Alateivia

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The Alateivia is a Germanic goddess , possibly one of the matrons , which is only passed down through an inscription on an altar from Xanten .

Discovery and Inscription

The stone was found in a garden in front of the Clever Tor in 1822 and first came into the possession of a local pastor Spenrath, after his death in the collection of Philipp Houben . After Houben's death, the stone came into the possession of the Bonn Provincial Museum .

The simple, small votive stone (~ 33 × 22 cm) is made with a simple base, inscription board and cornice with an uncarved back. The relatively undisturbed, five-line inscription - only the outer letters of lines 1–4 are damaged by abrasion - is easy to read. The T + E in the name of the goddess is a ligature :

" Alateivi / ae ex / iussu / Divos (!) / Medicus "

The ex iussu formula identifies the inscription as a revelation inscription : Divos, the doctor, donated the stone at the behest or order of the goddess.

Epithet and interpretation

In research there are two main ways of interpretation. The first interpretation is based on a name that proceeds from a healing function of the goddess mentioned. The second interpretation is based on a universal goddess who Jan de Vries carefully interprets as the main goddess and equates or compares her with Frija . The conspicuous first link Ala- is a common element in Germanic god names as evidenced by the Alaferhviae , Alaterviae and Alagabiae . For the second link -teivia , the diphthong -ei- made a reference to pre-Germanic * deiṷos- = "God". The resulting compound would have the meaning "the all-divine". Jan de Vries rejects a healing function a priori , since a connection between the doctor in charge and his profession with the function of the goddess is purely hypothetical.

Piergiuseppe Scardigli interprets the names with Ala- as Nomina Agentis and the Alateiviae with reservation as the "all divine donating" goddess / matron.

Günter Neumann goes a different way. First, he points out the weakness that -teiva from vorgermanisch * deiṷos- the time of the establishment of the altar to -tīva monophthongiert was (germ. Ī <IE. Ei ). Ad hoc writings are unlikely. Therefore Neumann falls back on the older view that there is a connection to a healing function in the name. First of all, the inscribed -ei- is an imprecise spelling for -e- . He also recognizes a verb stem, as in gothic taujan to gataujan = "do work" from the root * TEW , and in Old High German zouwen = "Dress Up" exists. He therefore interprets the name with great care as “the completely healing one” and points out that there is a ruling compound and an exact formal parallel to the Alagabiae.

The name resembles the name form of numerous matrons , so that some researchers count them among the matrons. However, others see her as an individual goddess. Neumann cautiously counts these deities with Germanic names to a separate group of native goddesses of the Lower Rhine region similar to the matrons, who have the plural ending on -ae , such as the Ahueccaniae . He sees the Alateiviae as an ideal role model for the founder, the doctor Divo, whose function promises help. In this respect, she cannot be categorized as a special deity in Hermann Usener's definition , but rather as an expressively Germanic auxiliary and situation deity (see Mars Halamardus , Sinthgunt ). With these Germanic deities, completely different ideas are thematized through the names than comparatively classical Germanic deities such as Donar / Thor , whose name is recognizable anchored in the forces of nature.

literature

  • Helmut Birkhan : Teutons and Celts up to the end of Roman times. (= Philological historical class session reports, 272). Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1970, ISBN 3-205-03653-0 , p. 520 f.
  • Siegfried Gutenbrunner : The Germanic god names of the ancient inscriptions. Max Niemeyer, Halle / S. 1936, pp. 9, 98.
  • Karl Helm : Old Germanic history of religion. Volume 1. University Press Carl Winter, Heidelberg 1913, p. 377.
  • Günter Neumann : The Germanic matron names . In: Matronen und related deities (= supplements to the Bonner Jahrbücher 44). Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne / Habelt, Bonn 1987, ISBN 3-7927-0934-1 , pp. 103-132 = Astrid van Nahl, Heiko Hettrich (eds.): Günter Neumann: Name studies on Old Germanic (= supplementary volumes to the Reallexikon der Germanic Antiquity, Vol. 59). de Gruyter, Berlin a. a. 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-020100-0 , pp. 253-289; here 284 Note 22 and page 64, 67, 233 ff., 265 ( charge Germanic Altertumskunde Online at de Gruyter ).
  • Piergiuseppe Scardigli: Language around the matron's inscriptions. In: Heinrich Beck (Hrsg.): Germanic residual and debris languages (= Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde - supplementary volumes ; 3). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1989, ISBN 3-11-011948-X , pp. 143-156; here 149 ( fee-based Germanic antiquity online at de Gruyter).
  • Rudolf Simek : Lexicon of Germanic Mythology (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 368). 3rd, completely revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-520-36803-X , pp. 7, 328.
  • Jan de Vries : Old Germanic history of religion . 3rd unchanged edition. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1970, Reprint 2010, Volume 2, p. 318.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Wilhelm Brambach : Corpus inscriptionum Rhenanarum. Praefatus est Fridericus Ritschelius. Friderichs, Elberfeld 1867, p. 54 No. 197 ( digitized version ).
  2. ↑ CIL 13, 8606
  3. ↑ Hermann Usener: God names. Attempt of a doctrine of the formation of religious concepts. Bonn 1896, p. 75ff.