Matrons

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Altar of the Aufanische Matronen , found under the Bonn Minster
Consecration stone of Lucius Caldinius Firminius to the Vaccaline matrons from Mechernich-Weyer
Bust of a matron from Marnheim (3rd century)

Matronen , Matronae (from Latin matrona "family mother , noble lady"), Matres (also Deae Matres) or Matrae (from Latin mater "mother") are only in the majority, predominantly in threes occurring mother goddesses of the Roman , Germanic and Celtic religions . They are only known from inscriptions and images; there are no ancient written sources on them.

They are represented in the form of a seated group of three on votive stones and altars , especially in the north-west and north-east provinces of the Roman Empire as well as in Gaul , northern Spain and northern Italy .

Pictorial representations and inscriptions

More than 800 matron stones have so far been found in the area of ​​the former Roman province of Lower Germany alone , piled in the southern Rhineland , further consecration stones have been found in southern France and southern Italy . All have Latin inscriptions in which the names of local donors have been translated into Latin script ( Latinization ), but there are also numerous donors with purely Roman names.

The oldest inscription found dates from Andernach between 70 and 89 AD, the latest to the year 240.

About 70 epithets of the goddesses (see list of matron names) are known, the donors have Roman, Celtic and Germanic names, so that it is spoken of a Gallo-Roman- Germanic cult. The goddess stones were donated to solicit protection for the family, fertility or professional success, or as thanks for being saved from danger or illness. It is not documented how and whether they were worshiped, but the abbreviation "V S L M" (Votum Solvit Libens Merito: "The vow gladly and meritoriously redeemed", L M for short, see the Gripswald matron stones ) is found on numerous matron stones . Such vows show that the matrons were called upon for protection, assistance and blessing in the broadest sense.

Consecration stones with figurative reliefs present the matrons almost exclusively as Trinity ( Trinity ): in the middle of a younger woman with open shoulder-length hair, left and right their beside two older women with prominent hoods on their heads (as they married and widowed Ubierinnen in and around Cologne carried). The representations are provided with small fruit baskets, flowers, ears of wheat or a box with incense . This feminine trinity is associated with the feminine ages of young woman , mother and old woman . Matron shrines have been excavated in the Eifel , for example, in the Pesch temple district and in the Görresburg temple complex . The matrons are probably the basis of the Juffern sagas in the western Rhineland.

Matron cult

In the Roman religion there is no directly corresponding definition for matronae . The names differ, presumably for geographic reasons: in Northern Italy Matronae , in Britain Matres , in Gaul mostly Matrae (dative derivative) and Matres . In the inscription corpus, titles such as “Dea” and “Deae” and “Sanctus” are occasionally added to the commonly used Matronis .

Votive stones and altars were in many cases not stand-alone monuments, but were often built in connection with cult centers or temples. Examples of this have been found in Bonn , Eschweiler , Geuenich (near Inden) , Pesch and Görresburg near Nettersheim.

Little is known about the concrete form of the matron cult, it was spread by Roman legionaries , especially Germanic military members and (re-) settlers, for example in the provincial Roman Lower Rhine area. In addition to so-called fruit baskets (apple, pomegranate, pear, pine cone) that the matrons carry on their lap, and now and then a treasure box, there are also depictions of sacrificial scenes , incense and animal sacrifices such as boars and fish. The other additions are plants, trees, the cornucopia (again with pomegranate, pear and pine cones) and (baby) children. The representation of the matrons indicates the cyclical events in nature, the seasons, general fertility (fertility).

The veneration of the matrons as mother goddesses or religiously worshiped women can also be heard in later cults for the Nordic Dise , the Anglo-Saxon Mōdraniht ("Night of the Mothers") and probably in the literary Idisi of the First Merseburg Spell .

Matron names

In all inscriptions found on matron stones, the name part “Matronae”, “Matres” or “Deae” is usually supplemented by an epithet, for example Matronae Vacallinehae (water and place name), the frequency of the names being used varies widely (see list of matron names ). While most occur only once, in others there are areas of concentration that may indicate cult centers . In many cases the names can no longer be interpreted. With some, conclusions can be drawn about the type and function of the goddesses , so there are various protective, spring and water goddesses.

See also

literature

Lexicons:

Further specialist literature:

  • Max Ihm : The mother or matron cult and its monuments . In: Yearbooks of the Society of Friends of Antiquity in the Rhineland . Volume 83, 1887, pp. 1–200 ( online and download ).
  • Max Siebourg : Matron terracotta from Bonn. In addition to remarks on the matrons cult . In: Bonner yearbooks of the Association of Friends of Antiquity in the Rhineland . Issue 105, 1900, pp. 78-102 .
  • Wolfgang Heiligendorff: The Celtic matron cult and its "further development" in German myth (=  form and spirit. Work on Germanic philology . Volume 33 ). Eichblatt, Leipzig 1934.
  • Siegfried Gutenbrunner : Germanic god names of the ancient inscriptions . Max Niemeyer Verlag, Halle / Saale 1936.
  • Ernst Alfred Philippson : The Germanic mother and matron cult on the Lower Rhine . In: Germanic Review . tape 19 , 1944, pp. 81-142 .
  • Gerhard Bauchhenß , Günter Neumann (Red.): Matrones and related deities. Results of a colloquium organized by the Göttingen Academy Commission for Classical Studies in Central and Northern Europe. Rheinland-Verlag / Habelt, Bonn 1987, ISBN 3-7927-0934-1 .
    Partly new edition: Günter Neumann: The Germanic Matronenbeinamen. In: Heinrich Hettrich, Astrid van Nahl (Hrsg.): Name studies on Old Germanic. de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-020100-0 , pp. 253–289 ( reading sample in the Google book search).
  • Sophie Lange: Where goddesses protected the land. Matrones and their places of worship between the Eifel and the Rhine . 2nd Edition. Fuldaer Verlagsanstalt, Fulda 1995, ISBN 3-9802165-4-3 ( sophie-lange.de - popular science publication by a local researcher; comprehensive overview).
  • Ton Derks: Gods, Temples and Ritual Practices. The Transformation of Religious Ideas and Values ​​in Roman Gaul (= Amsterdam Archaeological Studies. Part 2). Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 1998, ISBN 90-5356-254-0 , pp. 119–130: Ancestral mothers, matres and matronae (English; a map of sources on p. 122; page views in Google Book Search).
  • Helmut Birkhan : Celts. Attempt to present an overall picture of their culture . 3. Edition. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-7001-2609-3 , p. 513-525 .
  • Greg D. Woolf: Local cult in imperial context: the Matronae revisited . In: Peter Noelke, Friederike Naumann-Steckner , Beate Schneider (eds.): Romanization and resistance in sculpture, architecture and inscriptions of the provinces of the Roman Empire. New finds and research . Zabern, Mainz 2003, p. 131-138 (English).
  • Miranda Aldhouse-Green: Women and Goddesses in the Celtic World. In: Steven J. Sutcliffe (Ed.): Religion: Empirical Studies. A Collection to Mark the 50th Anniversary of the British Association for the Study of Religions. Ashgate Publishing, Burlington 2004, ISBN 0-7546-4158-9 , pp. 149-164 (English; page views in Google Book Search).
  • Werner Eck : Votive altars in the matron sanctuaries in Lower Germany: Their expressiveness for the forms of "communication between people and gods" . In: Christian Frevel , Henner von Hesberg (ed.): Cult and communication. Media in sanctuaries of antiquity (=  writings of the teaching and research center for the ancient cultures of the Mediterranean ). tape 4 . Reichert, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-89500-574-9 , pp. 415-433 .
  • Alex Gustav Garman: The cult of the Matronae in the Roman Rhineland. An historical evaluation of the archaeological evidence . Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston NY 2008, ISBN 978-0-7734-5224-4 (English, book review ).
  • Wolfgang Spickermann : Religious history of Roman Germania. II: Germania Inferior. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-16-149381-2 .
  • Noemie Beck: Goddesses in Celtic Religion. Université Lumière Lyon 2, Lyon 2009, no page numbers: Chapter 1 - The Matres and Matronae (English; doctoral thesis; online at theses.univ-lyon2.fr).
  • Werner Eck , Dirk Koßmann: Votive altars in the matron shrines in Lower Germany. A reflection of the urban and rural societies of a Roman provincial town . In: Christoph Auffarth (Hrsg.): Religion in the country. Origin and change of sacred landscapes under Roman rule (=  Potsdam contributions to ancient studies ). tape 28 . Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-515-09347-7 , pp. 73-102 .
  • Frank Biller: Cultic centers and matron worship in the southern Germania inferior (=  Osnabrück research on antiquity and reception of antiquity . Volume 13 ). VML Verlag Marie Leidorf, Rahden / Westfalen 2010, ISBN 978-3-89646-734-8 ( book review , detailed summary - doctoral thesis University of Osnabrück 2005).
  • Rudolf Simek : The late Roman iron age cult of the Matronae and related germanic deities. In: Dieter Quast (ed.): Female elites in early history. International conference from June 13th to 14th, 2008 at the RGZM as part of the research focus "Elites". Verlag des Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseums, Mainz 2011, ISBN 978-3-88467-164-1 , pp. 219–227 (English).
  • Peter Honnen : Celts and consorts. A journey through the Rhenish place-name studies. In: Everyday life in the Rhineland. Communications from the Language and Folklore Department of the LVR Institute for Cultural Studies and Regional History (ILR). Bonn 2012, pp. 40–61, here pp. 48–54: Matron names ( PDF file; 8.24 MB; 128 pages ; see the map p. 52: Gods worship in the Rhineland , as of 1950) for the locations of matron representations .

Web links

Commons : Matronae  - collection of images
Wiktionary: Matrone  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Wiktionary: Matronenstein  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Günter Neumann :  Matronen. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 19, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2001, ISBN 3-11-017163-5 , p. 438 ( side view in the Google book search).
  2. ^ Wolfgang Spickermann : Romanization and Romanization using the example of the Germanic provinces of Rome. In: Ralph Häussler (Ed.): Romanisation et épigraphie. Études interdisciplinaires sur l'acculturation et l'identité dans l'Empire romain (= Archéologie et histoire romaine. Volume 17). Editions Monique Mergoil, Montagnac 2008, ISBN 978-2-35518-007-1 , pp. 307-320, here p. 314. Quoted in: Frank Biller: Die Matronenverehrung in the southern Germania inferior. In: Portal Rhenish History. Landschaftsverband Rheinland (LVR), October 1, 2012, accessed on April 10, 2014 (Biller wrote his doctoral thesis on the subject in 2005): “According to recent counts, around 1,600 dedications have come from the area of ​​the former Lower Germanic province. A little more than half of them turned to the matrons [2]. "
  3. ↑ CIL 13, 7681
  4. ↑ Permanent exhibition: Matron cult in Roman Germania. University of Marburg, Religious Studies Collection, December 8, 2010, accessed April 10, 2014 .