Celtic polytheism Ancient Celtic religion, commonly known as Celtic paganism, was the religion of the ancient Celtic peoples of Europe. Because the ancient Celts did not have writing, evidence about their religion is gleaned from archaeology, Greco-Roman accounts ...

, Sirona was a

goddess A goddess is a female deity. In many known cultures, goddesses are often linked with literal or metaphorical pregnancy or imagined feminine roles associated with how women and girls are perceived or expected to behave. This includes themes ...

worshipped predominantly in East Central

Gaul Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...

and along the Danubian

limes Limes may refer to: * the plural form of lime (disambiguation) Lime commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a ...

. A healing deity, she was associated with healing springs; her attributes were

snakes Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more j ...

and eggs. She was sometimes depicted with Apollo

Grannus Grannus (also ''Granus'', '' Mogounus,'' and ''Amarcolitanus'') was a Celtic deity of classical antiquity. He was regularly identified with Apollo as Apollo Grannus and frequently worshipped in conjunction with Sirona, and sometimes with Mars and ...

or Apollo

Borvo Borvo or Bormo (Gaulish: *''Borwō'', ''Bormō'') was an ancient Celtic god of healing springs worshipped in Gauls and Gallaecia., s.v. ''Borvo''. He was sometimes identified with the Graeco-Roman god Apollo, although his cult had preserved a high ...

. She was particularly worshipped by the

Treveri The Trēverī (Gaulish: *''Trēueroi'') were a Celtic tribe of the Belgae group who inhabited the lower valley of the Moselle from around 150 BCE, if not earlier, until their displacement by the Franks. Their domain lay within the southern fring ...

in the Moselle Valley.

Sirona's name

The name of the goddess was written in various ways: ''Sirona'', ''Đirona'', ''Thirona'', indicating some difficulty in capturing the initial sound in the Latin alphabet. The symbol Đ is used here to represent the ''

tau gallicum Tau gallicum (majuscule:Ꟈ(), minuscule: ꟈ()) is a letter that was used to write the Gaulish language.Gaulish Gaulish was an ancient Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switze ...

representing the cluster ''ts'' which was interchangeable with ''st''- in word-initial position and it is not a form of the letter "D". The

root In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the su ...

is a long vowel

Gaulish Gaulish was an ancient Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switze ...

variant of

proto-Celtic Proto-Celtic, or Common Celtic, is the ancestral proto-language of all known Celtic languages, and a descendant of Proto-Indo-European. It is not attested in writing but has been partly reconstructed through the comparative method. Proto-Celt ...

''*ster-'' (''*h₂ster'') meaning ‘star’. The same root is found in

Old Irish Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic ( sga, Goídelc, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ga, Sean-Ghaeilge; gd, Seann-Ghàidhlig; gv, Shenn Yernish or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive writte ...

as ''ser'',

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

''seren'',

Middle Cornish Cornish (Standard Written Form: or ) , is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family. It is a revived language, having become extinct as a living community language in Cornwall at the end of the 18th century. However, ...

''sterenn'' and Breton ''steren(n)''. The name ''Đirona'' consists of a long-vowel, ''o''-grade stem ''tsīro-'' derived from the root ''*ster-'' and a ''-no-'' suffix forming

adjective In linguistics, an adjective ( abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the ...

s indicating "a belonging" in many Indo-European languages. Alternatively it may be an augmentative -on- suffix found in many Celtic divine names and epithets. To this is suffixed the Gaulish feminine singular ''-a'', the usual feminine variant of o-stem adjectives and nouns. So *''Tsīrona'' would seem to have meant ‘stellar’ or ‘astral’.

Evidence for Sirona

The evidence for Sirona is both epigraphic (inscriptions) and representational (sculptures and statues). As the map shows, it is primarily concentrated in east-central

, up to the Germanic lines, and along the Danubian limes as far east as Budapest. A few outliers are seen in Aquitaine, Brittany, and one in Italy. There are no Sirona finds in

Britannia Britannia () is the national personification of Britain as a helmeted female warrior holding a trident and shield. An image first used in classical antiquity, the Latin ''Britannia'' was the name variously applied to the British Isles, Grea ...

Hispania Hispania ( la, Hispānia , ; nearly identically pronounced in Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, and Italian) was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula and its provinces. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hi ...

, or in any of the other Roman provinces.

Inscriptions

Some inscriptions, such as those at

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectu ...

Corseul Corseul (; ; Gallo: ''Corsoeut'') is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department of Brittany in northwestern France. The town was a major Roman town and contains Roman ruins. The town hall contains a small archaeological museum. History Corseul ...

, the three from Ihn in

Saarland The Saarland (, ; french: Sarre ) is a state of Germany in the south west of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, a ...

, Germany , , ,

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Ma ...

Mühlburg Mühlburg, formerly a town on its own right, is a borough located in the west of Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The name ''Mühlburg'' could be translated as 'Mill Castle' and refers to a water mill and a water castle located at the sit ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

and

Trier Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in English as Trèves ( ;) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the ...

(CIL 13, 03662) are to the goddess Sirona alone, ''deae Đironae''. More usually, Sirona is paired with Apollo, as in this inscription from Graux in the

Vosges mountains The Vosges ( , ; german: Vogesen ; Franconian and gsw, Vogese) are a range of low mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a singl ...

: :''Apollini et Si/ronae / Biturix Iulii f(ilius) / d(edit)'' or this inscription from Luxeuil-les-Bains in

Franche-Comté Franche-Comté (, ; ; Frainc-Comtou: ''Fraintche-Comtè''; frp, Franche-Comtât; also german: Freigrafschaft; es, Franco Condado; all ) is a cultural and historical region of eastern France. It is composed of the modern departments of Doubs, ...

: :''Apollini / et Sironae / idem / Taurus'' When paired with Sirona, Apollo is often assimilated with a

deity, such as Apollo

or Apollo

. An example from Sarmizegetusa in

Dacia Dacia (, ; ) was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It ...

: :''Apollini / Granno et / Sironae / C(aius) Sempronius / Urbanus / proc(urator) Aug(usti)'' and another from

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...

where Sirona is given the epithet ''sancta'' (holy) and is identified with Diana: :''Apollini / Granno / Dianae / nct(a)e Siron(a)e / o sal(ute) sua / suorumq(ue) / omn(ium) / Iulia Matrona'' A dedication from Großbottwar in

can be precisely dated to the year 201 CE by mention of the two consuls, L. Annius Fabianus and M. Nonius Arrius Mucianus: :''In h(onorem) d(omus) d(ivinae) Apo lii et Sironae / aedem cum signis C(aius) Longinius / Speratus vet(eranus) leg(ionis) XXII Pr(imigeniae) P(iae) F(idelis) et Iunia Deva coniunx et Lon/gini Pacatus Martinula Hila/ritas Speratianus fili(i) in / suo posuerunt v(otum) s(olverunt) l(ibentes) l(aeti) m(erito) / Muciano et Fabiano co(n)s(ulibus)''

Depictions

At the sulphur springs of

Alzey Alzey () is a ''Verband''-free town – one belonging to no ''Verbandsgemeinde'' – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the fifth-largest town in Rhenish Hesse, after Mainz, Worms, Ingelheim am Rhein and Bingen. ...

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

, Germany, a stone bas-relief shows Sirona wearing a long gown and carrying a patera in her right hand and a sceptre in her left. The identification as Sirona is assured by a dedication () to Apollo and Sirona. The richly furnished spring sanctuary of

Hochscheid Hochscheid is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography Location This rural municipalit ...

(Cueppers 1990; Weisgerber 1975) was decorated with statues of Sirona and Apollo, again confirmed by an inscription ''Deo Apolli/ni et sanc/t(a)e Siron(a)e ...'' (to Apollo and holy Sirona ...). The statue of Sirona shows her carrying a bowl of eggs (Green 1986 p. 162) and holding a long snake coiled around her lower arm (a link to the iconography of the Greek healing goddess Hygeia, daughter of

Asklepios Asclepius (; grc-gre, Ἀσκληπιός ''Asklēpiós'' ; la, Aesculapius) is a hero and god of medicine in ancient Religion in ancient Greece, Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology. He is the son of Apollo and Coronis (lover of ...

). She wears a long gown and has a star-shaped diadem on her head (a link with the meaning of the name Sirona). A bronze statue from Mâlain in the

Côte d'Or Côte is a British cafe chain founded by Richard Caring, Andy Bassadone, Chris Benians and Nick Fiddler in Wimbledon, London Wimbledon () is a district and town of Southwest London, England, southwest of the centre of London at Charing Cros ...

and dating to around 280 CE (Deyts & Roussel 1994; Deyts 1998) shows Sirona naked to the waist and holding a snake draped over her left arm, together with a very classical Apollo with

lyre The lyre () is a string instrument, stringed musical instrument that is classified by Hornbostel–Sachs as a member of the History of lute-family instruments, lute-family of instruments. In organology, a lyre is considered a yoke lute, since it ...

. The inscription ( ILingons-M, 00002) is ''Thiron(a) et Apollo''. A stone with an engraved bust of Sirona from Saint-Avold, now in the Musée de Metz, bears an inscription (): :''Deae Đironae/ Maior Ma/giati filius / v(otum) s(olvit) l(ibens) m(erito)''. At Vienne-en-Val in the

Loiret Loiret (; ) is a department in the Centre-Val de Loire region of north-central France. It takes its name from the river Loiret, which is contained wholly within the department. In 2019, Loiret had a population of 680,434.< ...

, a square stone pillar depicts Sirona, Apollo,

Minerva Minerva (; ett, Menrva) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the R ...

and

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the ...

(Debal 1973). Sirona wears a long dress and a diadem, from which falls a veil. Her left hand holds a cornucopia and in her right is a patera which she is offering to a coiled snake. Again there is a similarity with Hygeia, who also carries a snake. Indeed, when a statue has no inscription, it is not clear whether Sirona or Hygeia is depicted, a syncretism demonstrated by the inscription at Wein () which includes Sirona and Aesculapius, the Roman form of Asklepios: :'' (ovi)O(ptimo) M(aximo) / Apollini / et Sirona / eculap o/ P(ublius) Ael(ius) Luciu/s , (centurio) leg(ionis) X v(otum) s(olvit) / l(ibens) l(aetus) m(erito)'' A different aspect of Sirona is shown at Sainte-Fontaine, where Sirona holds fruit and corn (Green 1986 p. 161).

Temples

Several temples to Sirona are known. Often these were of the Gallo-Roman

fanum The vocabulary of ancient Roman religion was highly specialized. Its study affords important information about the religion, traditions and beliefs of the ancient Romans. This legacy is conspicuous in European cultural history in its influence on ...

type, an inner

ella Ella may refer to: * Ella (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Places United States * Ella, Kentucky, an unincorporated community * Ella, Oregon, an unincorporated community * Ella, Pennsylvania, an unincorpora ...

with an outer walkway or pronaos, and were constructed around thermal springs or wells, as at

Augst Augst (Swiss German: ''Augscht'') is a municipality in the district of Liestal in the canton of Basel-Country in Switzerland. It was known as Augusta Raurica in Roman times. History Augst is first mentioned in 615 as ''Augustodunensem praes ...

(Bakker 1990) and Oppenheim-Nierstein (Cüppers 1990). At

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population o ...

(in antiquity, Aquincum) a healing shrine at the spring which fed the aqueduct was dedicated to Apollo (presumably Grannus) and Sirona () :''Apolini /et/Serana(e)/ T(itus)Iul(ius) MER/CATOR D(e)C(urio)/V M'' It was established by the emperor

Caracalla Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Lucius Septimius Bassianus, 4 April 188 – 8 April 217), better known by his nickname "Caracalla" () was Roman emperor from 198 to 217. He was a member of the Severan dynasty, the elder son of Emperor ...

when he visited

Pannonia Pannonia (, ) was a province of the Roman Empire bounded on the north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia. Pannonia was located in the territory that is now west ...

, although

Dio Cassius Lucius Cassius Dio (), also known as Dio Cassius ( ), was a Roman historian and senator of maternal Greek origin. He published 80 volumes of the history on ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy. The volumes documented the ...

says (Roman Histories, 78.15) that the emperor :''received no help from Apollo Grannus, nor yet from Aesculapius or Serapis, in spite of his many supplications and his unwearying persistence''. Two inscriptions describe the establishment of temples to Sirona. From Ihn-Niedaltdorf an inscription () records the donation of a building and its furnishings at the dedicant's expense: :''De e Sirona / aedem um suis ora/mentis M v(otum) s(olvit) l(ibens) l(aetus) m(erito)'' At

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are ...

(in antiquity, Aquae Mattiacorum) an inscription () records the restoration of a temple by a ''curator'' at his own expense: :''Sironae / C(aius) Iuli(us) Restitutus / c(urator) templ(i) d(e) s(uo) p(osuit)'' It seems possible that another

inscription () that the wife of military commander Porcius Rufianus from

dedicated to an otherwise unknown goddess ""Diana Mattiaca"" for the healing of her daughter Porcia Rufiana, also refers to Sirona: :''Antonia Postuma / T(iti) Porci Rufiani leg(ati) / g(ionis) XXII P(rimigeniae) P(iae) F(idelis) ro sau/te Porciae Rufianae / filiae suae Dianae Mat/tiacae xvoto / signum posu t' An elaborate shrine and temple complex at Hochscheid (Cüppers 1990) has already been mentioned. It was built in the second century CE around a spring, which filled a cistern in the temple. The remote location is thought to have been a pilgrimage site (Weisgerber 1975). It was destroyed in the third century, probably during the Germanic incursions of 250-270, and was never rebuilt.

References in popular culture

Food historian William Woys Weaver traces the origin of the

pretzel A pretzel (), from German pronunciation, standard german: Breze(l) ( and French / Alsatian: ''Bretzel'') is a type of baked bread made from dough that is commonly shaped into a knot. The traditional pretzel shape is a distinctive symmetrical f ...

to the worship of Sirona. There is a song dedicated to Sirona written and performed by Gavin Dunne. The curator of Wiesbaden's temple of Sirona, Iulius Restitutus, is one protagonist of the 21st-century ''Romanike'' novels.

References

* Année Epigraphique (AE), yearly volumes. * ''

Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum The ''Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum'' (''CIL'') is a comprehensive collection of ancient Latin inscriptions. It forms an authoritative source for documenting the surviving epigraphy of classical antiquity. Public and personal inscriptions throw ...

'' (CIL) vol XIII, Inscriptiones trium Galliarum et Germaniarum * Cüppers, H. (ed) (1990). ''Die Römer in Rheinland-Pfalz''. Theiss. * Delamarre, X. (2003). ''Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise'' (2nd ed.). Paris: Editions Errance. * Debal, J. (1983) Vienne-en-Val, Divinites et sanctuaires. ''Bulletin de la Société Archéologique et Historique de l'Orléanais'', 42 * Deyts, S; Roussel, L. (1994) Mâlain, fouilles de Mediolanum: découverte, en juillet 1993, d'un buste de divinité de l'eau dans son contexte. ''Revue archéologique de l'Est et du Centre-Est - Dijon'', 45 pp. 503–509 * Deyts, S. (1998). ''A la rencontre des dieux gaulois, un défi à César''. Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux. * Dio Cassius, ''Roman Histories''. Earnest Cary (trans), Loeb Classical Library
Available online
* Eska, J. F. (1998). Tau Gallicum. ''Studia Celtica'' 32 pp. 115–127 * Green, M. (1986). ''Gods of the Celts''. Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing Limited. . (Page numbering in reference above is to the 1986 edition, not the 2004 edition, ) * Hamp, E.P. (1994). Incidence of Gaulish divine names in -on-. ''Studia Celtica Japonica'' NS 4, pp. 71–72. * Jufer, N.; Luginbühl, T. (2001) ''Répertoire des dieux gaulois''. Paris, Editions Errance. * Markey, T.L. (2001). 'Ingvaeonic' *''sterir'' 'star' and astral priests. ''NOWELE'' 39 pp. 85–113. * Mees, B. (2002). On Gaulish tau. ''Studia Celtica'' 36, pp. 21–26. * Weisgerber, G. (1975). ''Das Pilgerheiligtum des Apollo und der Sirona von Hochscheid im Hunsruck''. Bonn: Rudolf Habelt Press.

External links

*

(in German, illustrated) - includes an unreferenced woodcut of a temple to Apollo and Sirona

(in French, illustrated). {{Authority control Gaulish goddesses Health goddesses Water goddesses Snake goddesses ca:Mitologia celta#Déus