Damona

The name Damona is transmitted only in Latin inscriptions, and no ancient author mentions the goddess. It is generally derived from a Celtic word *damo-, associated with several bovids and cervids in descendant languages (cf. Old Irish dam 'ox, deer', damán 'fawn'; also *damato- > Middle Welsh dafad 'sheep', Old Cornish dauat 'ewe').^[1][2][3] The stem is usually traced to Proto-Indo-European *dm̥h₂o- ('the tamed one'), which in various languages gave the name of the young bovid (Skt. damya- 'young bull to be tamed', Grk damalis 'heifer', Alb. dem 'bull, steer').^[2][3][a] The final element -ona is a common theonymic suffix that recurs in Gaulish divine names, as in Epona, Matrona, Sirona and Nemetona.^[2][5][6]

The precise meaning of the underlying stem varies between authors. Xavier Delamarre glosses the Gaulish stem damo- as 'ox, stag'.^[2] Ranko Matasović interprets Celtic *damo- as 'bull'.^[3] Miranda Aldhouse-Green renders the name Damona as 'divine cow' or 'great cow', while John T. Koch gives 'great or divine ox'.^[7][5] Jan de Vries cautioned that the connection with Irish dam ('ox, deer') is a purely linguistic one, and that it does little to explain the character of the goddess.^[1]

Damona belongs to the group of Gaulish goddesses of the healing springs. At every site where she is named the setting is a curative sanctuary attached to thermal or mineral waters.^[7][5] At Bourbon-Lancy the god paired with her keeps his Celtic name, as Borvo or Bormo, whereas at Bourbonne-les-Bains several dedications style him Apollo Borvo. In either case Damona keeps her Celtic name, the usual pattern in such pairs, where the goddess retains the native name while the god may take a Roman one.^[8]

Alhouse-Green regards Alesia as Damona's principal sanctuary, where she was worshipped with Apollo Moritasgus at a precinct that enclosed sacred springs and baths in which the sick bathed in hope of a cure.^[7][5] No image of Moritasgus survives, but a fragment of Damona's cult statue was recovered there: a carved stone head crowned with ears of corn, together with a left hand around which a serpent is coiled.^[9][7][5] These attributes, the corn and the snake, mark her at once as a goddess of healing and of fertility or plenty. Alhouse-Green further connects one of the dedications from the sanctuary at Bourbon-Lancy with incubation, the ritual sleep in which a pilgrim sought a healing dream or vision from the god.^[7]

The range of Damona's partners, together with the dedications to her alone, has been taken as a sign that she was an independent deity in her own right, whose identity did not depend on her association with any single god.^[7] Her healing role and her attributes place her close to the goddess Sirona, who is likewise shown with ears of corn and a snake and likewise paired with a spring- or healing-god.^[9][7] On the strength of the snake and the ears of grain, her attributes have been compared with those of the Greek figures Hygieia and Demeter respectively.^[5] De Vries stressed that although the bovine etymology of the name is secure enough, it reveals little about the nature or function of the goddess herself.^[1]

Damona is named in a series of Latin dedications of the Roman period, concentrated in eastern-central Gaul.^[7][10] The largest groups come from the curative spring-sites of Bourbon-Lancy (Saône-et-Loire) and Bourbonne-les-Bains (Haute-Marne), the latter in the territory of the Lingones.^[1] At both she is the partner of the spring-god Borvo. She is joined by the god Albius on a bronze vessel from Chassenay, near Arnay-le-Duc (Côte-d'Or), and by Apollo Moritasgus at Alesia (Alise-Sainte-Reine).^[10][11] At Bourbonne-les-Bains, and again at Rivières in the Charente, she was worshipped alone, without a male partner.^[7][10]