#MermaidMonday: Sirona
Sirona was a goddess primarily venerated in East Central Gaul and along the Danubian limes. Revered as a deity of healing, she was closely linked with sacred springs, and her worship was accompanied by symbols of snakes and eggs. In the sulphur springs of Alzey in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, there is a stone bas-relief depicting Sirona […]
Sirona was a goddess primarily venerated in East Central Gaul and along the Danubian limes. Revered as a deity of healing, she was closely linked with sacred springs, and her worship was accompanied by symbols of snakes and eggs.
In the sulphur springs of Alzey in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, there is a stone bas-relief depicting Sirona represented in a flowing gown, holding a ceremonial bowl called patera in her right hand and a sceptre in her left. The identification of this figure as Sirona is confirmed by a dedicated inscription in which she’s associated with Apollo.
A bronze statue from Mâlain in the Côte d’Or, dated to 280 CE, shows her naked to the waist and holding a snake, together with an Apollo intent on playing the lyre.
Another statue is present at the spring sanctuary of Hochscheid, where she is depicted holding a bowl of eggs and with a long snake wrapped around her lower arm, a motif reminiscent of the iconography associated with the Greek healing goddess Hygeia, daughter of Asklepios. She is attired in a long gown and adorned with a star-shaped diadem atop her head, a symbolic connection to the significance of the name Sirona, which likely meant ‘stellar’ or ‘astral’.
She’s today’s watery feature on my Patreon.
