Noreia: a Gaulish Goddess (She who is Noble)

Synonyms:
Gaul: She who is Noble

standing latobius holding short-sword and spear

Noreia is a goddess known from epigraphical evidence through northern Gaul and from the writings of Roman authors. The main centres for Noreia were in modern Austria, with inscriptions found at Pulst, Kershbacch (where she is invoked with Mars and Britannia as well as Hohenstein and Feistritz where she is equated by interpretato Romana with the goddess Isis. Noreia is also known from inscriptional evidence at Belgrade, Serbia as well as Trojana, Slovenia and Celje, Slovenia where she is invoked along with IOM (Jupiter Optimus Maximus and Celeia). Interestingly an inscription to Noreia has also been found at Cherchel in the Maghreb, Mauretania.

The name of Noreia forms the basis of the Roman province of Noricum which covers much of modern-day Austria and was bounded on the north by the Danube, on the west by Raetia and Vindelicia, on the east by Pannonia and on the south by Pannonia and Italy, corresponding to the greater part of the modern Styria and Carinthia, and part of Austria, Bavaria and Salzburg. The original population of Noricum (mostly modern day Austria) consisted of Pannoniaans (a people akin to the Illyrians), who after the great emigration of the Gauls became subordinate to various Celtic tribes. It is in Noricum that we first hear of almost all the Celtic invasions, and was the starting-point of the attacks upon Italia in the early Roman Republic. Circa 200 BCE an alliance of 13 of these tribes established the first Celtic Kingdom in Europe, supported by a Council of Elders of all the represented tribes. For a long time the Noricans enjoyed independence under this rule and carried on commerce with the Romans. Two of the main tribes being the Norici (people of the goddess Noreia) and the Taurisci who enjoyed the status of 'friends and allies' to Rome throughout the time of the Roman empire. It should also be noted that the Norici were considered amongst the world's first and finest steel smiths and Norican steel was highly prized throughout the entire Roman empire.

The capital of the Norici being at Noreia (Neumarkt in der Steiermark). As evidence for Noreia is seem throughout the province of Noricum (all the central European sites named above were within the confines of Noricum) it would seem that she was an important, probably tutelary, deity for the tribes of the region. As this region is the centre of early 'Hallstatt' Celtic culture Noreia may be one of the earliest Celtic deities known to us; though her attributes have probably become conflated with Isis due to later Roman influence.

Various Roman authors (Strabo, Pliny the Elder, Didorius Siculus, Julius Caesar) mention the place name Noricum and it now seems that several settlements bore this name within Noricum. Apart from Neumarkt in der Steiermark already mentioned, another site originally called Noricum was Magdalensburg, Austria; which certainly seems to have been a site of steel working.

Some of the attributes of Noreia can be derived from her equation with Roman Isis. Isis, at least as the Romans perceived her, was the 'Great Mother Goddess'. She is also the goddess of childbirth and the rearing and nurturing of children. The Roman Isis (as opposed to he original Egyptian form of Aset who was a solar goddess) was considered to be a lunar goddess as described by Plutarch. Thus we can be fairly certain that Noreia was a mother goddess and in common with other Celtic mother deities she may well have been a protectress of women in childbirth and of children in general. Though whether she was considered as a lunar deity or a a creator goddess (attributes of Roman Isis) can be little more than speculation.

Noreia's name can be derived from the reconstructed proto-Celtic lexical elements: *nƒro- (noble, great-hearted which gives the Old Irish nár[o]) and *ei- (be) with the feminine ending -a. This yields the meaning 'she who is noble' which would be a fitting epithet for a mother goddess.

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