Sirona (goddess)

The name of the goddess was written in various ways: Sirona, Đirona, Ꟈirona, Thirona,[1] indicating some difficulty in capturing the initial sound in the Latin alphabet.

[5] The name Đirona consists of a long-vowel, o-grade stem tsīro- derived from the root *ster- and a -no- suffix forming adjectives indicating "a belonging" in many Indo-European languages.

As the map shows, it is primarily concentrated in east-central Gaul, up to the Germanic lines, and along the Danubian limes as far east as Budapest.

An example from Sarmizegetusa in Dacia AE 1983, 00828: and another from Augsburg AE 1992, 01304 where Sirona is given the epithet sancta (holy) and is identified with Diana: A dedication from Großbottwar in Baden-Württemberg CIL XIII, 06458 can be precisely dated to the year 201 CE by mention of the two consuls, L. Annius Fabianus and M. Nonius Arrius Mucianus: At the sulphur springs of Alzey in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, a stone bas-relief shows Sirona wearing a long gown and carrying a patera in her right hand and a sceptre in her left.

The statue of Sirona shows her carrying a bowl of eggs (Green 1986 p. 162) and holding a long snake coiled around her lower arm (a link to the iconography of the Greek healing goddess Hygeia, daughter of Asklepios).

Often these were of the Gallo-Roman fanum type, an inner [cella] with an outer walkway or pronaos, and were constructed around thermal springs or wells, as at Augst (Bakker 1990) and Oppenheim-Nierstein (Cüppers 1990).

From Ihn-Niedaltdorf an inscription (CIL XIII, 04235) records the donation of a building and its furnishings at the dedicant's expense: At Wiesbaden in Hesse (in antiquity, Aquae Mattiacorum) an inscription (CIL XIII, 07570) records the restoration of a temple by a curator at his own expense: It seems possible that another Wiesbaden inscription (CIL XIII, 07565) that the wife of military commander Porcius Rufianus from Mainz dedicated to an otherwise unknown goddess ""Diana Mattiaca"" for the healing of her daughter Porcia Rufiana, also refers to Sirona:[8] An elaborate shrine and temple complex at Hochscheid (Cüppers 1990) has already been mentioned.