Fülöp Gyula (szerk.): Festschrift für Jenő Fitz - Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei. B. sorozat 47. (Székesfehérvár, 1996)

M. Šašel Kos: The gooddess Aecorna in Emona

JENŐ FITZ SEPTUAGENARIO

M. SaSel kos

THE GODDESS AECORNA IN EMONA

There is not much extant evidence on the life in the pre- Roman Emona and its territory. One testimony of this region, however, is certainly the name of the local goddess Aecoma. She was worshipped only in Emona and its territory; outside this area her cult is attested only in Savaria, where an altar had been set up to her by Emonienses qui consistunt finibus Savarfiae), thus explicitly confirming her close connection with Emona. Her name is mentioned on the following six inscriptions:

1. Nauportus (present-day Vrhnika. in German Oberlaibach), CIL 111, 3776 = I1 2 2285 = ILS, 4876 = ILLRP, 33 = M. Sasel Kos. in: Jana Horvat, Nauporlus (Vrhnika), Ljubljana, 1990. p. 149. No. 2 (inscription lost):

P. Petronius P. I(ibertus) \ Amphio / C. Fabius C. L(ibertus)

I Corbo ' magiistri) vici aedem / Aequor (nae) de vi(ci) / sfententiaj ffaciendum) coir(averunt).

2. Emona (Ljubljana, in German Laibach), CIL III, 3831 = ILS, 4875 a = AIJ, 148 (preserved in the National Museum in Ljubljana):

C. Aemilius ! Felix / Aecur(nae) / vfotum) s(olvit) I(ibens) mferito/.

3. Emona. CIL III. 3832 = ILS. 4875 b = AIJ, 149 (as No. 2): Auctus Aecornae j vfotum) s(olvit) l(ibens).

4. Emona. CIL III, 150 = ILS, 4875 c = AIJ, 150 (as No. 2):

G. Cl(audius) Pri;am(us) Aec(ornae) / v(otum) s(olvit) l(ibens) mferito).

5. Emona. J., A. Sasel. Arh. vest. 28 (1977), 334 ff. (preserved in the City Museum in Ljubljana):

Aecornae Aug(ustae) / P. Cassius Secundus / praef(ectus) alae Brit(annicae) / milliariae c(ivium) R(omanorum) Is bis torquatae donis I donatus bis bello Dacico ab / impferatore) Caesare Serva / Traiano Augfusto) Gerfmanico) /10 Dacico I coronis vexillis hastis (Fig. 1).

6. Savaria (present-day Szombathely, discovered at Ondód), RW I, 135 = Die römischen Steindenkmäler von Savaria,

(1) R. Egg«, Römische Antike und frühes Christentum 2 (1963), p. 232.

(2) For this linguistic observance, as well as for others which follow, 1 am indebted to Dr. Marko Snoj (Ljubljana).

(3) Th. Mommsen, CIL I2,2285. Cf. W. H. Roscher in Ausfuhr. Lexikon

der gr. u. röm. Mythologie, Vol. 1 (1884-1890), s.v.; H. Jordan’s

edition of L. Preller, Römische Mythologie, repr. 1978,

1971,70. Cf. T.A. Horváth, Annales Sabarienses 3 (1927/29), p. 96 ff.; B. Sana, Pannonia 1 (1935), p. 175; Id., Glasnik Muzejskega drustva za Slovenijo 12 (1931), p. 5 ff :

Aecornae / Augfustae) sacfrum) / Emonienses / qui Is). consistunt /finibus / Savarfiae) / vfotum) s(ohenmt) Ifibentes) mferito).

As can be seen from these inscriptions, the name of the goddess was variously transcribed. The oldest form is attested on the Nauportus inscription (No. I) which is dated to the 1st century B.C.: Aequorna. The text displays another archaic form: coirf averunt), on the basis of which it can be assumed with some probability that the inscription dates from earlier than 50 B.C.' The other two variants of the name (which are more or less contemporary) are Aecuma, attested only once on No. 2, and Aecoma which was, it seems, the most current form of the goddess’ name. In terms of Latin historical phonetics it seems best to assume that the original form of the name, Aequorna, became *Aequurna, which made possible the delabialization to Aecoma.2

According to Th. Mommsen, whose opinion was accepted by several other scholars, Aequoma / Aecoma was an old Latin deity, its name being derived from the word aequor = sea.3 Mommsen, H. Jordan, and W.H. Roscher have all interpreted her as a deity connected with sea-transport and mercantile activities. It should be noted, however, that aequor means primarily a smooth or level surface, a level stretch of ground, or plain, its further meaning being also the water(s) of a river.4 These other meanings would probably be more significant for the possible etymology of the goddess’s name, given that the territory on which her cult is attested lies relatively far (ca. 100 km) from the sea. It was precisely her eminently local character which prompted G. Wisowa to express doubts about her Latin origin.5 Similarly a Latin explanation of her name was doubted by A. Mayer who, however, proposed a most unlikely etymology for it.6 In his opinion, the name of the goddess derived from the German word for squirrel, which in the original German form would appear as *aik-uer-na[n]. His attempt at etymology has several weak points, but is could anyway be rejected solely from historical point of view. It is impossible to

pp. 121-122, n. 1 ; Diz. ep„ s.v. Cf. Ileana Chirassi Colombo, I culti locali nelle regioni alpine, Antichità Alloadriatiche 9, Udine, 1976, p. 189.

(4) See, for ex., Oxford Latin Dictionary, Oxford 1968, s.v.

(5) G. Wissowa, RE I, 1 (1893), 605 (s.v.).

(6) A. Mayer, Aequorna Augusta, Glotta 35 (1956), pp. 155-159.

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