Sulis

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Sulis

In localised Celtic polytheism

Celtic polytheism

Celtic polytheism, sometimes known as Celtic paganism, refers to the religious beliefs and practises of the ancient Celts of western Europe prior to Christianisation....
practiced in Britain, Sul or Sulis was the deification of the thermal spring-water of Bath, Somerset, where she was worshipped by Romano-British as Sulis Minerva

Minerva

Minerva was the Roman mythology name of Greek goddess Athena. She was considered to be the virgin goddess of warriors, poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving,crafts, and the inventor of music....
, whose votive objects and inscribed lead tablets suggest that she was conceived both as a nourishing, life-giving mother goddess

Mother goddess

A mother goddess is a term used to refer to any goddess associated with motherhood, fertility, creation or the bountiful embodiment of the Earth....
and an effective agent of curses wished by her votaries.

uil in Old Irish

Irish language

Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic languages of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people....
is 'eye' or "gap".

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In localised Celtic polytheism

Celtic polytheism

Minerva

Mother goddess

Etymology

Suil in Old Irish

Irish language

Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic languages of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people....
is 'eye' or "gap". Did her name "Sulis" suggest, in Gallo-Brittonic, the connotation of the 'orifice or gap' through which the healing waters ran? At Delphi the omphalos or navel was an opening into the other world.

However, the reconstructed lexis

Lexis

Lexis may refer to:* Lexis , the total bank of words and phrases of a particular language, the artifact of which is known as a lexicon*Wilhelm Lexis , an eminent German statistician, economist, and social scientist and a founder of the interdisciplinary study of insurance...
of the Proto-Celtic language as collated by the University of Wales suggests that the name is likely to be ultimately derived from the Proto-Celtic *Su-lijis. This Proto-Celtic word connotes the semantics

Semantics

Semantics is the study of meaning in communication. The word is derived from the Greek language word s??a?t???? , "significant", from s??a??? , "to signify, to indicate" and that from s??a , "sign, mark, token"....
of ‘Good, Flooding One,’ *lij- being found in *Lijros (‘tidal flood, sea,’ cf Lir

Lir

In Irish mythology, Lir or Ler was the god of the sea, father of Manannan mac Lir, and a son of Elatha. In early genealogies, he is named All?d, and corresponds to Llyr in Welsh mythology....
and Llyr

Llyr

Llyr is a figure in Welsh mythology, the father of Bran the Blessed, Branwen and Manawydan by Penarddun. The Welsh Triads mention he was imprisoned by Euroswydd; the Four Branches of the Mabinogi#Branwen, Daughter of Llyr of the Mabinogion names Euroswydd as the father of Penarddun's younger two sons, Nisien and Efnisien....
) and in *Lij-enissa (‘tidal island;’ cf. Lyonesse

Lyonesse

Lyonesse, Lyoness, or Lyonnesse is a country in Arthurian legend, birthplace of the knight Tristan.In a later tradition, Lyonesse is identified as a Lost lands lying off the Isles of Scilly, to the south-west of Cornwall....
). This apparent semantic connotation has led Dr. John Koch at the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies to suggest that this mythic personality may well personify “beneficial water-flow,” of which the thermal springs at Bath and perhaps other sites may well have been deemed a manifestation. This theory, if it is correct, would account for the associations with potentially therapeutic thermal springs.

The usual etymology is that Sulis means 'sun', however, as this is the original form of Welsh haul 'sun' and Old Irish suil (from Indo-European

Proto-Indo-European language

The Proto-Indo-European language is the unattested, linguistic reconstruction common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans....
*sawel-); cf. Latin sol 'sun'.

Bath cult

Sulis was the local goddess

Genius loci

In Roman mythology a genius loci was the protective spirit of a place. It was often depicted as a Serpent . In contemporary usage, "genius loci" usually refers to a location's distinctive atmosphere, or a "spirit of place", rather than necessarily a guardian spirit....
of the thermal springs that still feed the spa

Thermal bath

A thermal bath is a warm body of water. It is often referred to as a spa, which is traditionally used to mean a place where the water is believed to have special health-giving properties, though note that many spas offer cold water or mineral water treatments....
baths at Bath, which the Romans

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
called Aquae Sulis
Aquae Sulis

Aquae Sulis was a small town in the Roman province of Britannia. Today it is known as Bath, Somerset, located in the England county of Somerset....
("the waters of Sulis"). Her name appears on inscriptions at Bath, but nowhere else. This is not suprising, as Celtic deities often preserved their archaic localisation. They remained to the end associated with a specific place, often a cleft in the earth, a spring, pool or well. The Greeks referred to the similarly local pre-Hellenic deities in the local epithets that they assigned, associated with the cult of their Olympian pantheon at certain places (Zeus Molossos only at Dodona

Dodona

Dodona in Epirus in northwestern Greece, was a prehistoric oracle devoted to the Mother Goddess identified at other sites with Rhea or Gaia , but here called Dione and later, in historical times also to the Greek mythology God Zeus....
, for example). The Romans tended to lose sight of these specific locations, except in a few Etruscan cult

Cult

This article does not discuss "cult" in the original sense of "veneration" or "religious practice"; for that usage see Cult . See Cult for more meanings of the term "cult"....
inheritances and ideas like the genius loci
Genius loci

In Roman mythology a genius loci was the protective spirit of a place. It was often depicted as a Serpent . In contemporary usage, "genius loci" usually refers to a location's distinctive atmosphere, or a "spirit of place", rather than necessarily a guardian spirit....
, the guardian spirit of a place.

"Minerva"

At Bath, the Roman temple

Roman temple

In the ancient religion of Roman paganism, practitioners often performed their worship at a temple....
is dedicated to Sulis Minerva, as the primary deity of the temple spa. Through the Roman Minerva syncresis

Syncretism

Syncretism consists of the attempt to reconcile disparate or contrary beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought. The term may refer to attempts to merge and analogy several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, and thus assert an underlying unity allowing for an inclu...
, later mythographers have inferred that Sulis was also a goddess of wisdom and decisions.

Sulis was not the only goddess exhibiting syncretism

Syncretism

Minerva

Senua

Senuna was a Celtic polytheism worshipped in Roman Britain, whose name was at first read incorrectly as Senua. She was unknown until a cache of 26 votive offerings to her were discovered in 2002 in an undisclosed field at Ashwell End in Hertfordshire by metal detectorist Alan Meek ....
's name appears on votive plaques bearing Minerva's image, while Brigantia

Brigantia (goddess)

Brigantia was a goddess in Celtic polytheism religion of Late Antiquity.In the interpretatio Romana, she was equated with Victoria ....
also shares many traits associated with Minerva. The identification of multiple Celtic gods with the same Roman god is not unusual (both Mars and Mercury were paired with a multiplicity of Celtic names). On the other hand, Celtic goddesses tended to resist syncretism; Sulis Minerva is one of the few attested pairings of a Celtic goddess with her Roman counterpart.

Dedications to “Minerva

Minerva

Great Britain

Great Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the List of islands by area, and the largest in Europe. With a population of 58.9 million people it is List of islands by population....
and continental Europe, normally without any Celtic epithet or interpretation. (Cf. Belisama

Belisama

In Celtic mythology, Belisama was a goddess worshipped in Gaul and Ancient Britain. She was connected with lakes and rivers, fire, crafts and light....
for one exception.)

A similar name, Suleviae

Suleviae

In Celtic polytheism, Sulevia was a goddess worshipped in Gaul and Roman Britain, very often in the plural forms Suleviae or Suleis....
, frequently identified as a plural form of Sulis, has been attested in the epigraphic record from sites at Bath and elsewhere. The aspect of plurality links the Suleviae to a good many widely-revered divine mothers, who frequently appear with two or three primary aspects to their character.