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Nehalennia

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This article is about the goddess Nehalennia. For other uses, see Nehalennia (disambiguation).
An altar for Nehalennia in Domburg, Netherlands. On her right is a dog and in her hands a basket of apples.

Nehalennia (also Nehalenia, Nehalaenniae, Nehalaenia) is a tutelary goddess who was worshipped in 2nd- and 3rd-century[1] Gallia Belgica by travelers, especially sailors and traders, at the mouth of the Scheldt. Her origin is unclear, perhaps Germanic or Celtic. She is attested on and depicted upon numerous votive altars discovered around what is now the province of Zeeland, the Netherlands, where the Schelde River flowed into the North Sea. Worship of Nehalennia dates back at least to the 2nd century BC and veneration of the goddess continued to flourish in northwestern Europe in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.

Name

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While the meaning of the name Nehalennia remains disputed, linguists agree that its origin is not Latin. Given the locations where most references and artifacts have been found, her name is likely from either a Germanic or Celtic language. Gutenbrunner (1936) related it to Proto-Germanic *nehwa "close", but could not explain the rest of the name. Gysseling (1960) believed that the name was neither Celtic nor Germanic, rather stemming from the Proto-Indo-European root *neiH- "to lead". He could not trace the rest of the name. De Stempel (2004) links her name with Welsh halein "salt" and heli "sea", proposing a Celtic origin. She deconstructs the name as a combination of Celtic *halen– "sea" and *ne- "on, at". Finally, *-ja is a suffix forming a feminine noun. The meaning would be "she who is at the sea".[2]

Worship

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Much about the worship of Nehalennia remains a mystery. Given her attributes (horn of plenty, apples), she was probably originally a fertility goddess. Around the year 200 CE, the time from which her altars and statues date, Nehalennia was mainly worshipped as the protector of travellers and traders in the North Sea area.[3]

The worship of Nehalennia was concentrated in temples in Ganventa (north of Colijnsplaat) and Domburg. The temple in Ganventa was dedicated exclusively to the goddess, while other (Roman) gods were also worshipped in Domburg. Statues of the supreme god Jupiter, Neptune and the goddess Victoria have been found there (Domburg).

The cult of Nehalennia took on at least two forms. Food offerings by worshippers appear to have been made at the temple of the goddess, as suggested by details on the side of one of the altars. The most distinctive feature of the cult, however, was the practice of vowing to dedicate an altar to the goddess if she granted the worshipper's request. These vowed altars provide valuable insight into both the name and the worship of the goddess. Many of them include the donor’s name, and occasionally also mention his profession and place of origin. The inscriptions typically conclude with the standard formula V.S.L.M., an abbreviation of "Votum solvit libens merito" —meaning 'He has fulfilled his vow, willingly and deservedly.'

Other indigenous deities that were locally venerated at that time are: Burorina, Hludana, Hurstrga, Sandraudiga, Seneucaega, Vagdavercustis and Viradecdis.

Inscriptions

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Drawings of 2 more altars dedicated to Nehalennia

Nehalennia is attested on 28 inscriptions discovered in 1645 in the Dutch town of Domburg on the Zeeland coast, when a storm eroded dunes. The remains of a temple were revealed that was devoted to the previously unattested goddess Nehalennia.[4] Beginning in 1970, numerous altars, remains of female sculptures and related artifacts were found near in the town of Colijnsplaat, including roof tiles and remains of the temple devoted to Nehalennia that was in a former town, now lost. Two other temple remains have been found in the Cologne-Deutz area of what is now Cologne, Germany.[5]

Dutch archaeologist J.E. Bogaers and Belgian linguist Maurits Gysseling, in their joint publication Over de naam van de godin Nehalennia ("On the name of the goddess Nehalennia"), listed several different forms of the name that appear in inscriptions. While Nehalennia is by far the most common spelling, Nehalenia and Nehalaennia both appear a few times. Gysseling characterizes these two forms as Latinisations of the more archaic Nehalennia. Several sporadic spellings, which are attested once each, were considered by Bogaers as non-standard or rejected as misread, due to the poor state of some of the inscriptions. Gysseling holds that some spellings are a transliteration, an attempt to approximate the pronunciation of her name in Latin script, suggesting that the "h" may have been pronounced as some German ch sound.[6] One of the numerous altars dredged up from the Oosterschelde near Colijnsplaat in 1970 features the spelling Nechalenia. It appears that spellings with 𐌝 are intentional and not due to damaged artifacts.[7][8][9]

The Domburg inscriptions to Nehalennia inspired Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn to produce a hasty etymology linking the name Nehalennia to an ancient Scythian.[10] With the linguistic tools then available, Van Boxhorn attempted to bridge the already-known connections between European languages and modern Persian.[11]

Her cult is almost certainly older than the period from which the altars originate.

A part of the enormous collection is on display in the National Museum of Antiquities (Netherlands).

Depictions

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Nehalennia is almost always depicted with marine symbols and a large, benign-looking dog at her feet.[12][13] She must have been a Celtic or Germanic deity who was attributed power over trading, shipping, and possible horticulture and fertility. In sculptures and reliefs, she is depicted as a young woman, generally seated. Typically she wears a short cloak over her shoulders and chest. This garment is unique to her and therefore might have belonged to the costumes usual at that period in this region. Often she is accompanied by a dog; she has as attributes a basket of apples or bread loaves and ship parts.[14] Hilda Ellis Davidson describes the votive objects:

Nehalennia, a Germanic goddess worshipped at the point where travellers crossed the North Sea from the Netherlands, is shown on many carved stones holding loaves and apples like a Mother Goddess, sometimes with a prow of a ship beside her, but also frequently with an attendant dog which sits looking up at her (Plate 5). This dog is on thirteen of the twenty-one altars recorded by Ada Hondius-Crone (1955:103), who describes it as a kind of greyhound.[15]

Davidson further links the motif of the ship associated with Nehalennia with the Germanic Vanir pair of Freyr and Freyja as well as the Germanic goddess Nerthus. She notes that Nehalennia features some of the same attributes as the Matres.[16]

Relief of a seated Nehalennia between a dog and a basket of loaves

However, in Indo-European mythology, a dog has often been given the grim role of hellhound and guardian of the underworld. In Roman sources, the wild North Sea was described on one occasion as "infested with dogs".[17] Apples in European mythology repeatedly refer to otherworldly places such as the apple-growing land of Avalon and the garden of Hesperides. And the fruit basket is a derivation of the cornucopia.

The loaves that Nehalennia is depicted with on her altars have been identified as duivekater, "oblong sacrificial loaves in the shape of a shin bone". Davidson says that loaves of this type may take the place of an animal sacrifice or animal victim, such as the boar-shaped loaf baked at Yule in Sweden. In Värmland, Sweden, "within living memory," there was a custom of grain from the last sheaf of the harvest customarily being used to bake a loaf in the shape of a little girl; this is subsequently shared by the whole household. Davidson provides further examples of elaborate harvest loaves in the shape of sheaves, and displayed in churches for the fertility of fields in Anglo-Saxon England, with parallels in Scandinavia and Ireland.[18]

The way Nehalennia is depicted shows similarities with that of the Matronae, the name the Romans gave to goddesses who, alone or in threes, were already worshipped by the Celts before they came to the Netherlands. They were often depicted in pipe clay, with dogs, as if to accompany her. Graves with a dog skull as a grave gift have been found in Tongeren, which could indicate a role of the dog in the cult of the Matronae. Attributes of these goddesses are very often animals, fruits and horns of plenty. This type of regional goddess was usually depicted as a woman sitting on a throne. They were supposed to protect home and hearth, but also entire tribes or peoples.

A depiction of an enthroned goddess with children at her breast, with lap dogs, or with baskets of fruit [19] is characterized by Lothar Schwinden as a mother goddess (like the Gallo-Roman version of the Celtic Aveta).[20]


In 2005, a replica of the temple was built in Colijnsplaat. The design of temple and its sculpture is based on the finds from the nearby area, as well as archaeological study of the type of sanctuaries in the Roman provinces of Gaul and Germania. For the reconstruction, authentic materials and techniques were used as much as possible.[21]

Attributes of Nehalennia

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The images stereotypically show a number of symbols in various combinations or other selections:

  • Shell roof of the altar niche: typical for altars of Germanic-Celtic Matronen (Mother Goddesses) and Roman gods.[22]
  • Dog: probably a reference to the vigilance and fidelity of the goddess
  • Fruits (especially apples): not exclusive to this goddess, in a bowl on her lap, a basket at her feet, sides of altars and on top as on an offering table.
  • Cornucopia: on the side of a number of altars, but sometimes also in the left hand.
  • Ship's rudder on the right side, or on a side of an altar. The rudder is sometimes combined with a globe, together the symbols of Fortuna.
  • Positioned with foot on a ship (taken from Neptune), indicates that she was seen as the ruler of shipping.
  • Draped cloth on the back of an altar: (at 4 in Domburg, 13 at Collijnsplaat plus a statue). Function unknown, but not a coincidence.
  • Offering table on the side flank of and on top of the altars: with lion(ess?) paws on it, bread, fruit,[23] a pig's head, saucepan, vase, knife, on the ground a jug, a wooden bucket with a raised handle.
  • Flower garlands: on the frame of the image, which represents a temple in miniature, as it were.

Clothing

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The clothing with which this goddess is depicted is very specific and consists of three parts:

  • Long robe reaching to the feet,
  • over that a slightly shorter cloak,
  • and on that cloak a shoulder cape is attached, a Pelerine. This is unique, there is not a single other deity that wears this garment. It is concluded that it was also worn by women in the country of Nehalennia itself.


Temples

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Illustration of the discovery of a Nehalennia temple in 1645 in Domburg, Netherlands, by A.C. Bonn, 1805

Religious practices surrounding Nehalennia were at their peak in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, at which time there were at least two or three temples located in the area of what is now Zeeland. At the time, this region on the sea coast was an important link for the trade between the Rhine area and Britain. It is known that the Morini, who lived on the North Sea coast, worshipped Nehalennia.[12] Visitors came to worship from as far away as Besançon, France and Trier, Germany.[12] Nehalennia had two sanctuaries or shrines, embellished with numerous altars: one at Domburg on the island of Walcheren, and another at Colijnsplaat on the shore of the Oosterschelde.[12]

In August 2005, a replica of the Nehalennia temple near the lost town of Ganuenta was opened in Colijnsplaat.[24]


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  • In 1960, an asteroid, Asteroid 2462 or 6578 P-L, was named after the goddess.
  • The name of the goddess was used in the Japanese manga Sailor Moon and its anime adaptations as the name of an enemy, though the character only bears a superficial resemblance to her namesake. Queen Nehel(l)enia is the leader of the enemy group called the Dead Moon Circus and in the manga and Crystal is a dark counterpart to Queen Serenity and an embodiment of Chaos. In the 90s anime, she is obsessed with eternal youth and beauty and devouring dreams, especially those of children.
  • Dutch band Heidevolk wrote a song about Nehalennia that is included on their 2010 album Uit oude grond.[25]
  • Dutch band Twigs & Twine call upon Nehalennia in one of the songs on their 2019 album Long Story Short.[26]
  • Nehalennia was a magazine dedicated to the study of Western antiquity and its aftermath.
  • The name of the Middelburg public school community was changed to Nehalennia in 1997.
  • In Domburg, in addition to the Nehalenniaweg, you can also find Hotel Nehalennia.[27]
  • A viaduct over Rijksweg 11 near Alphen aan den Rijn bears the name Nehalennia.
  • The scientific name of the dragonfly genus dwarf damselfies is Nehalennia.
  • The prehistoric fin whale Nehalaennia devossi is named after the goddess Nehalennia.[28]
  • In Archeon, the archaeological theme park in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Gallo-Roman temple contains a statue of Nehalennia where a sacrifice to Nehalennia is made daily through a small performance.
  • The Zeeland association Nehalennia was a association within the Rotterdam student association SSR-R.

The name of the work island Neeltje Jans of the Oosterscheldekering, part of the delta works, is sometimes associated with Nehalennia. The working island owes its name to a sandbank, which was given this name after the ship Neeltje Jans ran aground there in the eighteenth century.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Lendering (2006).
  2. ^ Het raadsel van Nehalennia ontrafeld (in Dutch), Nemo Kennislink
  3. ^ Rijksmuseum van Oudheden
  4. ^ Cornelis Dekke, The Origins of Old Germanic Studies in the Low Countries, :209.
  5. ^ Simek (2007:228-229).
  6. ^ Bogaers, Julianus Egidius Alphonsus Theresia; Gysseling, Maurits (1972). "Over de naam van de godin Nehalennia" [On the name of the goddess Nehalennia]. Naamkunde (in Dutch). 4 (3–4). Radboud University Nijmegen: 221–230. hdl:2066/26329.
  7. ^ Gunivortus Goos, Die Rückkehr der Göttin Nehalennia, p. 137
  8. ^ Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, object i 2017/7.2 and its description as well as object i 1970/12.33
  9. ^ P. Stuart & J.E. Bogaers, Nehalennia: Römische Steindenkmäler aus der Oosterschelde bei Colijnsplaat, p. 104–106
  10. ^ Boxhorn, Bediedinge van... Nehalennia, Leiden 1647, and further texts, noted by Cornelis Dekker, The Origins of Old Germanic Studies in the Low Countries 2007:209.
  11. ^ Boxhorn, Des mots perses enregistrées par Quinte Curce et de leur parenté avec des termes germaniques, noted in Daniel Droixhe, Souvenirs de Babel. La reconstruction de l'histoire des langues de la Renaissance aux Lumières Brussels 2007:59.
  12. ^ a b c d Green (1998:200-201).
  13. ^ Green (1992:5).
  14. ^ Pree, Ko de. "Nehalenniatempel - Romeins verleden herleeft in Zeeland". www.nehalennia-tempel.nl.
  15. ^ Davidson (1998:112 & Plate 5).
  16. ^ Davidson (1998:112 and 134).
  17. ^ ALBINOVANUS PEDO, quoted by Seneca in Suasoriae (i. 15), compares the fury of the sea during the storm that struck Germanicus in the North Sea (16 AD) with that of "the dogs of the sea".
  18. ^ Davidson (1998:134).
  19. ^ Miranda Green. "The Celtic Goddess as Healer." In Sandra Billington (ed). 1996. The Concept of the Goddess. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-14421-6.
  20. ^ Lothar Schwinden. "Muttergöttin der Treverer: Ritona". In Sabine Faust et al. (1996) Religio Romana: Wege zu den Göttern im antiken Trier. Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier.
  21. ^ Pree, Ko de. "Nehalenniatempel - Ontwerp tempel". www.nehalenniatempel.nl.
  22. ^ Dr. Marion Euskirchen, Römisch-Germanisches Museum, Cologne
  23. ^ J.H.F. Bloemers, L.P.J. Louwe Kooijmans & H. Sarfatij, Verleden land, Meulenhoff, 1981, p. 104
  24. ^ Van der Velde (2005:8–9).
  25. ^ "Nehalennia". Spotify.
  26. ^ "Nehalennia". Spotify.
  27. ^ "Hotel Nehalennia".
  28. ^ "Weer een nieuwe soort whale uit de Westerschelde: Nehalaennia devossi".

References

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Further reading

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