Matronae: the Celtic and Germanic Mother Goddesses

Synonyms: Mammau, Matres
Gaul: The Mother Goddesses

Though many of the mother goddesses given the Latin title Matronae (Mothers) are named, there is a large group of inscriptions to these goddesses that refer to them generally as Matronis or Matronae. For the most part these inscriptions come from northern Italy and southern France (though some are known from southern Germany and Switaerland as well). In all there are over eighty inscriptions dedicated to these unnamed mother goddesses. Though some (mostly from northern Italy) invoke them as Matronae Iunones (The Junan Mothers). This, however, is probably a feature of long-term contact with Rome, as in those Celtic regions with extensive Roman contact the mothers often assumed the characteristics of the Roman goddesses Cybele and Juno.

Although sometimes referred to in the singular (as Matronis) they are most often referred to in the plural as Matronae which, in Celtic terms at least, probably refers to these goddesses as being triple in nature. Indeed, triplism occurs frequently in Celtic mythos and iconography and though Matronae is a Latin title; given to these mother goddesses who are often represented as a triad of figures they are undoubtedly of Celtic origin. However, in Roman times it seems as if the cult was predominantly concentrated in cis-Alpine Gaul (Northern Italy) and the heartland of the Ubians along the Lower Rhine.

Literally hundreds of votive altars to the Mothers are known and iconographically they are almost always show seated (as in the examples shown here). In the northern (Ubian) group (as represented by the Aufunian Mothers, top) the two flanking women wear large hats and are sometimes shown with trees. The Matronae also generally hold baskets of fruit and animals (though they can also be accompanied by cornucopias and infants). Often the Matronae are represented wearing long garments, the left breast of which are often beared (this being the archetypical feeding breast). All of these attributes suggest fertility and it is likely that the Matres represent a fertility cult. The lower image, above represents an un-named triad from Stuttgart-Zazenhausen, Stuttgrat, Germany.

The Matreonae whose names we know for certain bear a remarkable range of names (Celtic, Latin and Germanic) which indicates that the original Celtic cult was adopted and incorporated into the pantheons of sucesive peoples. For example, the Aufunian mothers described above as well as the Alagabic are undoubtedly Celtic. The Alaferhuic and Ahinehiabic mothers are Germanic, as well as the Hamavehic and the Hiannanefatic mothers of the Chamavi and Cananefates (Germanic tribes of the Netherlands. Other groups of mothers such as the Matres Paternae (ancestral mothers) gained Latin names.

Some depictions show the Mothers as the three aspects of womanhood: maiden, mother and crone; though this may be a conflation with the Greco–Roman fates and this aspect of the Matres is considerably less common than the more typical 'Triple Mothers' depiction.

In Insular Celtic mythos, the only goddess with a known triple aspect is the Irish Mórrígan who is a triple-goddess made up from Mórrígan, Badb, and Nemain. There may also have been an equivalent deity for the Brythonic Celts, as indicated by the survival of the goddess Rhiannon (another aspect of this goddess may be the Brythonic goddess Agrona) in Cymric mythology. The ancient Brythonic goddesses Sulis, Sulevia and Brigantia were also probably considered as triple godesses and probably Matres in their own right, which strongly indicates that the cult of the triple mother godesses was not confined to the continent alone.

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