TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

110 GODS.
lacum potamicum, ibique a Willimaro presbytero honorifice suscepti,
septem dies cum gaudio permanserunt. Qui a sarictis interrogatus,
si sciret locum in solitudine illorum proposito congruum, ostendit
eis locum jocundissimum ad inhabitandum nomine Brigantium.
Ibique reperientes templum olim christianae religioni dedicatum,
nunc autem demonum imaginibus pollutum, mundando et conse-
crando in pristinum restituerunt statum, atque pro statuis quas
ejecerunt, sanctae Aureliae reliquias ibidem collocaverunt. By this
account also the temple is first of all Christian, and afterwards
therefore not an old Eoman
occupied by the heathen (Alamanns),
one. That Woden s statue was one of those idola vana that were
broken to pieces, may almost be inferred from Jonas s account of
the beer-sacrifice offered to him. Eatpert s cantilena S. Galli has
words :
only the vague
Castra de Turegum adnavigant Tucconium,
Decent fidem gentem, Jovem linquunt ardentem.
This Jupiter on fire, from whom the people apostatized, may very
well be Donar (Thunar, Thor), but his statue is not alluded to.
According to Arx (on Pertz 2, 61), Eckehardus IV. quotes Jovis
et Neptuni idola, but I cannot find the passage ; conf. p. 122
Ermoldus Nigellus on Neptune. It is plain that the three statues
have to do with the idolatry on L. Constance, not with that on L.
Zurich ; and if Mercury, Jupiter and Neptune stood there together,
the first two at all events may be easily applied to German deities.
In ch. VII, I will impart my conjecture about Neptune. But I think
we may conclude from all this, that our ires imagines have a better
claim to a German origin, than those imagines lapideae of the
Luxovian forest, cited on p. 83 1 .
1 Two narratives by Gregory of Tours on statues of Diana in the Treves
country, and of Mercury and Mars in the south of Gaul, though they exclude
all thought of German deities, yet offer striking comparisons. Hist. 8, 15 :
Deinde territorium Trevericae urbis expetii, et in quo nunc estis monte
habitaculum, quod cernitis, proprio labore construxi ; reperi tainen hie Dianae
simulacrum, quod populus hie incredulus quasi dcum adorabat. columnam etiam
statui, in qua cum grand! cruciatu sine ullo peduni stabam tegmine. . . .
Verum ubi ad me multitude vicinarum civitatum coniluere coepit, praedicabam
jugiter, nihil esse Dianam, nihil simulacra, nihilque quae cis videbatur exerceri
cultura : indigna etiam esse ipsa, quae inter pocula luxuriasque profluas cantica
proferebant, sed potius deo omnipotent!, qui coelum fecit ac terram, digimm
sit Bacrificium laudis impendere. orabam etiam saepius, ut simulacra dominus
diruto dignaretur populuni ab hoc errore discutere. Flexit clomini nnVcricordia
meiitcm rusticam, ut inclinaret aurem suam in verba oris mei, ut scilicet
relictis iilolis dominum sequeretur, (et) tune convocatis quibusdam ex cis
simulacrum hoc immensum, quod elidere propria virtute non poteram, cum