Abnoba is a name with theological and geographical meanings: It is the name of aGaulish goddess who was worshiped in theBlack Forest and surrounding areas.[1] It is also the name of amountain ormountain range.
The etymology of the theonym is uncertain. It has been associated[by whom?] with the etymon *abo-s "water, river", found in e.g. Avon (*abonā). The second element has been connected[by whom?] to either aPIE *nogʷo-, either "naked, nude" or "tree",[clarification needed] or[by whom?] with the verbal root *nebh- "burst out, be damp".
Abnoba has been interpreted to be aforest andriver goddess, and is known from about nine epigraphic inscriptions. One altar at theRoman baths atBadenweiler,Germany, and another atMühlenbach identify her withDiana, theRoman goddess of the hunt.[2]
Abnoba, sometimes spelt Arnoba or Arbona,[3] has been used to refer to a mountain range comprising theOdenwald,Spessart, andBaar mountains. This composite range extends from theRhine to theNeckar, and is referred to by one of the various names listed depending on the region it is passing through.[4]
According toTacitus'sGermania, Abnoba was the name of a mountain, from a grassy slope of which flows the source of the RiverDanube.
Pliny the Elder also gives us some statements about Abnoba (Natural History, 4.79). He says that it arises opposite the town of Rauricum in Gaul and flows from there beyond the Alps, implying that the river begins in the Alps, which it does not. If Rauricum is to be identified with the Roman settlement, Augusta Raurica, modernAugst inBasel-Landschaft canton ofSwitzerland, Pliny must be confusing theRhine and its tributaries with the Danube.
The Danube begins with two small rivers draining theBlack Forest: theBreg and theBrigach, both Celtic names. The longest is the most favorable candidate: the Breg. The Abnobaei montes would therefore be theBaar foothills of theSwabian Alb nearFurtwangen im Schwarzwald.
Ptolemy'sGeography (2.10) also mentions the mountain range, but incorrectly implies a position north of theAgri Decumates andMain river. It has been suggested that this error comes about through the use of differing and imperfect sources to make this section of the Geography. In effect Ptolemy has apparently confused the Abnoba with the Roman border, and therefore with what are today called theTaunus mountains.[5]
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