Vihansa

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Vihansa is a Germanic goddess who is only attested by an inscription from the 3rd century found near Tongers . According to the Germanic name, she is a goddess of war.

Discovery and Inscription

The inscription can be found on a simple bronze tabula ansata (approx. 14 × 5 cm) which is equipped with two lateral fastening holes. It was excavated in a thicket north of Tongern in the Limburg town of Sint-Huibrechts-Hern in 1855 . The first scientific description with facsimile was made in 1858. The panel is now in the depot of the Royal Museums for Art and History in Brussels .

"Vihansae / Q (uintus) Catius Libo Nepos / centurio leg (ionis) III / Cyrenaicae scu / tum et lanceam d (onum) d (edit)"

“The [goddess] Vihnasa consecrates Quintus Catius Libo Nepos, Centurion III. Legion Cyrenaica his shield and spear "

The founder of the tabula is suspected to be a tunger veteran due to comparable regional votive inscriptions. In the earlier research was published in Roman epithet Libo a Latinized short form ( nickname ) of the Germanic personal name Liffo seen. Hermann Reichert rates Libo as a well-documented Latin name for Roman soldiers.

Name and interpretation

The origin of the name of the goddess from Germanic is etymologically deduced from the two-part form. The first link Vih- becomes Germanic * wīga- = to fight or to * wiha- = holy , as compared with the Gothic word weihs = holy . The second link becomes Germanic * ansu = god , here goddess . Günter Neumann sees a transformation to the Latin feminine through the inscription context - a .

Is interpreted Vihansa as a goddess of war, as suggested by the votive inscription and the etymology of the name. The place where the inscription was found in the settlement area of ​​the Tungrians means that Harimella, the goddess of war, and Hariasa from Cologne can be associated with Vihansa . The Vihansa also belongs to the inscribed group of Germanic (war) goddesses and deities of the northwestern provinces of Gallia Belgica , Germania inferior .

See also

literature

  • Siegfried Gutenbrunner : The Germanic god names of the ancient inscriptions. Niemeyer, Halle / S. 1936, pp. 101-102.
  • Karl Helm : Old Germanic history of religion . Volume 1, Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 1913, p. 376.
  • Günter Neumann : Germani cisrhenani - the statement of the names . In: Heinrich Beck (Hrsg.): Germanic Problems in Today's View , de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2nd edition with a foreword 1999, ISBN 978-3-11-080031-9 , pp. 107–129.
  • Rudolf Simek : Lexicon of Germanic Mythology (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 368). 3rd, completely revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-520-36803-X , p. 469.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ CP Serrure: De godin Vihansa. In: Vaderlandsch museum voor Nederduitsche letterkunde, oudheid en geschiedenis (Tweede deel). C. Annoot-Braeckman, Gent 1858, pp. 101-104. ( Digitized version )
  2. ↑ CIL 13, 3592
  3. ↑ CIL 13, 8783 Father of Dacinus, Dedicant of the goddess Nehalennia
  4. ^ Hermann Reichert: Lexicon of Old Germanic Names. Volume I, text volume. (= Thesaurus Palaeogermanicus 1,1) Verlag der ÖAW, Vienna 1987, ISBN 978-3-7001-0931-0 , p. 469.
    Andreas Kokoschke: The personal names     in the two Germanic provinces. Volume 2.1: The Cognomen. Publishing house Marie Leidorf, Rahden / Westf. 2007, ISBN 978-3-89646-033-2 , CN 1732 p. 463, CN 1740 p. 465.
  5. ↑ Siegfried Gutenbrunner: Germanic Göttnamen the ancient inscriptions, S. 101-102.
  6. ↑ Alfred Bammesberger : ansiz Gothic and proto-Germanic * ans (u). In: Contributions to name research 31, 1999, pp. 231–240 here 234ff. P. 236 Note 20.