THE GODDESS IN THE CART

Edward Hilton

One of the most famous historians of the Roman Empire was Cornelius Tacitus (85-120 CE). He was variously a soldier, senator, consul-general of Rome and son-in-law to Julius Agricola, the governor of the British province. Tacitus is best known for his histories of Britain and Germany published in 98 CE. His study of the German tribes records many interesting details of their religious and magical beliefs. For instance he mentions that the Germans did not confine their Gods within walls or portray them in human form. They worshipped outdoors in sacred groves within woods and forests and they 'apply the names of deities to that hidden presence which is only seen by the eye of reverence.' Tacitus also described how the German priests cast the runes, divined the omens from the flight of birds and the behaviour of sacred horses. The Germans also believed that women had 'an element of holiness and a gift of prophecy'. It seems that because of this belief women took an important priestly role and female seers were highly regarded and widely consulted as oracles.

Tacitus listed the many and varied tribes in Germany with their individual customs and social attributes. He added that there was nothing noteworthy about them individually except that they shared a common worship of a goddess called Nerthus who represented the spirit of Mother Earth. According to the Roman historian, her main shrine was located in a sacred grove on 'an island of the sea'. This 'sea' was possibly a large lake in southern Denmark. On this island an image of Nerthus sat in a chariot, cart or wagon (wain) 'veiled with a cloth' to hide her face from the profane. Usually only the priests of the Terra Mater were allowed to touch this sacred vehicle or look at the image of the goddess.

At special times of the year, around the vernal equinox and before the harvest was gathered in, the veiled goddess in the cart was wheeled out of her shrine, taken off the island and ritually processed around the countryside. During that period all warfare and social strife had to cease and it was said that the common people rejoiced with joyful merrymaking. When the goddess 'has had enough of the company of men' the priests escorted her back to her sacred island. The cart, the vestments and the image of the goddess were then ritually cleansed in the waters of the lake. This ritual was carried out by slaves who were afterwards drowned because they had gazed on the uncovered face of the goddess.

Similar rites to this were also performed at the spring equinox in honour of the Middle Eastern god Attis in Asia Minor. During these fertility ceremonies a statue of the goddess Cybele was processed through the streets. This practice was said to bring good luck to everyone who witnessed it. A ceremonial four-wheeled cart has also been excavated at Strettweg in Austria and has been dated to around the 7th century BCE. The cart features a large central female figure supporting a dish or bowl with her upraised arms. Several smaller (to show they are human) figures share the cart with this goddess image. They include a woman, two warriors, and an ithyphallic man with a battle-axe. There are also two representations of stags with magnificent branching antlers. Davidson (1998:16) speculates that this image may represent a goddess of wild animals and this divine archetype was one that was well known and widespread in ancient Europe. Two small ceremonial wagons were also recovered from a peat bog at Dejbjorg in Denmark and they have been dated to the late 1st-2nd century BCE. These ritual wains had wooden frames, a seat of wood and leather and both were richly decorated with animal and human faces.

In the later pre-Christian period in northern Europe some of the attributes of the old earth goddess seem to have been taken over by the goddess of love Freya. She belongs to the ancient Vanir family of deities whose origins may date back to the Bronze or even Neolithic Age. Freya's twin brother, Frey, was the ithyphallic god of fertility and the harvest and he also seems to have adopted the ancient role of Nerthus as the deity who blessed the crops. His main festival was celebrated around harvest time at the end of August and the Saga of Olav Tygravson (10th century CE) describes the custom of processing the god's image around the fields in a wagon. A beautiful young priestess who was regarded as Frey's wife accompanied it.

In other parts of Europe this blessing ritual seems to have survived the coming of Christianity. In the 6th century CE Pope Gregory describes in his Liber in Gloria Confessonum how a 'pagan idol' representing 'the Great Mother' was still taken around the fields and vineyards in Italy by ignorant peasants. Earlier in the late 4th century Bishop Simplicus had also seen people dancing and singing before a similar image. (Davidson 1998:57). Some of the attributes credited to the old earth goddess also became transferred to the Virgin Mary. In medieval Christian France statues of the Virgin and saints were processed through the fields to bless the crops and bring a good harvest (Berger 1988). Memories of pre-Christian rites to thank the earth or grain goddess also survived into early modern times. A German diarist writing in the early 17th century reported that rural folk celebrating harvest home put the last load of corn on to a haywain, covered it with flowers and placed an 'image richly dressed by which perhaps they would signify Ceres' on top. Then they drove it through the countryside to the barn. (Wilson 2001:16).

'The Goddess in the Cart' is one of the more interesting aspects of the ancient fertility goddesses of the earth and agriculture in northern and western Europe. The evidence of eyewitness accounts, literary sources and archaeological remains spanning a long period of time, supports her worship. Contrary to some popular modern beliefs, the Goddess has always been a complex figure and this can be clearly see in the development of various goddess images in mythology and folklore from the Neolithic period to early modern times.

Bibliography and further reading: The Agricola and Germania Tacitus. Translated by H. Mattingley and S.A. Handiford (Penguin 1948), The Lost Gods of England Brian Branston (Thames & Hudson 1974), Roles of the Northern Goddess H.R. Davidson (Routledge 1998), Freyja and Frigga by Stephen Grundy in The Concept of the Goddess edited by Sandra Billington and Dr Miranda Green (Routledge 1996), The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe H.R. Davidson (Routledge 1993), Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe H.R. Davidson (Manchester University Press 1998), The Goddess Obscured: Transformation of the Grain Protectress From Goddess to Saint Pamela Berger (Robert Hale 1988) and The Magical Universe: Everyday Ritual and Magic in Pre-Modern Europe Stephen Wilson (Hambledon and London 2001).