Erecura
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Erecura (also found as Herecura, Aerecura, Eracura[1]) was a goddess worshipped in ancient times, often thought to be Celtic in origin, mostly represented with the attributes of Proserpina and associated with the Roman underworld god Dis Pater. She appears with the latter in a statue found at Oberseebach, Switzerland and in several magical texts from Austria, once in the company of Cerberus, another, probably, with Ogmios.[2] A further inscription to her has been found near Stuttgart, Germany. She may originally have been an earth goddess, associated with such attributes of fertility as the cornucopia and apple baskets; she may also have been associated with Silvanus and the Rhine Valley.[citation needed]
Representations of Erecura are most commonly found in the Danubian area of Southern Germany and Slovenia, but they also occur in Italy, Great Britain, and France. Her inscriptions are concentrated in Stuttgart and along the Rhine.
A male deity called Arecurius or Aericurus is named on an altar-stone in Northumberland, England.[3]
[edit] Etymology
This theonym is of unclear origin. It has been connected with Latin aes, aeris 'copper, bronze, money, wealth', era 'mistress' and the name of the Greek goddess Hera.[4]
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Works cited
- ^ Nicole Jufer & Thierry Luginbühl. Les dieux gaulois : répertoire des noms de divinités celtiques connus par l'épigraphie, les textes antiques et la toponymie. Paris: Editions Errance, 2001. ISBN 2-87772-200-7. pp.18, 40, 45.
- ^ Rudolf Egger. Römische Antike und frühes Christentum: Ausgewählte Schriften von Rudolf Egger; Zur Vollendung seines 80. Lebensjahres, ed. Artur Betz and Gotbert Moro. 2 vols. Klagenfurt: Verlag des Geschichtsvereines für Kärnten, 1962-63. (LOC call number DB29.E29.) I.84-85; I.276-79; II.24-33.
- ^ R.G. Collingwood and R.P. Wright. The Roman Inscriptions of Britain (RIB) Vol. 1: The Inscriptions on Stone. RIB 1123. See also the relevant page of roman-britain.org.
- ^ Egger, op. cit. I.84-85.
[edit] Further reading
- Ellis, Peter Berresford, Dictionary of Celtic Mythology (Oxford Paperback Reference), Oxford University Press, (1994): ISBN 0-19-508961-8
- MacKillop, James. Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-19-280120-1.
- Wood, Juliette, The Celts: Life, Myth, and Art, Thorsons Publishers (2002): ISBN 0-00-764059-5
[edit] External links
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