Arduinna
Gallo-Roman goddess of the Ardennes, riding a boar.
Arduinna was the tutelary goddess of the Ardennes Forest and region in Gallo-Roman religion, associated with the Roman goddess Diana. Her cult originated in the area of present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and France, and she was typically depicted as a huntress riding a boar.
Quick Facts
- Name
- Arduinna (also Arduina, Arduinnae, Arduinne)
- Region
- Ardennes region of present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and France
- Associated deity
- Diana
- Asteroid named after
- 394 Arduina
- Asteroid discovery date
- 19 November 1894
Facts from the source article.
Did You Know?
- In 585, Walfroy preached to the local population of Villers-devant-Orval to abandon the worship of Diana, and a large stone statue of Diana on a hill near Margut was pulled down and demolished with hammers.
- The French-Belgian television series Black Spot, set in the Ardennes, features a group of eco warriors named the Children of Arduinna.
Depictions
A headless Gallo-Roman bronze in the Musée des antiquités nationales shows a woman in a short belted tunic riding a boar sidesaddle while holding a knife. It bears no inscription, and a 19th-century antiquarian simply assumed it was the goddess Arduinna, possibly because the boar is the modern symbol of the Ardennes region. Another headless bronze, from Richard Payne Knight’s collection and held by the British Museum since 1824, is traditionally labeled as Diana.
Etymology
It appears in placenames such as the Ardennes Woods (Arduenna silva) and the Forest of Arden in England, as well as in personal names like Arduunus and Arda. The gemination -nn- may indicate a language of the Belgae, suggesting a Nordwestblock etymology closer to Germanic.
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