Page:The Celtic Review volume 3.djvu/57

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42
THE CELTIC REVIEW

too, on a patera from Etang-sur-Arroxix, dép. Saône-et-Loire, arr. Autun, canton Saint-Léger-sous-Beuvray. There is no evidence that Clutoiđa was more than a purely local goddess of a healing spring. At Bourges there is an inscription to Solimāra, a word which probably means ‘the large-eyed’ (cil xiii, 1195), Solimarae sacrum. Solimāros occurs over a wide area, for example at Cilli, Sziszek, Scherschell, Martigues, Orange, Brignon, dép. Gard, near Ledignan, Nîmes, Bordeaux, Paris, Breitenbach, Gustavsburg (Mainz), Heddernheim, and on the gold coins of the Bituriges Cubi (before B.C. 58), which were found at Amboise, Vendeuil Caply, dép. Oise, as well as in Vivonne (dép. Vienne), and in Vernon. A Gallo-Boman name Solimārius occurs at Apt, Bordeaux, and at Niersbach in the Prussian Rhine-province. A name of the form Solimario occurs on an inscription at Nîmes. There was a place called Solimāriāca on the Roman road from Metz to Langres between Neufchâteau (Vosges), and Toul (Meurthe-et-Moselle). This word, too, appears to underlie the names Somméré, dep. Saône-et-Loire, arr. and canton Mâcon; Saumeray, dép. Eure-et-Loire; Saumery (Solimariaca), dép. Loiret, arr. Orléans; Le Saulmery, dép. Loiret; Saumery, dép. Loir-et-Cher, arr. Blois, canton Bracieux; as well as the Italian Sumirago in the province of Milan in the district of Gallarate. On the Celtic inscriptions of Volnay we have the name of a goddess Brigindu in the dative Brigindoni It is her name that probably underlies that of Brigendonis, now Brognon, in Côte d’Or, arrond. and canton Dijon, as well as the Ager Briendonensis in the Mâcon country. It is possible, too, that Gregory of Tours meant this goddess, when he said that the Gauls worshipped Berecynthia. He says that there was an image of this goddess which was carried on a vehicle to ensure the success of the fields and vineyards (pro salvatione agrorum et vinearum). Before this image the people danced and sang. Other names of isolated goddesses are—Abnoba or Deana Abnoba, the presiding deity of the Black Forest on the German side of the Rhine; Brixia, of Brixia (Breuchin), near