Matronae Renahenae

The Renahenae are matrons that have been handed down through two dedicatory inscriptions from Bonn and from an unknown site from the 2nd century.

Discovery and Inscription

During sewer work on Bonner Strasse in 1944 on the slope of Dransdorfer Berg at the fork in “Dransdorfer Weg” and “Auf dem Hügel” road, the votive stone was found during excavation. The original site was presumably higher up and the stone slipped into the clay on the slope over time. The stone, made of light brown sandstone, has the dimensions 46 × 25 × 12.5 cm, it has a simple design between the clearly separated surrounding plinth and cornice, the inscription panel is integrated, above the plinth there is a poorly preserved gable and side volutes in the same condition. The stone is in the depot of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn (inv. No. 44, 280) and is dated to the second half of the 2nd century at the earliest.

The six lines of the inscription are clearly legible, only lines two and three are disturbed on the left by material eruptions, but can be added without any problems. In the 1st line the graphs TR and NI are executed with a ligature and also the I as I longa in the Haste of the N, the HE is also ligated in the 2nd line.

"Matronis / [R] enahena / [b] us P (ublius) M () / Crescens / ex imp (erio) ip (sarum) / pr (o) s (e) l (ibens) m (erito)"

The “ex imperio” formula identifies the inscription as a revelation inscription , as the founder believed that the consecration would be carried out at the behest of the matrons.

The second fragmented inscription comes from the old holdings of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum for which no information about the place of discovery or the circumstances of the find is recorded.

"Matro [nis] Renahe [nabus?]"

Epithet and interpretation

The transparent epithet is one of the "Rhine names" of the inscription corpus , to Celtic Rēnus with the suffix -henae , that characterizes a large group of matron names that are derived from a place or river name from the area around the find or original installation site. In relation to the quantitatively central location of the Aufan matrons ( Matronae Aufaniae ) under the Bonn Minster, about 3 km away, these distinctive descriptions are evident in the local and regional matron cult of Germania inferior. The name is to be understood as the "Rheinische Matronen" or "Rhine goddesses".

literature

Ernst Alfred Philippson : News about the mother and matron cult on the Lower Rhine. In: Modern Language Notes 65, 7 (1950), pp. 462-465.
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. 267-271, 345-346.

Web links

Remarks

^ Herbert Nesselhauf, Hans Liebs: Third Supplement to CIL XIII. Inscriptions from the Germanic provinces and the Treverer area. In: BRGK 40, 1959, No. 200.
↑ CIL 13, 8810

[1] Herbert Nesselhauf, Hans Liebs: Third Supplement to CIL XIII. Inscriptions from the Germanic provinces and the Treverer area. In: BRGK 40, 1959, No. 200.

[2] CIL 13, 8810