Dervonnæ, ‘the spirits of the oak’: these are called on the inscription of Cavalzesio, near Brescia, Fatis Dervonibus, and, on another we read Matronis Dervonnis. With these may be compared the Silvānae, who are mentioned once on an inscription of Verona in the dative, Silvanabus. In Cisalpine Gaul inscriptions to the god Silvanus are frequent. Of individual goddesses Epona seems to have been worshipped in Cisalpine Gaul, as we see from an inscription at Guidizzolo between Mantua and Verona, as well as from an inscription at Siguenza. The goddess Epona is mentioned by Iuvenal, viii. 154-157, and, according to the scholiast on the passage, she was a patron of muleteers as