Icovellauna: a Gaulish Goddess (Divine Pourer of the Waters)

Synonyms:
Gaul: Divine Pourer of the Waters

Icovellauna is known from three sites: Trier in Germany (CIL XIII 03644) and Malzéville, Meurthe-et-Moselle (CIL XIII 04294 to 04298, inclusive) and Le Sablon, Metz in France. In Metz, the temple of Icovellauna survives at Sablon. It was discovered in 1879 by father Möller. This was an octagonal structure built above a watersource (which has long dried up). A stone staircase leads around the outer walls and down to the watercourse — which would once have made it possible for the worshippers to deposit votive offerings and draw from the sacred waters. Icovellauna is known to be associated with this shrine from the various ex-votos (a votive painting or inscription) found in the shrine, which would originally have been affixed to the shrine's walls with nails.

One of the effigies discovered at the base of the Metz shrine was that of a local 'Mercury' type deity. It cannot be known what the name of this deity was or whether he was considereda consort of Icovellauna. However, Mercury's association with healing strongly suggests that Icovellauna was a goddess of healing waters.

The etymology of Icovellauna is uncertain, though the component Ico- represents one of the Gaulish words for 'water' and the 'vellauna/vellaunos' is found in the name of the Brythonic deity Vellaunos and in the name of the hero Cassivellaunos who later became the Cymric hero Caswallon. Now, the terminal -una/-unus generally stands for a divinity which leaves us with the interpretation of -vella-. Assuming that this word retained its meaning in the later Cymric form of Caswallon then this gives us a Cymric word similar to gwall (taking mutation into account) which may in turn be derived from the archaic Cymric form gwallaw which has the double meaning of — 'to pour' or 'to serve'. The latter meaning makes more sense for deities such as Vellaunus; however, in the case of Icovellauna the former meaning seems to make more sense and fits-in well with the nature of a water deity. Thus Icovellauna's name can be interpreted as 'Divine Pourer of the Waters' (or perhaps more poetically 'Divine Source of the Waters'), an apposite name for a goddess asssociated with the healing springs of Sablon.

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