In Gallo-Roman religion

Gallo-Roman religion

Gallo-Roman religion was a fusion of the traditional religious practices of the Gauls, who were originally Celtic speakers, and the Roman and Hellenistic religions introduced to the region under Roman Imperial rule. It was the result of selective acculturation....

, Ancamna was a goddess worshipped particularly in the valley of the Moselle River

Moselle River

The Moselle is a river flowing through France, Luxembourg, and Germany. It is a left tributary of the Rhine, joining the Rhine at Koblenz. A small part of Belgium is also drained by the Mosel through the Our....

. She was commemorated at Trier

Trier

Trier, historically called in English Treves is a city in Germany on the banks of the Moselle. It is the oldest city in Germany, founded in or before 16 BC....

 and Ripsdorf as the consort of Lenus

Lenus

Lenus was a Celtic healing god worshipped mainly in eastern Gaul, where he was almost always identified with the Roman god Mars. He was an important god of the Treveri tribe, who had large sanctuaries at medicinal springs at Trier and the Martberg by Pommern in what is now Germany. Two dedications...

 Mars

Mars (mythology)

Mars was the Roman god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome. He was second in importance only to Jupiter, and he was the most prominent of the military gods worshipped by the Roman legions...

, and at Möhn

Welschbillig

Welschbillig is a municipality in the Trier-Saarburg district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany....

 as the consort of Mars Smertulitanus

Smertrios

In Gallo-Roman religion, Smertrios or Smertrius was a god of war worshipped in Gaul and Noricum. In Roman times he was equated with Mars. His name contains the same root as that of the goddess Rosmerta and may mean "The Purveyor" or "The Provider", a title rather than a true name...

. At Trier, altars were set up in honour of Lenus Mars, Ancamna and the genii

Genius

Genius is something or someone embodying exceptional intellectual ability, creativity, or originality, typically to a degree that is associated with the achievement of unprecedented insight....

 of various pagi

Pagus

In the later Western Roman Empire, following the reorganization of Diocletian, a pagus became the smallest administrative district of a province....

of the Treveri

Treveri

The Treveri or Treviri were a tribe of Gauls who inhabited the lower valley of the Moselle from around 150 BCE, at the latest, until their eventual absorption into the Franks...

, giving the impression of Lenus Mars and Ancamna as tribal protectors honoured in an officially organized cult. Among the few statuettes left as votive offerings left at the sanctuary of Mars Smertulitanus and Ancamna at Möhn is one of a genius cucullatus

Hooded Spirits

The Hooded Spirits or Genii Cucullati are figures found in religious sculpture across the Romano-Celtic region from Britain to Pannonia, depicted as "cloaked scurrying figures carved in an almost abstract manner" . They are found with a particular concentration in the Rhineland...

like those offered to the Xulsigiae at the Lenus Mars temple complex in Trier.

Inciona

Inciona

Inciona is a little-known Celtic goddess of the Treveran region. Her name is recorded as one of a pair of deities on two votive inscriptions from Luxembourg....

 is also apparently invoked along with Lenus Mars Veraudunus

Veraudunus

Veraudunus is the name of a Celtic god known only from two votive inscriptions found in Luxembourg. One of these inscriptions suggests that ‘Veraudunus’ may have been an epithet of the important Treveran god Lenus Mars...

 on a bronze ex voto from Luxembourg; it is unclear what connection, if any, exists between Inciona and Ancamna. Jufer and Luginbühl link Ancamna with two other consorts of the Gaulish Mars, Litavis

Litavis

Litavis is a goddess in Celtic mythology worshiped by the ancient Gauls. Her name is found in inscriptions found at Aignay-le-Duc and Mâlain of the Côte-d'Or, France, where she is invoked along with the Gallo-Roman god Mars Cicolluis in a context which suggests that she might have been his consort...

 and Nemetona

Nemetona

Nemetona is a Goddess of ancient Celtic religion worshiped in eastern Gaul. She is thought to have been the eponymous deity of the Germano-Celtic people known as the Nemetes; evidence of her veneration is found throughout their former territory in and around what is now Trier, Germany...

, noting that none of these appear to be warrior goddesses themselves; instead, they suggest that Ancamna might have been associated with a spring

Spring (hydrosphere)

A spring—also known as a rising or resurgence—is a component of the hydrosphere. Specifically, it is any natural situation where water flows to the surface of the earth from underground...

. Edith Wightman considers the couple Mars Loucetius and Nemetona

Nemetona

Nemetona is a Goddess of ancient Celtic religion worshiped in eastern Gaul. She is thought to have been the eponymous deity of the Germano-Celtic people known as the Nemetes; evidence of her veneration is found throughout their former territory in and around what is now Trier, Germany...

to be "closely similar to if not identical with, Lenus and Ancamna".

Further reading

• Ellis, Peter Berresford (1994). Dictionary of Celtic Mythology(Oxford Paperback Reference), Oxford University Press, Oxford. ISBN 0-19-508961-8
• MacKillop, James (1998). Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Oxford University Press, Oxford. ISBN 0-19-280120-1.
• Wightman, Edith Mary (1970). Roman Trier and the Treveri. Rupert Hart-Davis, London.
• Wood, Juliette (2002). The Celts: Life, Myth, and Art. Thorsons Publishers. ISBN 0-00-764059-5