Ataegina Explained

Ataegina (Spanish; Castilian: Ataecina; Portuguese: Atégina)[1] was a goddess worshipped by the ancient Iberians, Lusitanians, and Celtiberians of the Iberian Peninsula. She is believed to have ruled the underworld.

Names

The deity's name is variously attested as Ataegina, Ataecina, Adaecina and Adaegina,[2] among other spellings.[3] [4] Her name appears in conjunction to a place named Turibriga or Turobriga (see below).[5]

Etymology

Celtic hypothesis

The name Ataegina is most commonly derived from a Celtic source: according to Cristina Maria Grilo Lopes and Juan Olivares Pedreño, French scholar D'Arbois de Jubainville and Portuguese scholar José Leite de Vasconcelos interpreted her name as a compound from *ate- 'repetition, re-' *-genos '(to be) born'. Thus, her name would mean 'The Reborn One' ("renascida", in the original).[6] [7] [8]

Others propose a connection to the domain of nocturnal or underworld deities: tentatively saw a connection with Irish adaig 'night', which may indicate a relation to the underworld.[9] Similarly, in a 1998 article, Eugenio Luján, based on the epigraphic evidence available until then, supposed that Adaecina is the original spelling of her name, and related it to Irish adaig, and both deriving from a Proto-Celtic *adakī. This form would account for both words, but Luján refrained from offering a definitive etymology.[10]

Italian linguist Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel argues for a Celtic etymology, from *atakī ('night'), from an earlier *at-ak-ī ('interval'). Thus, de Bernardo proposes, her name means "the one of the night".[11] In a later article, she describes Ataecina as "the goddess of the nighttime", and derives her name from *Atakī-nā 'the divine (night)time'.[12]

Other hypotheses

That said, her presence in decidedly non-Indo-European Iberian regions suggest that she may have an older, indigenous origin, in which case her name's etymology is more likely Iberian, Aquitanian or Tartessian.[13]

In his late 19th-century study, José Leite de Vasconcelos, while proposing a Celtic reading of her name, also supposed her origins as a Celticized indigenous deity.[14] Spanish historian supported the idea of Ataegina's indigenous character, while remarking that a Celtic interpretation of her name as 'reborn' is "inviable", and that her connection to Irish 'night' is "difficult".[15]

Centers of worship

Ataegina was worshipped in Lusitania and Betica; there were also sanctuaries dedicated to Ataegina in Elvas (Portugal), and Mérida and Cáceres in Spain, along with other places, especially near the Guadiana river. She was one of the goddesses worshipped in Myrtilis (today's Mértola, Portugal), Pax Julia (Beja, Portugal). A bronze plaque from Malpartida de Cáceres suggests associations with the goat as a sacred animal.[8] [16]

Turibriga or Turobriga

Her name appears with adjective Turobrigensis, which seems to indicate a place called Turibriga or Turobriga.[17] [18] Similar epigraphic attestations read Turibrige, [T]urubricae and Turibri, which led professor Amílcar Guerra to indicate a form *Turibris.[19] [20]

This place is interpreted by scholarship to mean the main center of her cult,[21] [22] [23] but its precise location is unknown. Classical author Pliny indicated it belonged to Celtic Beturia.[18]

Functions

Epigraphs from the Badajoz region associate the goddess with the Roman Proserpina (analogous to Greek Persephone),[7] [24] which would make her a goddess presiding over spring and seasonality, echoing the "reborn" derivation of the name,[25] [8] or connect her to the Underworld.[26] In that regard, a dedication etched in marble was found in Augusta Emérita: the propitiator prays to Dea Ataecina Turibrig(ensis) Proserpina for her to avenge the theft of some pieces of clothing.[27]

See also

Bibliography

Further reading

Epigraphy:
On the location of Turibriga

Notes and References

  1. Vasconcellos, José Leite de. Religiões da Lusitania na parte que principalmente se refere a Portugal. Lisboa: Imprensa nacional, 1897. p. 146.
  2. Lopes, Cristina Maria Grilo. "Ataegina uma divindade Paleohispânica". In: Revista Santuários. Lisboa, 2014. Vol. 1, n.1 (Jan./Jun. 2014), p. 97.
  3. Martínez, Eugenio Ramón Luján. "La diosa Ataecina y el nombre de la noche en antiguo irlandés". In: Emerita: Revista de lingüística y filología clásica Vol. 66, Nº 2, 1998, pp. 293-294. .
  4. Book: Vallejo, José María . Divinidades y dedicatorias religiosas en Hispania occidental: lo que la lingüística (y otras ciencias) pueden decir sobre funciones teonímicas . Des mots pour les dieux: Dédicaces cultuelles dans les langues indigènes de la Méditerranée occidentale . Estarán Tolosa . María José . Dupraz . Emmanuel . Aberson . Michel . 2021 . Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien . ES . Peter Lang . 286 . 20.500.12657/56961 .
  5. Guerra . Amílcar . Omnibus Numinibus et Lapitearum: algumas reflexões sobre a nomenclatura teonímica do Ocidente peninsular . Revista portuguesa de arqueologia . 0874-2782 . 5 . 1 . 2002 . 151–154. .
  6. Vasconcellos, José Leite de. Religiões da Lusitania na parte que principalmente se refere a Portugal. Lisboa: Imprensa nacional, 1897. pp. 161-162.
  7. Lopes, Cristina Maria Grilo. "Ataegina uma divindade Paleohispânica". In: Revista Santuários. Lisboa, 2014. Vol. 1, n.1 (Jan./Jun. 2014), p. 98.
  8. Olivares Pedreño, Juan Carlos. Los dioses de la hispania céltica. Universitat d´Alacant / Universidad de Alicante, Servicio de Publicaciones: Real Academia de la Historia. 2002. p. 247. .
  9. Sopeña . Gabriel . Celtiberian Ideologies and Religion . E-Keltoi: Journal of Interdisciplinary Celtic Studies . 2005 . 6 . 348 . 11 September 2020.
  10. Martínez, Eugenio Ramón Luján. "La diosa Ataecina y el nombre de la noche en antiguo irlandés". In: Emerita: Revista de lingüística y filología clásica Vol. 66, Nº 2, 1998, pp. 301-302. .
  11. Bernardo Stempel, Patrizia de; Hainzmann, Manfred, and Mathieu, Nicolas. “Celtic and Other Indigenous Divine Names Found in the Italian Peninsula.” In: Théonymie Celtique, Cultes, Interpretatio - Keltische Theonymie, Kulte, Interpretatio. Edited by Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel and Andreas Hofeneder, 1st ed. Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, 2013. p. 80. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv8mdn28.8.
  12. "... keltische Göttin der nächtlichen Zeit Ataecina..." Stempel, Patrizia de Bernardo. "Keltische Äquivalente klassischer Epitheta und andere sprachliche und nicht-sprachliche Phänomene im Rahmen der sogenannten ‚interpretatio Romana‘". In: Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 61, no. 1 (2014): 34 and footnote nr. 109. https://doi.org/10.1515/zcph.2014.003
  13. Lopes, Cristina Maria Grilo. "Ataegina uma divindade Paleohispânica". In: Revista Santuários. Lisboa, 2014. Vol. 1, n.1 (Jan./Jun. 2014), pp. 97-103.
  14. Vasconcellos, José Leite de. Religiões da Lusitania na parte que principalmente se refere a Portugal. Lisboa: Imprensa nacional, 1897. p. 173.
  15. Blázquez, José Mª. Arte Y Religión En El Mediterráneo Antiguo. Ediciones Cátedra, 2008. pp. 141-142.
  16. Diáz, Alonso Rodríguez; Navascués, Juan Javier Enríquez. Extremadura tartésica: arqueología de un proceso periférico. Barcelona: Bellaterra, 2001. p. 259. .
  17. "Histoire et archéologie de la Péninsule ibérique antique, chronique VI: 1993-1997". In: Revue des Études Anciennes. Tome 102, 2000, n°1-2. pp. 186. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/rea.2000.4794; www.persee.fr/doc/rea_0035-2004_2000_num_102_1_4794
  18. Frías, Manuel Salinas de; Cortés, Juana Rodríguez. "Ciudad y Cultos en Lusitania durante la época Antonina". In: Actas del II Congreso Internacional de Historia Antigua: la Hispania de los Antoninos (98-180). Valladolid, Spain: Universidad de Valladolid, Secretariado de Publicaciones e Intercambio Editorial, 2005. p. 356.
  19. Guerra . Amílcar . Omnibus Numinibus et Lapitearum: algumas reflexões sobre a nomenclatura teonímica do Ocidente peninsular . Revista portuguesa de arqueologia . 0874-2782 . 5 . 1 . 2002 . 155–157. .
  20. Guerra . Amílcar . Povos, cultura e língua no Ocidente Peninsular: uma perspectiva, a partir da toponomástica . Palaeohispánica: Revista sobre lenguas y culturas de la Hispania antigua (Actas del IX coloquio sobre lenguas y culturas paleohispánicas (Barcelona, 20-24 de octubre de 2004) . 1578-5386 . 5 . 2005 . 795 . 10.36707/palaeohispanica.v0i5. 31 January 2024 . .
  21. Vasconcellos, José Leite de. Religiões da Lusitania na parte que principalmente se refere a Portugal. Lisboa: Imprensa nacional, 1897. pp. 158-159.
  22. Marco Simón . Francisco . Divinidades indígenas en la Hispania indoeuropea . Veleia . 16 . 40 . 1999. 10810/35975 .
  23. Olivares Pedreño . Juan Carlos . Reflexiones sobre las ofrendas votivas a dioses indígenas en Hispania: ámbitos de culto y movimiento de población . Veleia . 20 . 2003 . 306 . 10.1387/veleia.5399 . 31 January 2024 . 10810/36793 . Con respecto a la diosa de Turobriga, sabemos presumir que el núcleo de su culto era la citada localidad, a partir de la cual se difundió hacia los lugares de los alrededores donde se han descubierto los testimonios.. .
  24. Ehmig, Ulrike. “Proserpina: Wandlerin Zwischen Den Welten”. In: Zeitschrift Für Papyrologie Und Epigraphik 200 (2016): 307–308. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26603891.
  25. Juan Manuel Abascal, Las inscripciones latinas de Santa Lucía del Trampal (Alcuéscar, Cáceres) y el culto de Ataecina en Hispania, Archivo Español de Arqueología 68: 31-105 (1995)
  26. Martínez, Eugenio Ramón Luján. "La diosa Ataecina y el nombre de la noche en antiguo irlandés". In: Emerita: Revista de lingüística y filología clásica Vol. 66, Nº 2, 1998, p. 292. .
  27. Tomlin, Roger. "Cursing A Thief In Iberia And Britain". In: Magical Practice in the Latin West. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2013. pp. 247-249. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004179042.i-676.55

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