ProQuest Dissertations - Historia Antigua

Athena, indicates that the Insubrian goddess was a goddess of war and victory, much asthe Roman Minerva. 51The statue of Minerva in the pedimental sculpture at Luna depictsthe goddess in her armor. 52Thus, in choosing to found a cult to the Capitoline Triad, thecolonists in Luna not only flattered their patron, Lepidus, through his connection to JunoRegina, but they forged a link to their Gallic neighbors, who also worshippedMinerva/Athena as a military goddess.In Paestum, the cult of Minerva more obviously overtook the local worship ofAthena. The great temple to Athena in the Greek colony of Poseidonia stood at the top ofa slight rise overlooking the city. It was built at the end of the sixth century BCE.Anarchaic small temple, dating to c. 580 BCE, stood beside the Athenaion. The attributionto Athena is based on votives found near the temple: terracotta statuettes of a female deitywearing a helmet or bearing a round shield with the head of a Gorgon. 54The Latincolonists transferred their worship at this sanctuary to the corresponding Roman version,Minerva. Two artifacts were found in the North Sanctuary with the word "Menervae"inscribed on them: the lip of a dolium {[M]enerv[ae] ILP 7) and a large block{[MJenervae ILP 5 = CIL I 2 3147). 55The continuation of worship of the same goddess atthe same shrine probably allowed a point of common culture between the Latin colonistsand their Greek and Lucanian neighbors.51 Caes. B Gall. 6.17.2 also comments on a Gallic goddess that corresponds to Minerva. On the syncretismof Minerva with a Celtic goddess: Mastrocinque (1991), p. 221 ff.; Chirassi Colombo (1976), p. 204 ff.;Cantarelli (1987), p. 101 ff.; Cenerini (1992), p. 105; Scheid (1992), p. 35; and on Celtic Minerva: DeVries (1982), p. 107 ff.52 See Strazzula (1992), Tav. IVa, Andreen C:2.5j Greco, D'Ambrosio, and Theodorescu (1996), p. 34.54 Ibid. p. 142.55 Torelli (1999b), pp. 52-53.210