Brigantia

Brigantia , more rarely Brigindo , Bricta or Brixia , is a Celtic goddess . The name Brigantia is to be understood as a Latin approximation of an old Celtic name, which is developed as * Brigantī . It actually means "the sublime".

Celtic goddess in the Bretagne Museum in Rennes , probably Brigantia / Minerva

mythology

Brigantia was at the time of Roman rule the tribal goddess of the Celtic tribe of brigands , of which various tribal associations both in Britain and in Gaul and Gallia Belgica were located. She was often depicted as a serious-looking young woman with a helmet, spear, shield and armor. Brigantia was also called a nymph - probably because she was considered the deity of the country and the river goddess of the Afon Braint and the River Brent , a tributary of the Thames . Although she was mainly worshiped in Britain, as evidenced by numerous inscriptions, her cult was probably also known on the mainland.

The Irish legendary figure Brigid or Brig goes back to the goddess Brigantia, whose cult might have brought British sailors or conquerors to Ireland.

In the Interpretatio Romana Brigantia is equated with Minerva ("Celtic Minerva") but also Victoria and bears the insignia of the wall crown, spear and gorgon shield on a relief like this. From the time of Antoninus Pius in Cumberland (England) an invocation as the healing goddess Dea Nympha Brigantia has been handed down. In the Roman fort Blatobulgium in Birrens, Scotland ( Dumfries and Galloway , Gaelic : Dùn Phris agus an Gall-Ghaidhealaibh ) a consecration place from the 2nd century of the Brigantia has been preserved, on which she is shown with Minerva's wall crown and Victoria's wings. As the goddess of battle and victory, she is compared on two inscriptions ( Roman Inscriptions of Britain RIB 627 and RIB 628) with Victoria, on one with the North African moon goddess Dea Caelestis (RIB 1131).

Her male counterpart is the god Briganitius , about whom very little is known.

See also

• List of Celtic gods and legendary figures
• Celtic religion
• Celtic mythology

literature

• Helmut Birkhan : Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-7001-2609-3 .
• Maximilian Ihm : Brigantia 2 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume III, 1, Stuttgart 1897, Col. 844 f.
• Bernhard Maier : Lexicon of Celtic Religion and Culture (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 466). Kröner, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-520-46601-5 , p. 54.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ David Stifter, October 12, 2007, Keltisch in Österreich (lecture text in PDF form; 127 kB) . P. 6. Retrieved September 1, 2008.
2. ^ Isle of Anglesey, County Llanfairpwllgwyngyll
3. ↑ ^{a b} Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-7001-2609-3 , p. 614 f.
4. ↑ Michael Richter: Ireland in the Middle Ages, Culture and History. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-406-40481-2 , p. 38 f.
5. ^ RG Collingwood, RP Wright: The Roman Inscriptions of Britain . Oxford 1965, no.2066.
6. ↑ CIL 07, 1062 : Brigantiae s (acrum) Amandus / arc (h) itectus ex imperio imp (eratum) [f (ecit)]