NEHALENNIA AND THE SOULS OF THE DEAD*

BY

H. WAGENVOORT

Procopius, lawyer, historian and politician, was born about 500 A.D. at Caesarea in Palestine, depicted by Rubin I ) as a 'komplexer

Spdtzeitrnensch', a versatile scholar, well-informed about the

Germanic world. He knew Gothic, associated with many Germanic

people and had respect for the most prominent of them. Thus he

inspires confidence when relating the following. On the North Sea

coast opposite England lie various villages whose inhabitants earn

their living with fishing and agriculture, and with the carrying

trade 2). Moreover, so he says, they have also the task, each in

* See my article The Journey of the Souls of the Dead to the Isles of the Blessed, Mnemos. IV 24 (1971), 113 ff.

1) R. Rubin, RE 23, 273-599. 2) Rubin, loc. cit., 339, 50. 350, 22. That Procopius thought of Domburg

I would not dare to aver, even though it is quite possible. But probably more places suitable for the passage to England were known. What would come especially into consideration is a place on the Itius Portus (Pas de Calais), e.g. Boulogne s.M. or the village Wissant, quo ex portu Caesar (B.G. V 2, 3) commodissimum in Britanniam traiectum esse cognoverat, circiter m.p. XXX a continenti. Did Claudianus, In Ruf. I, 123 ff. perhaps have this place in mind when he wrote the verses

Est locus extremum pandit qua Gallia litus Oceani praetentus aquis, ubi fertur Ulixes sanguine libato populum movisse silentem. Illic umbrarum tenui stridore volantum flebilis auditur questus; simulacra coloni pallida defunctasque vident migrare catervas.

If this is so we have here again a case of a contamination of two successive phases: there are visible shades on their way to the underworld (the mention of Odysseus points to the existence of fauces Avevni), not invisible souls on their way to the Isles of the Blessed.

As K. ter Laan, Nederlandse Overleveringen (Zutphen 1932), 18, rightly observes�he collected some data with regard to the 'passage of the souls'� here in the West the road of the souls of the dead was called the 'Helweg'. Again rightly, he adds, with a reference to Jak. Grimm in his Deutsche Mythologie, that in the first centuries after the introduction of Christianity

274

turn, of carrying the souls of the dead. When it is their turn they

go to bed early at night so as to get to sleep before the headman calls them. When a knock at the door is heard and their name is

called, almost inaudibly, they jump straight out of their beds and

betake themselves to the beach; though some of them have no idea

of what is driving them yet they feel themselves compelled. There

they see boats lying ready, not their own, nor is a mortal soul to be seen on them. So they step aboard and grasp the oars. But, oh, how heavy the boats are with such a crowd of passengers 1). The

boat floats hardly a hand's breadth above the water. Yet within the hour they are in England. Again, on arrival they see no one, even though they hear the names of the passengers called, with

the names of their fathers and with mention of their honours.

When Jan de Vries 2), who before this had written: "... reine

Seelenvorstellung, die auch jetzt noch bei den wenigsten Menschen

vorherrscht, ist wohl niemals Allgemeingut der prahistorischen Volker gewesen"-a point of view that is arguable provided the

word 'rein' is accentuated-comes to quote this story of Procopius, he finds himself obliged to admit 3) : "Eine deutliche Seelenvor-

stellung spricht aus der Erzahlung von Prokop (De Bello Goth.

IV, 48)". What the name of Nehalennia means is still obscure. Many have

seen in her a death goddess on account of the dog that accompanies her on many of the altars found near Domburg in the island of

Walcheren and Colijnsplaat in the island of North-Beveland. This

idea has been extensively elaborated by Gfntert 4), to whom I refer

without necessarily accepting his conclusion, viz, that Nehalen- nia would be identical with Nerthus (Tac. Germ. 40), whose name

in his opinion was to be associated with and Skrt.

nayaka 'underworld, hell'; this would take me too far away from

the people did not yet see in Hell a place of torture. For which reason, in Saxony-just as here and there in the Netherlands-the way to the grave is called the 'hel (I)weg' .

1) Cf. Wagenvoort, Roman Dynamism, 113. In Flanders it is still said that the soul of a dead person weighs heavy. See O. Mattheeuws, Per. Volkskunde 71 (1970), 1, 57.69.

2) J. de Vries, Altgerm. Relig. gesch. (1935), 110. 3) J. de Vries, op. cit., 274. 4) H. Güntert, Kalypso, 55 ff.

275

'provincia mea' 1). It should be observed, however, that this etymo-

logy takes the necessary connexion between death and the under-

world far too much to be self-evidently inherent right from the

beginning to the primitive Germanic trend of thought. This objec- tion does not agree with HeLm's point of view 2), who sees a link

between Nehalennia and E.Germ. nehvaz, Gr. vex4q, Lat.

nex, necare, although its suffix is not explained. Who was Nehalennia ? Jan de Vries has devoted an important

passage to this question 3). After having cited consecutively the

opinions of Jackel 4), Drexel 5), von Grienberger 6), and Mach'), he also considers the attempts at etymological explanation by

Kern 8), Ditter 9) and Kauffmann 1°), but is of opinion that these

attempts have not led to any results. Remarkably enough he does

not consider it proved that the goddess was a patroness of shipping. He admits that the baskets of fruit which on many altars stand

beside the goddess, the separate fruits she often holds in her

hand, as well as the cornucopiae which are also laden with fruit, and the dog, if this animal is also regarded as an attribute of a

death goddess, might possibly remind us of 'Entlehnungen an den

Isistypus'. This he does not recommend but with Kauffmann he

does consider it useful to link up Nehalennia with the goddess of

the Suebian tribe, whom Tacitus (Geym. 9) puts on one line with

Isis, in which a part is played by the fact that she has a ship as

her attribute. Moreover, with R. M. Meyer 11) he is inclined also to

1) As a matter of fact I have frequently crossed the border but always under reliable guidance.

2) K. Helm, Alt. Germ. Relig. gesch., I (Heidelberg 1923), 383 ff. 3) Jan de Vries, op. cit., 196 ff. 4) H. Jackel, Die Hauptgöttin der Istvaeen, Zfd Ph. 24 (1892), 289 ff. 5) F. Drexel, Die Götterverehrung im römischen Germanien, KRGK 14

(1922), 41. 6) Th. von Grienberger, review of W. Golther, Hb. d. germ. Mythol.,

Zs. f.d. österr. Gymnasien 47 (1896), 1006. 7) R. Mach, Der germanische Himmelsgott, in Festgabe Heinzel (Halle 1898),

261. 8) H. Kern, Germaansche woorden in de Latijnsche opschriften aan den

Beneden-Rijn, VMAA 2, 2 (1872). 9) F. Detter, Nahanarvali, Zfd A 31 (1887), 208.

10) F. Kauffmann, Dea Nehalennia, PBB 16 (1892), 210 ff. II) R. M. Meyer, Altgerm. Relig. gesch. (Leipzig 1910), 399.

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include Nerthus (Tac. Geym. 40) in the same connexion. This is a

standpoint that many share with him, provided there is no thought of identity but of parallel personalities (cf. Giintert above p. 274,

n.4).

Although I am inclined to disagree with de Vries, I do not dare to pronounce a definite judgment. For, as the reader will already know, there have very recently been important new discoveries

made with regard to Nehalennia. In April 197o near Colijnsplaat, a village on the North coast of the Island of North Beveland on the

East Scheldt, two altars to Nehalennia were dredged up out of

the water. In consequence of this attempts were made by archeo-

logists to get a richer catch out of the sea. The result was amazing: besides many Roman roof tiles, other building fragments and

pottery, 104 altars and statues were found of which 41 altars were

practically complete. The 'Koninklijk Zeeuws Genootschap der

Wetenschappen' organized a Nehalennia congress on yth and 18th June Ig7I, together with an exhibition of the chief finds both

from Domburg and from Colijnsplaat. This exhibition was under

the auspices of the National Museum of Antiquities at Leiden, under the archeological leadership of Dr. P. Stuart, conservator of

the said museum and Professor J. E. Bogaers of the University of

Nijmegen. This exhibition could not possibly be complete as the

latest finds discovered in the early months of 1971 were not yet

ready. The search will be continued by fishing with heavy nets and

by the work of divers. Nevertheless the splendidly illustrated guide to the exhibition, entitled 'Deae Nehalenniae', is a must for everyone interested.

Of the many coins found near Domburg most are dated between

180 and 218 A.D. Moreover on the North coast of the island of

Walcheren further to the east than Domburg Roman roof tiles have

been found with the stamp of CGPF that is Classis Geymanica Pia

Fidelis 1), the fleet which protected the Lower Rhine from the end

of the first till the beginning of the third century A.D. We know

that during the next three centuries Zeeland, the province to which

the islands mentioned belong, was often on frequent occasions

1) Cf. Fiebiger, RE 3, 2646, 27.

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severely ravaged by floods; these must have swept away the tem-

ples, together with broad stretches of coast. This much seems al-

ready certain, that a Nehalennia temple must have stood on the most

important sea lane to England and must have been used during the

early half of the third century A.D. For the rest it is still not pos- sible to come to definite conclusions. I therefore give the following considerations for what they are worth.

In my opinion, Nehalennia exercised four different functions.

She is in the first place the patroness of overseas trade. It is of

little use to go deeper into the matter, since the inscriptions speak for themselves. The dedicators of these altars were for the most

part merchants who, as the Colijnsplaat catalogue rightly observes

(p. 35), "have all been in some way concerned with navigation and

commerce in an area extending from the Rhineland to England and

France". Apparently none of these altars were for sacrificial

purposes but were exclusively meant as dona votiva for the adorn-

ment of the temples - which of course does not imply that no

sacrifices were made to Nehalennia. On one particular altar (Ho. 16 1), CIL XIII 8798) the making of offerings is depicted, which

would otherwise have little meaning. It is possible that at some

future time a sacrificial altar may yet be discovered. These altars

apparently serve a double purpose. In most cases a merchant who

despatched one or more ships, either to export his merchandise

abroad or to fetch raw materials from elsewhere, made a vow

beforehand that he would dedicate an altar to the goddess in case of

success. But it may also have occurred, in my opinion, that he suited

the action to the word and therefore before despatching a ship gave orders to place an altar in one of the two temples to propitiate the

goddess. The clearest case seems to me Ho. z. On this the inscription reads "D(eae N(ehalenniae) M(arcus) Assonius Aeliu(s) Q. B.". For

the last two letters I know no other explanation than that they

represent the abbreviation (for lack of space) of the well-known

blessing Q.B.F.F.(S.), quod bonum faustum felix (sit), "may all end

1) I quote the Domburg altars as Ho. 1, 2 and 3 as they are numbered in Mrs. Hondius-Crone's very useful book The Temple of Nehalennia at Domburg (Amsterdam 1955), and the Colijnsplaat altars as Col. 1, 2, 3 according to their sequence in the exhibition catalogue mentioned above.

278

well, favourably and happily" Of course the customary terms

v.s.l.m., votum solvit libens merito, "he has kept his vow «?ith pleasure and with reason" are missing here. The same holds good for Col. 23

pro meycibus conseyvandis as compared with Ho. 23, Col. 7, 11.32 ob

meyces recte (bene) conseyvatas.

Among the dedicators are salt-merchants (negotiatoyes salarii), Col. 1.4.25, fish-sauce (allec) -merchants, (negolialores allecayii), Col. 5. 22, dealers in white potter's clay or pipe-clay (cyeta),

cyetayii), Ho. 23 2). Nehalennia was therefore the patroness of trade

with England. Was she also the patroness of navigation in general ? I did indeed make a casual mention of this above, but I would

prefer not to call it her second function, though not entirely on

account of Jan de Vries's objections, which I have already referred

to. There is an element of truth in his consideration 3) that

even if returning seamen dedicated an altar to the goddess of the

island of Walcheren, it does not at all follow that the goddess was

considered by the islanders to be a patroness of navigation in a

general way. But there is a second objection. It can already be stated that there are striking essential differences between the

Domburg finds and those of Colijnsplaat. Of these I shall mention

two and compare them. Among the Domburg altars of Nehalennia

dealt with by Mrs. Hondius in her book there are twenty with a

complete inscription in which, for instance, the name of the dedica-

tor is mentioned, occasionally with his function and the reason for the

1) The well-known formula which the Romans, according to Cicero, de Div. I 102, omnibus rebus agendis praefabantur.

2) There seems to be some uncertainty as to the meaning of cretarius. A. W. Bijvanck, Excerpta Romana, II under No. 1605 (see also No. 248), translates negotiator cretarius by "dealer in earthenware" and refers to Behrens, Mainzer Ztschr. 10 (1915), 101, a source that I have found in- accessible. But according to Varro, l.l. 8, 55 a taberna cretaria is a shop where creta is sold, and in our case we must certainly think of creta figularis (Colum. VI 17.6.; VIII 2,3; Plin. N.H. XXXI 3, 47; creta figulinarum Plin. N.H. XIV 123), which is the same thing as armilla (see Colum. III I I, 9 creta qua utuntur figuli, quamque nonnulli argillam vocant; Pallad. r.r. I 34,3 creta quam argillam dicimus. This does not alter the fact that ars cretaria (CIL XIII 1906.6366) can indicate a pottery business, and that very probably an importer of white pottery clay from England (negotiator cretarius Britannicia- nus) would, for economical reasons, take his client's merchandise with him for sale overseas when undertaking a journey to England.

3) J. de Vries, op. cit., I, 196.

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dedication. The Colijnsplaat catalogue mentions 33 comparable altars. Now among the Domburg 20 there are only two that show

that the dedication has anything to do with commerce (Ho. g. "on

account of profitable business"; Ho. 23 "for the excellent preserva- tion of my merchandise", says the dedicator, who calls himself

negotiatoy cretaritts). On the other hand, of the 33 Colijnsplaat altars, 12 1) give proof of the commercial character of the enterprise; here we have negotiatores salarii (Col. 1, 4, 25), negot. cyetayii (Col.

11,45); negot. allecarii (Col. 5,22) and shipowners, nautae (Col. 13,

27); others give the reason or purpose of the dedication (Col. 14, 32,

35, 50). Of course neither here nor in the future shall we lose sight of the fact that new finds may change the situation. What conclusion can we draw from this difference ?

No doubt more can be concluded for Colijnsplaat than for Neha-

lennia. Colijnsplaat must have been more important for commerce

than Domburg. Apparently not all ships called at Domburg; this

will have depended on wind and weather. Therefore it is an impor- tant fact that the same merchant M. Secundinius Silvanus (Ho. 23; Col. II) dedicated an altar to the goddess in both places. These

altars show great similitude, the inscriptions being literally identical.

Yet there is one characteristic difference: Col. 11 displays at the

back a curtain that is missing in Ho. 23. Such curtains are not in-

frequent ; on Domburg altars they are to be found on Ho. 4, 5, 6, 10,

12, 14 (He. 2) 13, 14, Ig, 4, 16) = CIL XIII 8783, 8786, 8792, 8790,

8791 resp. and Colijnsplaat on Col. 1, 2, 6, m, 12, 17, 37. This is a remarkable phenomenon known to us from elsewhere.

Opinions differ greatly as to its meaning. O. Deubner 3) considers

such auLaea (payapetasmata, vela) to be purely decorative: they were borrowed from the representations of aediculae as depicted on

Pompeian wall-paintings 4), they were exposed to the rain by

1) Or rather 13, for Col. 44 shows by a relief rather than by an inscription that we have here a wine merchant.

2) The abbreviation He. refers to F. Heichelheim, art. Nehalennia, RE XVI, 2177 ff.

3) O. Deubner, Röm. Mitt. 53 (1938), 29. 4) E.g. in the Casa dell' Apolline; see L. Curtius, Wandmalerei Pompejis

(Cologne 1929), fig. 100.

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standing in the open air and so had to be protected. This is also

Mrs. Hondius' point of view 1). She claims that an altar to Jupiter has been found in Cologne which also has a curtain 2), in which case

it can, in her opinion, have nothing to do with the life hereafter, as

others have supposed, an argument to which I shall return. Most

investigators do, however, think that there is a symbolic signific- ance. According to Cumont 3), for example, "il n'est pas douteux

que cette draperie repr6sente le vetement glorieux dont I'Ame sera

enveloppe pour entrer au celeste sejour". Lameere 4), on the other

hand, sees in the velum a symbol of the body; hence that on some

sarcophagi, where it serves as a background for the portrait of the

deceased, it is drawn aside by two genii.

Strictly speaking this is not the place to discuss this problem

fully, for if it should appear that such ideas have also penetrated to the cult of Nehalennia, this can only mean that in the course

of centuries an ancient popular belief was unable to withstand

foreign influences. I myself am not able to explain the development of the motif satisfactorily, but I do not doubt the accuracy of the

point of view upheld by many scholars who see in the Payapetasma a veiling of the future which awaits the souls of the dead on the

Isles of the Blessed, in Elysium or in the sphere of the moon, or

wherever the abode of the blessed souls has successively been

localized. Among these many are Alfoldi 5), de Ruyt s), van Schoo-

nebeck'), 1'Orange 8), finally also the already mentioned Lameere

and Cumont, and last but not least Becatti 9).

1) Op. cit., 108 and n. 90. 2) F. Fremersdorf, Führungsblatt durch das römisch-germanische Museum

im Dombunker zu Köln (1953), pl. 18 (not accessible to me). 3) F. Cumont, Recherches sur le Symbolisme funéraire des Romains (Paris

1966), 476. 4) W. Lameere, BCH 63 (1939), 43 ff. 5) A. Alföldi, Insignien und Tracht der römischen Kaiser, Röm. Mitt.

50 (1935), 134 ff. 6) F. de Ruyt, Études de Symbolisme funéraire, Bull. Inst. belge de Rome,

17 (1936), 160 ff. 7) H. von Schoenebeck, Altchristliche Grabdenkmäler u. antike Grab-

gebräuche in Rom, ARW 34 (1937), 71, 2. 8) H. P. l'Orange, Studies on the Iconography of Cosmic Kingship in the

Ancient World (Oslo 1953), 135 ff. 9) G. Becatti, Scavi di Ostia, Edificio con opus sectile fuori Porta Marina,

281

It cannot be denied that Schumacher's and Becatti's points of view show some kinship. It must be conceded to Becatti that

there is no clear evidence for a kind of cenotaph, but in my opinion this cannot be said of allusions to the death of a person who had

died young. I should therefore prefer to combine the two points of

view in such a sense that the death of a youthful son of Junius Bassus was the inducement to honour his memory by the institu-

tion of a schola as meant by Becatti, based on the convictions

which, as B. rightly explained, were gaining considerable ground in

the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D., so that the popular belief under-

went, as it were, a renascence. On the one hand, it is understandable that traces of this renascence were to be found here and there

along the ancient road of the souls of the dead towards the

West, and on the other hand, that Christianity and paganism found here a point of contact and that a father whose son was con-

verted to Christianity, in which he himself could not believe, was

pleased to stress those points of contact both for his own consolation and in exculpation of his son. This appears most clearly from the

vol. VI (Roma 1967), 191 ff. (I owe the reference to this important work to Prof. Salomonson). After dealing with the excavations in Ostia in the years i938-r9q.o, especially of the Aula Ostien.se, the author adds an extensive appendix on the Basilica of Junius Bassus on the Esquiline, on the grounds that the styles of decoration of both buildings show a great resemblance. Discussions are sf ill going on as to the actual function of the Basilica, but W. N. Schumacher, Zum Sarkophag eines christlichen Konsuls, R6m. Mitt. 65 (1958), II7, go, has already assumed that this Basilica was erected in memory of a member of the Bassi family who died young, whereby it is possible that other members of the family were commemorated. The founder was the consul of 331, who had already been praefectus praetorio for fourteen years, and may possibly, just as his son, have already been a Christian, but this, according to Becatti, cannot be proved. The building had no inscription on the outside but in the apse was written: JUNIUS BASSUS V C CONSUL ORDINARIUS PROPRIA IMPENSA A SOLO FECIT ET DEDICAVIT FELICITER. This building was dug up in 1930 by Ashby and Lugli; the aula, according to Lugli must afterwards have been altered into a church. In 809 it was restored by Leo III. For the rest we must restrict ourselves to the subject in question, namely the mural deco- rations in wood mosaic. Becatti treats them very extensively and also gives (p. 191) an explanation of the vela Alexandrina as well as a paragraph on 'Il neo-pitagorismo e il programma decorativo e simbolico della Basilica di Giunio Basso'. The book is illustrated with excellent plates. The writer is inclined to see a schola in the Basilica intended for intellectual gatherings of a philosophical society with mystic tendencies.

282

representation of Hylas, the young boy who was stolen by the

nymphs, a representation which shows a curtain hanging down a wall and ending in a looped up velu7n, separated from the top part

by a border with Egyptian-like motifs, as if this velum also originally covered the scene of Hylas and was pulled down in order to display it. Now the myth of the Rape of Hylas is a well-known motif of

Hellenistic grave-symbolism 1). Becatti, too, admits (p. 207);

"L'apoteosi dell'anima, manomessa dalla schiavitu terrena, rapita come Hylas dalle Ninfe et ascendente sul carro alle sfere celesti, e 1'aspirazione di queste dottrine filosofiche misticheggianti". Illustrative of the syncretic disposition of the founder is the fact

that one wall of the Basilica also displays a portrait of Christ, which was of course a reason to suppose that the building was meant as a Christian church. As Becatti rightly remarks (p. 161), this

hypothesis is refuted by the subordinate position of the picture on a side wall of the aula. Nevertheless he wishes Christ to be

regarded as the Patronus Collegii in the same way as the mediaeval

guilds had their patron saints. The curtain below the panel of the Rape of Hylas is not the only

one in the Basilica. We cannot dwell on this question any more than on the other representation which equally evokes the thought of a happy existence hereafter. Now are the curtains of the Nehalen-

nia altars to be put on the same footing as the vela in the Basilica ? I would not like to say so, but they have too much resemblance not to be of the same origin. For I imagine that when a merchant's

ship had returned safely from England he gladly kept his vow to dedicate an altar to Nehalennia. But what was he to do if the

sea-crossing had cost the lives of one or more of the crew, maybe one of his near relatives? Could it be that as a sign of mourning and at the same time of faith in a happy life after death he dedi-

cated an altar, but then one with a curtain draping the back?

Of course this is only a hypothesis, but not too daring a one, as it

seems to me. The rites of the sarcophagi and of the Basilica were

1) Cf. F. Cumont, op. cit., 402, 3, where we find parallels from Celtic and Germanic folklore and many references to literature, and the observa- tion : "La Fable racontait qu'Hylas avait été ainsi ravi et la sculpture funéraire s'est plu à figurer ce mythe, en particulier sur les tombeaux d'en- fants"; cf. p. 97, 2.

283

not original either, and were, in all probability, borrowed from the

East. From Palmyra in Coele Syria we know of ancient sepul- chral columns which in respect of ornamentation are in all details

so exactly like the wood mosaics of the Basilica Junia that it defi-

nitely suggests an indirect borrowing. There too the vela hang beneath a depicted scene or beneath an inscription with the name

of the deceased, but again mostly separated from the curtain by a

border with motifs borrowed from Egypt 1). It sometimes occurs

that the curtain is suspended on both sides by standing palm bran-

ches. Here Cumont 2 ) expands his already mentioned point of

view with the words: "Il n'est pas douteux que cette draperie

repr6sente le vetement glorieux dont l'ame sera enveloppee pour entrer au celeste sej our et la double palme est l'insigne de la victoire

conquise sur la puissance hostile du Trepas". It would be fascinating if some time we map out in a satisfactory way the whole course of

development of the Palmyra motif to Domburg. Even though, in my opinion, these curtains are symbols of

mourning, and at the same time-in this I agree with Cumont-

proofs of a joyous faith in a happy survival of the soul hereafter, Nehalennia was not necessarily a death goddess, unless by this

term we mean a goddess who, like Nehalennia, not only protects seamen on their passage to the West, but also extends this patronage to the souls of the dead on their journey from the west coast of

Europe to the sunny land in the far West.

I therefore picture the matter to have been as follows: when a

beloved relation or friend had died-or possibly was known to be

dying-a prayer was addressed to the goddess to guide the soul

of the deceased safely to the land of the blessed, together with a

vow to dedicate an altar for him or her in the temple at Domburg.

I would like to go into this more thoroughly and so bring this

discussion to a swift conclusion. However, we mentioned above

that our goddess had four functions. Of these we have only dealt with her function of patroness of foreign trade. In this capacity she

was apparently more important in Colijnsplaat than in Domburg.

1) See Becatti, op. cit., 194 f., pl. XLVI. 2) Cumont, op. cit., 470, fig. 103.

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I should like to mention two other functions and to one of these I shall only devote a few words.

Nehalennia was also a fertility goddess. Very seldom are the baskets of fruit, which are often accompanied by cornucopiae, absent from her representations. If we review this combination of

seafaring with trade and fertility, it is no wonder that the goddess was often identified with Isis in people's minds. Together with

Jan de Vries I reject the idea of her identification with Isis, but also the hypothesis that she may be closely related to Nerthus, my argument being the consideration that Nehalennia was also a

goddess of hunting. This, in my opinion, is proved by altar Ho. 21, which no longer exists and is only known to us from old drawings. On the right hand side we see a hunter with a walking-stick in his

right hand, while in his left hand he holds a cudgel Hom. IL. 23, 845, later from which a hare is hanging. This 'hare-catcher' was therefore not only his carrying-pole, but also his

weapon. This is not our only piece of evidence, for the hare was not the only game that was sacrificed to the goddess. On the mensa of altar Ho. 6 lies a boar's head with loaves and fruit on either side. Mars. Hondius-Crone 2) thinks it 'too fine' for this, but I am inclined to ascribe this to the erosion it was exposed to. The same applies to an altar from Colijnsplaat with on the mensa "two recumbent

animals", "goats or swine ?" asks the writer. I am not in a position to express an opinion, but if both possibilities exist, the latter seems to me to be most likely. On the same page she mentions the altar Ho. 6 with an animal's head, difficult to recognize, between two loaves. As is well-known, it was a general custom to sacrifice heads of animals to the gods. Thus Eliade speaks of "le sacrifice des tetes

d'animaux, que les peuples chasseurs des regions arctiques offrent encore de nos j ours aux dieux celestes" and gives plenty of literature in illustration 3).

1) Cf. Orth, RE IX, 573, 41. 2) In the periodical Spiegel Historiael II (1970), 623. 3) Eranos-Jb. 22 (1954). 78. Cf. id., Mythes, rites et mystères (5Paris 1957)

and the literature he refers to. Nehalennia shows a close affinity to the Ma- tres; it is therefore interesting to quote F. Heichelheim, art. Matres, RE XIV, 2247, 65: "Das Hauptopfer scheint das Schwein gewesen zu sein, von dem besonders der Kopf den Matronen geweiht wurde".

285

Nehalennia's function as goddess of the hunt makes any identi-

fication with Isis especially improbable, but Jan de Vries' suggestion to relate her to Nerthus does not attract me for the same reason.

I prefer to see in her a local hypostasis of Artemis-Diana and shall

below give a few points of resemblance

But before dealing with this I will first point out what, in my

opinion, was the principal function proper to Nehalennia. This will

enable me not to neglect one aspect of her nature which Mrs. Hondius

rightly emphasizes, namely Nehalennia the goddess of light. For it

is my conviction that Domburg was one of the places Procopius had in mind, where, according to popular belief, the journey of the

souls of the dead across the sea to the West began, and that Neha-

lennia was considered to be the protectress just as much of the dead

souls on their journey as of ships with merchandise. This conviction

is based on the following arguments.

a) Above I drew attention to the fact that there are striking differences between the Domburg finds and those of Colijnsplaat. I will add one more difference. At Domburg were found not less

than six altars with a representation of Neptune-Poseidon on the

sides (Ho. 3, 4, 6, Io, 12, ig). In addition two altars were specially dedicated to Neptune (Ho. 33, 36). Furthermore a statue of Neptune was found and there must have been a second because a second

head of Neptune was discovered (Ho. 35). At Domburg Neptune therefore occurs ten times. On the other hand, at Colijnsplaat

Neptune is only met with once on an altar (Col. 14). This is certainly a ratio demanding some explanation, in the first place because at

Colijnsplaat the finds are so much more numerous than at Domburg and secondly because it appears to us that the transport of merchan-

dise in the former place must have played a greater part than in the

latter and that Neptune as sea-god must have been more important at Colijnsplaat than at Domburg. I said "Neptune as sea-god", but is it certain that we find the god in this function here ? That is

what I cannot accept. Those who are acquainted with the exhaustive

study that Fritz Schachermeyer devoted to Poseidon 1) must have

1) F. Schachermeyer, Poseidon und die Entstehung des griechischen Götter- glaubens (Bern 1950).

286

been impressed by the significance of the god as death-god and

must take into account his observation, p. ig, n. 12: "Zutreffend Kern (Relig. d. Griechen I - 1926, 44) : 'Poseidon ... , ist ein uralter

chthonischer Gott, der Herr der fliessenden Gewasser;' vgl. ebenda

S. 60 f, g2 ; ebenso Lesky, Thalatta (I947, S. 95 ff.)" It seems to me

that there can be no doubt but that in Domburg we are concerned with Neptune as death-god.

b) A similar observation can be made with regard to Hercules-

Herakles. In Domburg we find him six times (again on altars Ho. 3,

4, 6, 10, 12). After everything that I have remarked about him

in my former article it cannot surprise us to find him in regular

company with Neptune; nor is it surprising that he occurs only once

in Colijnsplaat, again on the same altar Co. 14.

c) On some of the altars-not those of Colijnsplaat but exclusively

Domburg-we come across representations which seem to confirm

my point of view. Of these I would mention in the first place Do. 4 where we find a representation of the Garden of the Hesperides, where stood the tree of life with its golden apples. Those who do not

accept that Nehalennia, as the people saw her, had something to do

with life hereafter ought certainly to explain what moved the dedica-

tors to have this representation depicted on the altar.

d) Another altar (Do. 15) leads our thoughts in the direction of

the 'light-goddess'. For here we see the sun depicted, not as a round

disc as we might expect but as a semi-circle rising above the horizon, therefore as Dawn. Again it must strike us how in those early days the common people tried to express symbolically their hope of a hap-

pier life after death. In another treatise I hope to examine more

deeply the religious significance of Eos-Aurora, the personified dawn.

e) A fifth representation (Ho. p. 5r and iog), also from Domburg,

possibly the most remarkable of all, requires a technical elucidation

of which I do not find myself capable and for which I refer to an

Excursus (below p. 28g) .

f) A characteristic distinction between Domburg and Colijnsplaat is, moreover, that Domburg supplied two statues of Victory, a

goddess who has as yet not been found at Colijnsplaat. Why was

Victory considered to belong to Nehalennia's temple and that

especially at Domburg ? It seems to me that anyone considering the

287

enumerated points a-f and then taking the trouble to read attentive-

ly what St. Weinstock writes about this symbolism under the title

Tlictoyia und Apotheose (RE VIII A, 2, col. 2539 f.) can have no

doubt of the dedicator's firm faith in the happy lot awaiting their

deceased relations and friends I) .

Objectivity demands that I draw attention to an ostensibly weak

point in the above argument, namely, to the fact that most of the

altars quoted end with the stereotyped letters-for Romans at

least-v.s.L.m. The dedicator v(otitm) s(olvit) l(ibens) m(eyito) : has

kept his promise to Nehalennia with pleasure and "according to her

merits". Was he able to say so, if he had lost one or more of his

sailors at sea ? That seems to me unthinkable. Therefore, if those

letters are found on an altar together with a curtain, I am inclined

to put that down to the routine of the sculptor.

Finally we shall consider the resemblance between Nehalennia

and Artemis-Diana mentioned above (p. 285) 2). As an introduction

we should observe that Artemis-Diana was also worshipped in the

West, especially in the Celtic regions (W. 338, Ig) . It was especially the equites singulares, mainly consisting of inhabitants of the

Danube countries, Germans and Celts who disseminated her

worship (W. 334, 40, 51, 55), so that Wissowa (335, 21) can ascertain

that votive inscriptions to Diana as goddess of the hunt are to be

found in all provinces. In addition it must be remembered that

Artemis-Diana, as also Isis, was worshipped outside her land of

origin under numerous native names, especially in Celtic territory

(W. 338, Ig) 3). Domburg lay in the area of the Celtic Morini tribe

1) For Victory as a general symbol for continued existence after death, see also F. Cumont, op. cit., index, especially 101, 165, 466.�It gives me pleasure to note that here Mrs. Hondius (p. I I I) and I are completely in agreement.

2) So as not to be too expansive 1 shall confine myself, as far as literature is concerned, to the articles in RE and Roscher's Lexikon, therefore for Artemis: Wernicke, RE II, 1336 ff. and Schreiber, Rosch. Lex. I, 558 ff. ; for Diana: Wissowa, RE V, 325 ff.; Birt, Rosch. Lex. I, 1002 ff. (to be quoted as We., S., W., and B. resp.).

3) Cf. the interesting quotation given by Jan de Vries, op. cit., 235: "In der Passio Kiliani Martyris Wurziburgensis (MG Scr. rer. Mer. V, 727) behauptet ein kürzlich Bekehrter, dass seine Vorfahren die magna Diana verehrt hatten".

288

whose capital was Taruenna i), a name which was possibly formed

with the same suffix as Nehalennia. They were known to the Romans as the inhabitants of the extreme West coast of Europe;

Virgil (Aen. 8, 727) calls them extyemi hominum.

Nehalennia resembled Artemis also in her function as goddess of the sea, patroness of seafaring and trade. The latter goddess is

also 'Gottin der Seefahrer' (S. 561; 540, 52. 68; W. z34o, 52 f.,

1349, 60). Both goddesses also promoted fertility (for Diana, see above, for Artemis S. 562 ff., 590, 6). Whether this function in Nehalennia extended also to fertility in women, as in the case

of Artemis and Diana (W. 328, g ; 32g, 18 ; 332, 63) does not appear, which proves nothing, as the monuments we possess fail us. Another

piece of evidence might argue in favour of this. From Domburg's Nehalennia we have also an altar in honour of the goddess Burorina, who is known nowhere else. If we could see in her a hypostasis of

Nehalennia, who was possibly called by this name by another

tribe, and if Steuding could be right in explaining her name, in

imitation of Grimm (D. Myth. 323, 526), as the 'Gebahrerin', we

might as well assume that Nehalennia too assisted mothers in the

hour of birth. Nehalennia also shows a relationship with Artemis- Diana as a Light Goddess. On one of the three sides of the altar of

S. Juventius Suavis in Verona (CIL 5, 3224) Diana stands as a

huntress with the inscription Dianae Lucif(eyae) 2). It is true that

another side characterizes her there as moon-goddess with the

legend Lunae, but in Domburg there was no necessity especially to

accentuate that side of her nature. In my opinion, the possibility exists that the connexion between Nehalennia and the souls of

the dead, as I have endeavoured to set forth, was not original; that is to say, did not date from the time when the dead were

considered to travel to the Isles of the Blessed, but from another

period when it was believed that they went to dwell on the moon 3), which led to the fact that souls of deceased women were identified

with the Moon Goddess, especially with Diana 4).

1) Cf. W. 334, 44 ff. 2) Cf. Cumont, op. cit., 191, 2 3) Cf. Cumont, op. cit., 191, 2 and passim. 4) B. Schröder, Bonn. JBB. 108 (1902), 62, 2; cf. Cumont, op. cit., 242, I.

289

Those who object to the explanation of the dog accompanying Nehalennia as a symbol of death will remember that Diana too

is often accompanied by a dog 1) and Artemis likewise 2).

Just as Heracles is given the title of in the function

that brought him into contact with Nehalennia, Artemis also

acts as protectress and guide, especially of ships (Callim. Diana 227) 3).

As to the presence of Jupiter in the company of Nehalennia, I am

inclined to think that it has to be explained by the fact that appar-

ently the Germans knew Jupiter as the god who sent storm, thunder

and lightning, therefore identified him with their god Donar and

consequently interpreted lat. dies Iovis as 'Thursday', Germ.

'Donnerstag', for which reason he, too, like Nehalennia, had to be

propitiated 4).

Excursus

The Domburg Night Indicatoy

On p. 286, sub e) I did not further explain the reasons on

which I based my belief in Nehalennia's patronage over the souls

of the dead in transit, this requiring a technical elucidation; I had

in mind Ho. 12 5), an altar fragment with a remarkable representa- tion in which Mrs. Hondius saw merely a wheel with a horn. This

representation continued to bother ine. Finally I thought I recog- nized in it a kind of hoyologium which indicated on the ship the

beginning and end of the day- and night-watches; the horn reminded

me of the bucina with which these periods were announced. For,

seeing that the circle was divided into eight sectors by eight spokes 6) I understood them rightly or wrongly to refer to the eight vigiliae in

I) W 337, 36; cf. 335, 60. 2) S. 570, 29. 579, 17. 595. 40. 604, 54. 3) Cf. Paus. IX 35, 2. 4) I am grateful to Mrs. Hondius-Crone, Prof. J. E. Bogaers (Nijmegen),

and Dr. P. Stuart (Leiden) for their help and useful advice. 5) See Plate 1. I am indebted to Mrs. Hondius for lending me a repro-

duction of this object. 6) On old drawings (the altar no longer exists) we also find the representa-

tions of a circle with seven sectors. This would probably mean an inaccuracy on the part of the sculptor, or possibly of the designer.

290

which the Romans divided their natural day. Thus Hugo Blfmner 1) writes: "Den Tag teilte man ursprfnglich in zwei Teile: von

Sonnenaufgang bis Mittag, und von Mittag bis Sonnenuntergang; das ist die Einteilung, die sich noch im XII Tafelgesetz ausspricht .... Vermutlich hatte man die Nacht ursprunglich auch so in zwei

Teile, vor und nach Mitternacht, geteilt, aber militarische Rfcksich-

ten hatten schon sehr frfh zu einer Vierteilung der Nacht (den vier vigiliae) gefiihrt, deren Trennpunkte durch Hornsignale

angezeigt wurden. Infolgedessen wurde es iiblich, auch den Tag in

vier gleich lange Teile zu zerlegen (Censor. de die nat. 23,g)" 2). On

page 50 of her book Mrs. Hondius speaks of a wheel and a horn, but

as I told her, it reminded me more of a symbolical, stylized ship's chronometer. What I meant by 'symbolic' will appear below;

'stylized' refers to an inaccurate design in consequence of inadequate technical skill of the sculptor, and 'ship's chronometer' appeared an

infelicitous word capable of causing misunderstanding, even though I had thought of indicating the nocturnal hours in connexion with

the night-watches by means of the horn, the bucina of which

Blumner speaks. But this did not appear to be correct. I was

surprised by Mrs. Hondius' reply, to whom I submitted this idea, as I had not yet realized that she was a sister of Dr. Ernst Crone, our authority on the history of nautical matters. She sent me his

article entitled De Nachtwijzey of het Noctuyniaal, which appeared in the periodical De Zee, Nos. 7 and 8 of 1939. From this I gather the following data. The altar fragment shown in the illustration

(fig. I) represents the ancient predecessor of an instrument which

was described by Joh. H. R6ding in his Allgemeines Wb. der Mayine

(Hamburg, 1796) as follows: "Ein Instrument, dessen man sich

vormals bediente, in der Nacht zu finden, wie viel der Polarstern

1) H. Blümner, Die römischen Privataltertümer (Munich 1911), 373. Cf. G. Bilfinger, Die antiken Stundenangaben (Stuttgart 1888), 48: "Die letzte Nachtwache heisst die matutina (vgl. des jüngeren Arnobius Commentar zu Psalm 109: quarta vigilia matutina, quae in ortum luminis adimpletur). In den Anfang setzt Plinius, N.H. X 21, den Hahnenschrei (cum sole eunt cubitum, quartaque castrensi vigilia ad curas laboremque revocant).... Beginn der 4. Nachtwache = = 9 Uhr". Thus the last nightwatch announces the new day.

2) Cf. W. Kubitschek, Grundriss der antiken Zeitrechnung (Munich 1918), 174 ff.

291 NEHALENNIA AND THE SOULS OF THE DEAD

h6her oder niedriger stand als der Pol um die Latitude und die Stunde der Nacht zu bestimmen. Das Instrument konnte auch auf andere Sterne gerichtet werden die niemals untergehen; allein der Gebrauch dieses Instruments ist zo fehlerhaft, dass es gar keiner

Erwahnung verdient. Fast in allen altern Lehrbiichern der Steuer- mannskunst findet man eine Beschreibung von dem Gebrauch desselben" I). How ancient this instrument was, which was still used in the 16th and yth centuries, can be betermined from the fact that F. A. Ward, Time Measurement, part I, Historical Review,

zg36, wrote: "A primitive form of this method was employed by the ancient Egyptians for finding the hour of the night, but their method required the co-operation of two observers, each holding a plumb-line". In the course of the centuries the night indicator

naturally underwent radical improvements, but it would exceed

my competency to go deeper into this matter. Those who are interested will have to wait until the appearance within a short time of Dr. Ernst Crone's new treatise, which will contain an

explanation of this instrument. To him I owe the knowledge that the figure on the stone represents a simple instrument by which the time of night could be determined from the position of the stars.

In the meantime it seems to me also justifiable to ask here what in the world can have induced the sculptor or his principal to

depict this particular instrument on an altar to Nehalennia. It seems to me that this depiction must have a symbolic meaning. As already stated, the horn is not the bucina, as I originally thought, but,

being broad at the top and pointed at the bottom, represents the constellation of Ursa Minor and ought to have been fastened in the middle of the circle so that it could be turned. The sculptor did not understand this and hung it in front of the dial. Now if, as its name

indicates, the instrument only showed the hour of the night, my original idea that the eight sectors of the circle represented both the four night-watches and the four day-watches, cannot be correct,

1) See Fig. 2. A photograph of this copper nocturlabium (nightwatch) was placed at my disposal by the "Scheepvaartmuseum" at Amsterdam through the kind offices of Dr. Ernst Crone, who, moreover, explained to me the use of the night indicator. and will elsewhere give an expert explanation of the instrument and its later development.

292

from which I concluded that the horn, which is hung up in such a

way that it can give the impression of functioning as a clockhand

(gnomon), pointed to a moment of time a little past the end of the fourth night-watch, therefore the time of dawn, in which case it

would mean the same thing as the sun rising above the horizon (see above p. 286, sub. d). However, if the whole dial represents the hours

of the night, the horn, regarded as a pointer, would show that it was

at least past midnight, and it may possibly not be too far-fetched to ascribe the same meaning to it.

UTRECHT, Prins Hendriklaan 68