Artio
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In Gallo-Roman religion, Artio was a goddess of the bear, and was worshipped at Berne, which actually means "bear".
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[edit] Representations
A bronze sculpture from Muri, near Berne in Switzerland shows a large bear facing a woman seated in a chair, with a small tree behind the bear. The woman seems to hold fruit in her lap, perhaps feeding the bear. (Deyts p.48, Green pp.217-218). The sculpture has a large rectangular bronze base, which bears an inscription.
[edit] Inscriptions
The Muri sculpture has the inscription (CIL 13, 05160)
- Deae Artioni / Licinia Sabinilla
To the Goddess Artio (or Artionis), from Licinia Sabinilla. If the name is Gaulish but the syntax is Latin, a dative Artioni would give an i-stem nominative *Artionis or an n-stem nominative *Artio. That would perhap produce a Gaulish *Artiu.
Another inscription from Trier (Wightman p.217, CIL 13, 04113) also refers to Artio.
[edit] Etymology
Her name is derived from the Gaulish word artos, bear (Delamarre 2003 p. 55-56). Other Celtic languages have similar words, such as Old Irish art, Welsh arth - which may also be the source for the modern name Arthur.
[edit] References
- Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL) vol XIII, The Gauls and Germanies.
- Delamarre, X. (2003). Dictionnaire de la Langue Gauloise (2nd ed.). Paris: Editions Errance. ISBN 2-87772-237-6
- Deyts, Simone (1992) Images des Dieux de la Gaule. Paris, Editions Errance. ISBN 2-87772-067-5.
- Green, Miranda (1992) Animals in Celtic Life and Myth. London, Routledge. ISBN 0-415-18588-2
- Wightman, E.M. (1970) Roman Trier and the Treveri London, Hart-Davis. ISBN 0-246-63980-6
