Vihansa is the name of a Germanic goddess written on a bronze tablet found in Sint-Huibrechts-Hern, near

Tongeren Tongeren (; ; ; ) is a city and former municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg, in the southeastern corner of the Flemish region of Belgium. Tongeren is the oldest town in Belgium, as the only Roman administrative capital wit ...

in modern

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

Name

There is general agreement among scholars that the

theonym A theonym (from Greek (), 'god', attached to (), ) is a proper name of a deity. Theonymy, the study of divine proper names, is a branch of onomastics, the study of the etymology, history, and use of proper names. Theonymy helps develop an und ...

is Germanic; it probably belongs to the Tungrian dialect or language. ''Vihansa'' may be a Latinized form of the compound *''wiha-ansu''-, meaning 'holy deity', or *''wīgą-ansu''-, meaning 'battle deity'. Marie-Thérèse Raepsaet-Charlier supposes she must have been a warrior deity due to the martial offering mentioned in the inscription.

Dedication

The inscription was engraved by Q. Catius Libo Nepos, centurion with

Legio III Cyrenaica Legio III Cyrenaica, ( Third Legion " Cyrenean") was a legion of the Imperial Roman army. The legion had its origins among the forces of Mark Antony during the civil wars of late first century BC. In the Imperial period it was stationed in Egyp ...

, who dedicated his shield and spear to the goddess Vihansa, probably after returning to his homeland from a military service:

References

Bibliography

External links

Photo of the dedication
Germanic goddesses Latin inscriptions Germanic deities {{Deity-stub