Matres

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The Matres or Matronae (Latin for "important mothers/ladies") were ancient deities venerated in northwestern Europe from the 1st to the 5th century AD. They are believed to have originated in Celtic cultures.

Matronae were representations of motherhood, often displayed with fertility symbols such as baskets or cornucopias of fruit and bread, or babies. They are usually depicted wearing long garments with one breast bared. In some depictions they are different ages - girl, matron and crone (Robert Graves among others have popularized the idea that this is the common or default configuration, but in fact three mothers is much more common.)

Worship of the Matres was widespread in Celtic and other European religions, with monuments to them having been discovered in Gaul, Germania, northern Italy and northern Spain. Just as the religion had a wide range of adherents, so were the identities of the Matronae widespread. They differed widely from place to place, with a great many names: Deae Matres (or Matrones), the Suleviae, Alaferhuic, Cartovallensic, Rumaneheic, the Vatviaic-Nersihenic Mothers, and many others. In Glanum, Provence they were called the Glanicae. Their number was most likely influenced by the Celtic tradition of triplism, which deemed the number three to be particularly auspicious. There are numerous singular matronly goddesses of Northern Europe as well, many difficult to distinguish from the triplicate variety (from whom they may often derive, or vice-versa), while the triadic version are clearly cognate with the Greek Fates and Roman Furies, and the Nordic Norns or Weird Sisters, and survive in caricatured form into relatively modern times as the three witches of Shakespeare's Macbeth. The concept of the Triple Goddess remains important in Neo-Paganism.

See also

• 'Goddess', section 'Triple Goddess'
• Dea Matrona (Matrona)
• Deae Matres (Deae Matrones)
• Triple deitiesde:Matrone

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