Abandinus

Abandinus was a name used to refer to a Celtic god or male spirit worshipped in Godmanchester in Cambridgeshire during the Romano-Celtic period.

Epigraphic evidence

Abandinus is represented in Britain on a single altarstone. He is unknown throughout the rest of the Roman Empire and is therefore thought to have been a local god of the Roman fort at Godmanchester in Cambridgeshire, possibly associated with either a natural spring or a stream in the neighbourhood

The Roman fort at Godmanchester, a strategic site on Ermine Street at the crossing of the River Great Ouse, is thought to have been called Durovigutum. The god is known only from an inscribed bronze feather, very likely some sort of votive object, dedicated to him . The inscription on the bronze feather reads:

"DEO ABANDINO VATIAVCVS D S D"

• ‘To the god Abandinus, Vatiacus dedicates this out of his own funds’.

Semantics of the theonym

The semantics of the theonym are unknown. All the same, linguistic knowledge of Proto-Celtic lexis permits a narrowing of the likely possibilities of the theonym’s semantics. The name could be interpreted as an extended form of a stem composed of Proto-Celtic elements deriving from Proto-Indo-European roots *ad- ‘to’ + either *bʰend- ‘sing, rejoice’ or *bʰendʰ- ‘bind’ . Along these lines, the name would mean ‘(the god) who sings to (something/someone)’ or ‘(the god) who binds (something/someone) to (something/someone).’ However, it is also possible to see the name as an extended form of a variant form of the Proto-Celtic word *abon- ‘river,’ derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *ab-, *h₂eb- ‘water, river’ . The Romano-Celtic name for the Humber is documented as having been Abus which suggests that a shorter element *abo- existed in the Proto-Celtic lexicon as a word for ‘river’ or ‘water.’ This *abo- element could have been the source of the Ab-- element in the theonym Abandinus. So the name can also be analysed as *Ab-Andinus ‘Andinus of the River,’ Andinus being a theonym attested elsewhere in the ancient Roman Empire.

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