Artaha (also spelled Artehe) is the name of an ancient goddess that was worshiped in Southern
Gaul
Gaul () was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Roman people, Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of . Ac ...
, in the region of
Aquitania
Gallia Aquitania (, ), also known as Aquitaine or Aquitaine Gaul, was a province of the Roman Empire. It lies in present-day southwest France and the comarca of Val d'Aran in northeast Spain, where it gives its name to the modern region of Aquit ...
. She is a
tutelary god
A tutelary (; also tutelar) is a deity or a spirit who is a guardian, patron, or protector of a particular place, geographic feature, person, lineage, nation, culture, or occupation. The etymology of "tutelary" expresses the concept of safety and ...
dess that is thought to be associated with bears.
The theonym is recorded in several inscriptions from
Saint-Pé-d'Ardet, where there seems to have been a
Gallo-Roman-era cult center for the god:
:CIL 13, 64
:Lexeia Odanni f(ilia) Artehe
v(otum) s(olvit) l(ibens) m(erito)
:CIL 13, 70; AE 1888, 141
:Deo Artahe L(uci) P(ompei) Pauliniani
ep(os) 3
:ILTG 37
:Artahe deo Rufo IIFIS v(otum) s(olvit) l(ibens) m(erito)
:ILTG 38
:
..Artahe
..
From the same region - the village of
Lourde - comes another inscription bearing the name:
:CIL 13, 71
:Artehe deo Bonnexi Amandi v(otum) s(olvit) l(ibens) m(erito)
It is also recorded in an inscription from
Malvezie:
:CIL 13, 73 (4, p 2)
:Ar
e deoL(ucius) Antist(ius) Syntr
(h)us v(otum) s(olvit) l(ibens) m(erito)
Etymology
According to Spanish linguist and Vascologist , her name has been variously interpreted as either
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
*Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Foot ...
, related to ''Artaios'', or
Aquitanian. Following the second line of reading, the name appears to be of ancient
Aquitanian origin and may be cognate with
modern Basque ''arte'' "oak". The place name
Ardet may be derived from the theonym, or vice versa.
[Whatmough, Joshua, The Dialects of Ancient Gaul, Harvard, 1970, p. 253]
References
{{Reflist
AE:
L'Année Épigraphique, 1888
CIL:
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum
The ''Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum'' (''CIL'') is a comprehensive collection of ancient Latin inscriptions. It forms an authoritative source for documenting the surviving epigraphy of classical antiquity. Public and personal inscriptions throw ...
, Berlin, 1863-
ILTG: Wuilleumier, P., Inscriptions latines des Trois Gaules (France), (XVIIe Supplement à Gallia) Paris, 1963
Basque goddesses
Basque mythology
Bear deities
Tutelary goddesses