Ritona

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Ritona, also known as Pritona, is a Celtic goddess chiefly venerated in the land of the Treveri in what is now Germany. Her cult is attested at Pachten and at Trier, where she "had a carefully built little temple" in the Altbachtal complex (Wightman, p.217).[1] At Pachten her temple also had a theatre, presumably dedicated to performances of a religious nature.[1] A single inscription (CIL XII:02927) also honours her at Uzès in southern France.[2]

Her name, related to the same root as Welsh rhyd ‘ford’, suggests that she was a goddess of fords.[3] The variant ‘Pritona’ is directly attested twice: on the goddess's only inscription at Pachten (PRITONAE DIVINAE SIVE CA[...]IONI, AE 1959:00076) and in conjunction with ‘Ritona’ on an inscription from Trier (DEA RITONA PRITONA, AE 1928:00185). ‘Pritona’ is also restored in a further, more fragmentary inscription from Trier (RITO/[NAE] SIVE EX IU[SSU PR]/ITONI[AE?], AE 1989:00547).[2]

Lothar Schwinden characterizes her as a mother goddess on the basis of the statue of a seated goddess found at Pachten, which he connects with the well-known local type of seated mother goddesses with dogs or babies on their laps (cf. Aveta).[4]

The Pachten inscription specifies that the goddess was invoked by an individual "for the well-being of the townsfolk of Contiomagium" (PRO SALVTE / [V]IKANORVM CONTI/OMAGIENSIVM). On two of the inscriptions from Trier, Ritona is invoked in conjunction either with the numines of the Augusti (see imperial cult) or in honour of the divine house (the imperial family).[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Edith Mary Wightman (1970). Roman Trier and the Treveri. Rupert Hart-Davis, London.
  2. ^ a b c Retrieved from the Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss / Slaby on 29 March 2008.
  3. ^ Miranda Green (1997). Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend. Thames and Hudson Ltd. London.
  4. ^ Lothar Schwinden. "Muttergöttin der Treverer: Ritona". In Sabine Faust et al. (1996) Religio Romana: Wege zu den Göttern im antiken Trier. Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier.
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