Terracotta relief of the Matres, from Bibracte, city of the Aedui in Gaul

The Matres or Matronae (Latin for "important mothers/ladies") were ancient deities venerated in northwestern Europe from the 1st to the 5th century AD. Bibracte, a Gaulish Oppidum or fortified city was the capital of the Aedui and one of the most important Aedui, Haedui or Hedui (Gr Aidouoi) are Gallic people of Gallia Lugdunensis, who inhabited the country between the Arar ( Saone) and Liger Gaul (Gallia was the Roman name for the region of Western Europe comprising present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. See also List of deities A deity is a Postulated Preternatural or Supernatural Being, who is always They appear in votive reliefs and inscriptions in southeast Gaul, as at Bibracte (illustration, right), and also in the Romano-Celtic culture of Pannonia, in the form of similar reliefs and inscriptions to Nutrices Augustae, "the august Nurses" found in Roman sites of Ptuj, Lower Styria. Gaul (Gallia was the Roman name for the region of Western Europe comprising present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western Bibracte, a Gaulish Oppidum or fortified city was the capital of the Aedui and one of the most important Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC Celts (ˈkɛlts or /ˈsɛlts/, see Names of the Celts Pannonia is an ancient province of the Roman Empire bounded north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, Ptuj (Pettau Latin: Poetovio) is a City and one of 11 urban municipalities in Slovenia. Lower Styria (Štajerska Untersteiermark Latin: Styria) is a historical region in northeastern Slovenia, comprising the southern third of the former ^[1]

Matronae were representations of motherhood, often displayed with fertility symbols such as baskets or cornucopias of fruit and bread, or babies. They are usually depicted wearing long garments with one breast bared. Locally they may have been associated with other spheres of influence besides fertility and motherhood. The line between the rather "generic" Mother Goddess(es) and more specific local or insular goddesses such as those just mentioned is quite blurry, and the ancient Celts had a tendency to adapt the nature or sphere of a deity to differing local traditions. In some depictions they are different ages (Robert Graves among others have popularized the idea that girl, matron and crone is the common or default configuration), but in fact depictions of three mothers are much more common. Robert Graves (24 July 1895 &ndash 7 December 1985 was an English Poet, Translator and Novelist.

Worship of the Matres was especially widespread in Celtic regions, with sculptural finds and inscriptions to them having been discovered in Britannia,^[2] Gaul, Germania, northern Italy and Celtiberian northern Spain. Celtic polytheism refers to the religious beliefs and practices of ancient Celts, prior to the Christianization of the Celtic-speaking lands Britannia was the term originally used by the Romans to refer first to the British Isles, and later to the island of Great Britain. Gaul (Gallia was the Roman name for the region of Western Europe comprising present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western Germania was the Latin Exonym for Cisalpine Gaul ( Latin: Gallia Cisalpina, meaning " Gaul on this side of the Alps " was the Roman name for a geographical area (later The Celtiberians (or Celt-Iberians were a Celtic people of Hallstatt culture Just as the cultus had a wide range of adherents, so were the identities of the Matronae widespread. This article discusses cult in the original and typically ancient sense of "religious practice" (cultus They differed widely from place to place, with a great many names, some of them expressing their patronage of a locality: Deae Matres (or Matrones), the Suleviae, Alaferhuiae, Aufaniae, Cartovallensiae, Rumaneheihae, Domesticae, Comedovae, Vatviae, and many others. In ancient Celtic religion, Sulevia was a goddess worshipped in Gaul and Britain, very often in the plural forms Suleviae or (dative Sule(vis The Aufaniae were one name for Celtic mother goddesses worshipped throughout Celtic Europe. In Glanum, Provence they were called the Glanicae. Glanum was a Roman city in Gallia Narbonensis — Provence in southern France — sited on the flanks of the Alpilles, a range Provence ( Provençal Occitan: Provença in classical norm or Prouvènço in Mistralian norm is a region of southeastern France Glanis was a Gaulish god associated with a healing spring at the town of Glanum in the Alpilles mountains of Provence in southern France Their number was most likely influenced by the Celtic tradition of triplism, which deemed the number three to be particularly auspicious. Triple deities, legendary persons deities and mythological creatures (sometimes referred to as tripled triplicate tripartite triune or triadic are common throughout world Mythology There are numerous singular matronly goddesses of Northern Europe as well, many difficult to distinguish from their related triplicate variety (from whom they may often derive, or vice-versa), while the triadic version are clearly cognate with the Greek Fates and Roman Furies, and the Nordic Norns or Weird Sisters, and survive in caricatured form into relatively modern times as the Three Witches of Shakespeare's Macbeth. Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and Heroes the nature of the world and the origins and significance Roman mythology, or more appropriately Latin mythology, refers to the mythological beliefs of the Italic people inhabiting the region of Latium and its In Greek mythology the Erinyes (Ἐρινύες pl of Ἐρινύς lit Norse mythology comprises the indigenous pre-Christian religion, beliefs and Legends of the Scandinavian peoples including those who settled on Iceland The Norns ( Old Norse: norn, plural nornir) are a kind of Dísir, numerous female beings who rule the fates of the various races of Norse The Norns ( Old Norse: norn, plural nornir) are a kind of Dísir, numerous female beings who rule the fates of the various races of Norse William Shakespeare ( baptised Macbeth is among the best-known of William Shakespeare 's plays, and is his shortest tragedy, believed to have been written some time between The concept of the Triple Goddess remains important in Neo-Paganism. In ancient Indo-European mythologies various Goddesses or demi-goddesses appear as a triad, either as three separate beings Neopaganism or Neo-Paganism is an Umbrella term used to identify a wide variety of modern religious movements particularly those influenced by historical

Notes

See also

• Triple Goddess
• Dea Matrona (Matrona)
• Triple deities
• Nehalennia

External links

• Livius.org: Matres