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Nousantia
A Gaulish Goddess: She of the New [secret] Advice, She of Prophecy
Nousantia is a Gaulish goddess known from a single inscription found at La Neuveville, in Switzerland where she is equated with the goddess Naria. Nousantia may represent a single aspect of a triple goddess and seems to be a pastoral deity with oracular properties. |
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Gaul: She of the New [secret] Advice, She of Prophecy
Nousantia is a deity known from a single Gaulish inscription found at La Neuveville, in Switzerland (CIL XIII 05151) and reads: NORIAE NOVSANTIAE T FRONTIN HIBERNVS VSLM (To the Goddesses Norias Nousantias. Titus Frontinus Hibernius willingly and deservedly fulfilled his vow). Thus it would seem that Nousantia was an epithet of the goddess Naria.
It should be noted that Naria is invoked in plural terms as the 'Goddesses Narias Nousantias' indicating that she was probably considered as a triple goddess. Thus Nousantia may well represent a single aspect of that triplicity. Naria herself is the female equivalent of the deity Narius who is equated with the Roman deity, Faunus. By analogy Naria can be considered to be a pastoral goddess, who may have oracular properties.
Nousantia's name can be derived from the reconstructed proto-Celtic lexical elements *nowyo- (new), *sanesso- ([secret] advice) and the feminine ending -a. She is therefore the goddess of 'New (secret) Advice' and could be considered as the divinatory aspect of Naria.
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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