Nehalennia

Pond relief of Nehalennia from Domburg

Map section of Domburg with the Nehalennia Temple after Nicolaes Visscher I from 1655

Votive stone of Nehalennia recovered from an aedicule from the Oosterschelde. Leiden, Rijksmuseum van Oudheden Inv. i 1970 / 12.3, on loan from the Zeeuws Museum Middelburg

Nehalennia is a Germanic goddess who was worshiped by Roman, Celtic and Germanic inhabitants in the area of the Dutch Scheldt estuary in the second and third centuries .

history

Nehalennia became known through representations on about 25 votive stones , which were found in 1647 near Domburg on the Walcheren peninsula . About 25 km north of Domburg, over 100 votive offerings in the form of statues and statuettes and consecration stones of the goddess were recovered from the Oosterschelde near the town of Colijnsplaat after 1970 . A temple had stood at both sites. On the pictorial monuments, Nehalennia can be found sitting or standing. The representation corresponds to that of the mother goddesses ( matrons ) in the Rhineland. In contrast to these she wears a cape and has a dog with him. Occasionally she is shown as a figurehead on the bow of ships, but was also shown with a fruit basket. Two of the consecration stones contain inscriptions from which it can be seen that it was merchants and traders in England who had set up the stones. The inscriptions are in Latin. Many of the dedicants are Roman citizens. The Decurio Q. Phoebius Hilarus from Nijmegen donated an altar before the start of a journey ( pro mercibus bene conservandis ) and one after the return ( pro merces suas bene conservatas ). There are also Celtic and Germanic names. The temple operation can be dated to the period between 188 and 227 through dates in some inscriptions.

Background and identification with other deities

Nehalennia is interpreted as a goddess of fertility and shipping. Ellmers considers her to be an "undoubtedly Germanic" goddess of shipping. A part of the science assumes that it is a Germanic deity and interprets the name as "who has the water near", that is, who lives on the bank. The name is probably connected with fog (idg. Nebh - wetness, moisture; hel - conceal, conceal). The second part of the name -lennia could be related to Gothic linnan (to disappear, to go away). Nehalennia would therefore mean "the one disappearing in the mist".

Furthermore, Nehalennia, who is often depicted with a cloak and a dog or wolf, also seems to have been the goddess of the underworld. There are therefore connections to the Nordic goddess of the dead Hel (see also Niflhel ) and to the German figure of Frau Holle .

The earlier proposal to identify Nehalennia with Isis , who was worshiped by the Suebi after Tacitus , is no longer pursued today.

Nehalennia sculpture in Domburg

Museums

The reliefs from Domburg were housed in the reformed church of Domburg, where a large part was destroyed in a fire in 1848. The rescued old finds are now in the Zeeuws Museum in Middelburg . The finds from 1970 are now in the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden . The Maritime Museum is located in Zierikzee , and a small exhibition is dedicated to the goddess Nehalennia. Five votive altars that were fished from the Oosterschelde in 1970 are on display. The model of a temple dedicated to Nehalennia can also be seen. A full-size replica of such a Roman temple was built in Colijnsplaat in the harbor area.

literature

Max Him : Nehalennia . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 3.1, Leipzig 1902, Col. 76-86 ( digitized version ).
Fritz Heichelheim : Nehalennia. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XVI, 2, Stuttgart 1935, Col. 2177-2182.
Ada Hondius-Crone: The Temple of Nehalennia at Domburg. Amsterdam 1955.
BH Stolte : The religious conditions in Lower Germany. In: Wolfgang Haase (Hrsg.): Rise and decline of the Roman world . Vol. II 18, 1 Religion (Paganism: The Religious Conditions in the Provinces) , de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1986, ISBN 3-11-010050-9 , pp. 591–671.
Didier Martens: Nehalennia . In: Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). Volume 000006VI, Zurich / Munich 1992, pp. 716-719.
Wolfgang Spickermann : Nehalennia. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 8, Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-476-01478-9 , Col. 786 f. ( Brill Online , accessed April 11, 2015)
Petrus J. Stuart, JE Bogaers : Nehalennia. Roman stone monuments from the Oosterschelde near Colijnsplaat (= Collections of The National Museum of Antiquities at Leiden. Vol. 11). Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden 2001, ISBN 90-6255-046-0 .
Günter Neumann , Petrus J. Stuart: Nehalennia. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 21, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2002, ISBN 3-11-017272-0 , pp. 61-65.
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. 280-281.

Web links

Commons : Nehalennia - collection of images, videos and audio files

Jona Lendering: Nehalennia . In: Livius.org (English)
Homepage: Nehalennia Temple: Zeuuws-Romeins verleden herleeft. In: nehalennia-tempel.nl. Stichting monument Nehalennia, accessed on August 28, 2013 (Dutch, 2005–2013).
Nehalennia relief in the Zeeuws Museum in Middelburg
Inscriptions in the Heidelberg Epigraphic Database
Entries in the FERCAN project: "Celtic god names in the inscriptions of the Roman province Germania Inferior"

Individual evidence

↑ CIL 13, 8788 . Today partially destroyed in the Zeeuws Museum Middelburg Inv. G 3224, illustration after JF Janssen: De Romeinsche Beelden en Gedenksteenen van Zeeland. Leiden 1845, Pl. 14, 26a.
^ AE 1973, 363 .
↑ AE 1975, 630 .
↑ AE 1975, 646 .
^ P. Stuart: Nehalennia. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 21, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2002, ISBN 3-11-017272-0 , pp. 64-65.
↑ Detlev Ellmers : The archaeological sources for the Germanic religious history . In: Heinrich Beck, Detlev Ellmers, Kurt Schier (eds.): Germanische Religionsgeschichte - Sources and source problems (= supplementary volumes to the Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde ). tape 5 . Berlin 1992, p. 95–117, here p. 105 .
↑ Tacitus, Germania chap. 9.
^ Günter Neumann : Nehalennia. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 21, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2002, ISBN 3-11-017272-0 , pp. 61-64. Here: p. 62.

[1] CIL 13, 8788 . Today partially destroyed in the Zeeuws Museum Middelburg Inv. G 3224, illustration after JF Janssen: De Romeinsche Beelden en Gedenksteenen van Zeeland. Leiden 1845, Pl. 14, 26a.

[2] AE 1973, 363 .

[3] AE 1975, 630 .

[4] AE 1975, 646 .

[stuart-5] P. Stuart: Nehalennia. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 21, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2002, ISBN 3-11-017272-0 , pp. 64-65.

[elmers-6] Detlev Ellmers : The archaeological sources for the Germanic religious history . In: Heinrich Beck, Detlev Ellmers, Kurt Schier (eds.): Germanische Religionsgeschichte - Sources and source problems (= supplementary volumes to the Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde ). tape 5 . Berlin 1992, p. 95–117, here p. 105 .

[7] Tacitus, Germania chap. 9.

[neumann-8] Günter Neumann : Nehalennia. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 21, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2002, ISBN 3-11-017272-0 , pp. 61-64. Here: p. 62.