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A MYSTERY AMONG THE MYSTERIES: ARE THERE OLD ICELANDIC MYSTERIES within the same Christian religion). Anyhow, we do not find any reference to “mysteries” behind the data referring to the three “genuine” cult systems among the early Germanic tribes. In chapter 9, Tacitus says that some Suebians offer sacrifices also to the Egyptian goddess Isis (Pars Sueborum et Isidi sacrificat). For Tacitus it seemed strange that the Germans should adopt any cult of a faraway goddess. He supposed that they found the decorated heavenly boat, that is, the symbol of Isis, familiar (unde causa et origo peregrino sacro, parum comperi, nisi quod signum ipsum in modum liburnae figuratum docet advectam religionem). We know that there was a strong cult of Isis all over Egypt (and in Rome). It is interesting to notice that according to Tacitus, the contemporary Germans invoked the secret names of the gods, which they observed in “reverence” (lucos ac nemora consecrant deorumque nominibus appellant secretum illud, quod sola reverentia vident). This “secret knowledge” announced by the name of the gods might be interpreted, to some extent, as a kind of “mystery.” Tacitus as a very early witness is even more intriguing if we consider the archaeological data connected with Nehalennia.* The name of a Germanic goddess, Nehalennia occurs centuries later on many votive tablets from the 3 century AD among Western Germans. The richest archaeological sites are Domburg and Colijnsplaat at the mouth of river Schelde, i.e., along the westernmost seashore in today’s Netherlands. Unfortunately, we do not know direct descriptions of the rites which may have been carried out then or later because since Tacitus’ time, the two shrines or temples once existing there have been covered by sand dunes or were simply washed away by the sea. Two tablets with identical motifs were also found in the Köln - Deutz area. On the tablets, we see the goddess with a basket of fruits, a dog, often inclining on a boat, or with an oar. The Romanized symbolic motifs were definitely borrowed from the “Cult of Matrons” in Rome; the dog as an animal referring to death and the ship belong to the lore of many “sea-faring” gods in the Antiquity. The inscriptions reveal a connection of Nehalennia with deep sea sailing. It is imaginable that this was the reason why Nehalennia had a cult on the western coast of the European continent. One votive altar inscription (Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, vol. XIII, N° 8798) directly equates Nehalennia with Isis. There has been a lengthy discussion among German philologists in the 19" and 20" centuries on whether we can suppose the existence of any “seagoddess” among the early Germans. Or is Nehalennia only a reminiscence of a simple local variation of a rite of the seamen living on the coasts of the Atlantic? The reports do not refer to any “mysteries” but we cannot 5 See G. Neumann - P. Stuart, Nehalennia, in Heinrich Beck et al. (eds.), Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde. (Hereafter RDA.) Zweite, völlig bearbeitete und stark erweiterte Auflage. Berlin - New York, Walter de Gruyter, 2002, Bd. 21, 61-64. + 107 + Daréczi-Sepsi-Vassänyi_Initiation_155x240.indb 107 6 2020. 06.15. 11:04:15
