Celtic Gods: The Gaulish Goddess, Aveta, She who is Acquainted with [birth]

Aveta
A Gaulish goddess: She who is acquainted with [birth]

This deity is known from figurines and inscriptions found in France and Germany and is a goddess of midwifery and childbirth.



Synonyms:
Gaul: ?She who is acquainted with [birth]


A Gallic goddess associated with midwifery and childbirth. She is principally known from clay figurines discovered at Toulon-sur-Allier, France and inscriptions found at Trier, Germany; Avenches, Switzerland and Mont Afrique, Côte d'Or, France.

The figurines depicting her generally represent a goddess with infants at her breast. In these statues she is often accompanied by a small lapdog.

The etymology of this goddess' name is uncertain but it may be related to the proto Indo-European *-wet- (to turn to, to be acquainted with) which gives rise to the proto-Celtic wet-o (turn) and the goddess' name might be interpreted as: 'She who is Acquainted with [childbirth]' or She who is Turned to [at Childbirth]. This is given a little more credence in that the proto-Celtic form wetsi represents a young domesticated animal (generally calf or pig) but it might originally have referred to a child.





If you would like to try the foods of the time of the ancient Celts, then why not have a look at the ancient recipes section of this site. For the foods of the time when some of these tales were written down, take a look at the Medieval recipes section of the site and, in particular, the recipes from The Forme of Cury.



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