Ancamna
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In Gallo-Roman religion, Ancamna was a water goddess worshipped particularly in the valley of the Moselle River. She was commemorated at Trier as the consort of Mars Lenus, and at Möhn as the consort of Mars Smertulitanos. [1]
Inciona is also apparently invoked along with Lenus Mars Veraudunus on a bronze ex voto from Luxembourg;[2] it is unclear what connection, if any, exists between Inciona and Ancamna. Jufer and Luginbühl link Ancamna with two other consorts of the Gaulish Mars, Litavis and Nemetona, noting that none of these appear to be warrior goddesses themselves; instead, they suggest that Ancamna might have been associated with a spring.[1]
The name Ancamna may be derived from the Proto-Celtic *anko-abonā, denoting ‘crooked river.’[3] The name *ank-ab(o)nā presumably developed into Gaulish *Ankabna, being transcribed in Latin letters as Ancamna. This apparent semantic connotation has led Dr. John Koch at the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies to suggest that this personality may personify “meandering freshwater flow”.[citation needed] This theory, if it is correct, may imply a parallel between Ancamna and such beings as Nantosuelta, which may be another name for the same personified aspect of nature.
[edit] Works cited
- ^ a b Nicole Jufer & Thierry Luginbühl. 2001. Les dieux gaulois : répertoire des noms de divinités celtiques connus par l'épigraphie, les textes antiques et la toponymie. Editions Errance, Paris. pp.14, 21. (French)
- ^ Musée d'histoire et d'art, Luxembourg. 1974. Pierres sculptées et inscriptions de l'époque romaine, catalogued by Eugénie Wilhelm, p.71. (French)
- ^ Reconstructed Proto-Celtic—English lexis as collated by the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies.
[edit] Further reading
- Ellis, Peter Berresford, Dictionary of Celtic Mythology(Oxford Paperback Reference), Oxford University Press, (1994): ISBN 0-19-508961-8
- MacKillop, James. Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-19-280120-1.
- Wood, Juliette, The Celts: Life, Myth, and Art, Thorsons Publishers (2002): ISBN 0-00-764059-5
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