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Arduinna

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In Gallo-Roman religion, Arduinna (also Arduina, Arduinnae or Arduinne) was the eponymous tutelary goddess of the Ardennes Forest and region, thought to be represented as a huntress riding a boar (primarily in the present-day regions of Belgium and Luxembourg). Her cult originated in the Ardennes region of present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. She was identified with the Roman goddess Diana.

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Depictions

In The Gods of the Celts, Miranda Green states that some depictions of Arduinna show her riding a boar. However, Simone Deyts notes that the bronze Gallo-Roman statue of a woman in a short belted tunic, riding a boar sidesaddle and holding a knife, conserved in the Musée des antiquités nationales, St-Germain-en-Laye, bears no inscription, and was simply assumed to be Arduinna by the 19th century antiquarian who discovered it—perhaps because the modern symbol of the Ardennes region is also a boar. Another such bronze, from the collection of Richard Payne Knight, has been in the British Museum since 1824; it is traditionally identified as "Diana". Both bronze statuettes are now headless.

Inscriptions

Arduinna is directly attested from two inscriptions:

  • Düren, Germany: deae Ardbinnae (CIL XIII, 07848; the object in question is an altar)
  • Rome, Italy: Arduinne (CIL VI, 00046; this is an inscribed relief, on which the name Arduinne has also been read as Saturno)
  • Etymology

    The name Arduinna derives from the Gaulish arduo- meaning height. It is also found in several placenames, such as the Ardennes Woods (Arduenna silva) and the Forest of Arden in England, in personal names Arduunus and Arda — the latter from coinage of the Treveri — and the Galatian Αρδή. The name Arduenna silva for "wooded heights" was applied to several forested mountains, not just the modern Ardennes: it is found in the départements of Haute-Loire and Puy-de-Dôme and in the French commune of Alleuze.

    It has also been suggested that the gemination -nn- is typical to a language of the Belgae, being different from Celtic and thus suggesting a Nordwestblock etymology, which, generally speaking, is also assumed to be closer to Germanic.

    References

    Arduinna Wikipedia


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