Artio

Artio (Dea Artio in the Gallo-Roman religion) is a Celtic bear goddess. Evidence of her worship has notably been found at Bern in Switzerland. Her name is derived from the Gaulish word for 'bear', artos.[1]

Name

The Gaulish theonym Artiō derives from the Celtic word for the 'bear', artos (cf. Old Irish art, Middle Welsh arth, Old Breton ard), itself from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ŕ̥tḱos ('bear'). A Celtic form reconstructed as *Arto-rix ('Bear-King') could be the source for the name Arthur, via a Latinized form *Artori(u)s. The Basque hartz ('bear') is also presumed to be a Celtic loanword.[2][3]

Attestations

A bronze sculpture from the Muri statuette group, found near Bern 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.[4] The sculpture has a large rectangular bronze base, which bears the inscription "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 perhaps correspond to a Gaulish n-stem nominative *Artiu.

Other inscriptions to the goddess have been discovered in Daun (CIL 13, 4203), Weilerbach (CIL 13, 4113), Heddernheim (CIL 13, 7375 [4, p 125]), and Stockstadt (CIL 13, 11789).[5]

Artio is a playable character in the video game Smite.[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ Adrian Room, Placenames of the World: Origins and Meanings of the Names for 6,600 Countries, Cities, Territories, Natural Features, and Historic Sites, McFarland, 2006, p. 57.
  2. ^ Delamarre 2003, pp. 55–56.
  3. ^ Matasović 2009, pp. 42–43.
  4. ^ Deyts p. 48, Green pp. 217–218
  5. ^ CIL XIII
  6. ^ "Artio: The Bear Goddess". SMITE. Archived from the original on 2017-08-05. Retrieved 2021-06-01.
Bibliography
  • Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL) vol XIII, Inscriptiones trium Galliarum et Germaniarum
  • Delamarre, Xavier (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental. Errance. ISBN 9782877723695.
  • 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
  • Matasović, Ranko (2009). Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic. Brill. ISBN 9789004173361.
  • Wightman, E. M. (1970) Roman Trier and the Treveri London: Hart-Davis. ISBN 0-246-63980-6
  • The dictionary definition of Artio at Wiktionary
  • Media related to Artio at Wikimedia Commons
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