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Nantosuelta
A Gaulish Goddess: She of the Winding River, She of the Sun-warmed Valley
Nantosuelta is a Gaulish goddess known from an inscribed relief found at Sarrebourg, France where her consort is given as Sucellus. In inconography she is associated with the raven and her function may have been that of a psychopomp (one who transfers the spirits of the departed to the otherworld). |
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Gaul: ?She of the Winding River, ?She of the Sun-warmed Valley
Nantosuelta is known directly from an inscription on a relief (shown above) from Sarrebourg in the Moselle region of France (CIL XIII 04542) where her consort is both named and shown as Sucellus. This inscription reads: Deo Svcello Nantosvelte Bellavsvs Mas se Filivs VSLM (To the God Sucellus and to Nantosuelta, Bellausus, son of Massa, willingly and deservedly fulfilled his vow.) The image shown is interesting in terms of its iconography: In her left hand the goddess holds a small house-shaped object with two circular holes and a peaked roof — a dovecote perhaps? — suspended on a long pole. Her right hand holds a patera (a broad ritual dish used for drinking, primarily in the ritual context of libation) which she is tipping onto a cylindrical altar.
Icongoraphically a similarly-represented goddess is known from an altar at Metz, France and though the goddess is not named she is assumed to be Nantosuelta. n Britain, she is probably to be found depicted on a small stone from East Stoke in Nottinghamshire. In this depiction the goddess has bushy hair and carries a bowlful of apples, reminiscent of continental Nantosuelta's patera. However, it is clear that her consort is Sucellus. The various depictions of this goddess show her holding a pot (which may be an echo of the Celtic cauldron of life and food), or a beehive. She is also often associate with the raven as a familiar (an example of which is shown above). Thus the interpretation of Nantosuelta's iconography is uncertain, for the patera, the house/dovecot and the beehive/cauldron would indicate an association with the home and hearth, with cooking and food. However, the raven is most often associated with war-fertility goddesses. Given the sense of domesticity in Nantosuelta's other iconography it is tempting to think that the raven is used in its fertility rather than its martial context.
For a long time the name Nantosuelta was assumed to mean 'winding river', being derived from the reconstructed proto-Celtic from *Nanto-swelt- with the feminine ending ā which can be rendered as 'river-turning [spirit]'. However, in common with the Brythonic languages it is possible that the Gaulish nanto could mean both river/stream and valley (the Cymric cognate being nant that is usually taken to mean 'stream' but which, in its older form, also meant 'valley'. The swel component of the came could be derived from the proto-Celtic *sƒwol-/*s3li- (sun, which yields the Cymric form of haul). The final particle, ta is contained in the proto-Celtic word tတ-je/o (thaw) and bears the connotation of 'to warm'. Thus, an alternative interpretation for Nantosuelta would be 'She of the Sun-warmed Valley'. Potentially this could be used in the context of 'plenty' but it might also bear the context of the sun-drenched realms of the netherworld. Thus Nantosuelta's association with the raven might indicate that she had a function as a psychopomp.
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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