Deities
Trebaruna
Lusitanian Deities
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A goddess of the Lusitanian and Vettonian peoples of western Iberia, best known from the Cabeco das Fraguas inscription in the Guarda district of Portugal, one of the longest and best preserved texts in the extinct Lusitanian language, which records a suovetaurilia style sacrifice naming several native deities in sequence and specifies a ewe lamb, oilam usseam, offered to Trebaruna by name alongside offerings made to Reve and other native figures. Outside this one major inscription and a small number of shorter votive texts, nothing else about her survives; no myth or narrative account of her exists in any source.
Facts
Origins
Place of OriginBest attested at Cabeco das Fraguas in the Guarda district of Portugal, and on a small number of further votive inscriptions across Lusitanian and Vettonian territory. 1 Origin of the NameTrebaruna's name is generally parsed as a Celtic compound of a word for home or dwelling and a word for secret or mystery, reading her as a goddess of household protection and hidden knowledge, though other scholars propose instead a root meaning protector or a separate root meaning wise. No single reading commands full agreement. 1 Attestation
Veneration TodayHistorically attested; no continuous cult 1 Disputed
Domain / FunctionHearth and domestic fire 1 The Cabeco das Fraguas inscription, the fullest surviving text naming her, records only that she received a lamb in a multi-deity sacrifice and gives no explicit domain of its own. The common description of her as a hearth or household protector goddess rests on comparison with her named companions in the text and on how her name has sometimes been parsed, rather than on any explicit ancient statement of her function, so her precise role remains a scholarly reconstruction rather than a flatly attested fact. Belief
TheologyPolytheistic: many gods 1 A Lusitanian goddess named alongside Reve in the Cabeco das Fraguas sacrifice inscription, part of the same described native pantheon. Cult
Attributes and IconographyNo image or physical description of Trebaruna survives. She is known only from the Cabeco das Fraguas sacrifice inscription and a handful of shorter votive texts, none of which is accompanied by a carved figure or any account of her appearance. 1 Correspondences & Relations
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Iberia directly: "and Vettonian peoples of western Iberia, best known from the Cabeco das Fraguas inscription in the Guarda district of Portugal, one of the longest and best preserved texts in the extinct Lusitanian..."
This source names Portugal directly: "inscription in the Guarda district of Portugal, one of the longest and best preserved texts in the extinct Lusitanian language, which records a suovetaurilia style sacrifice naming several native..."
Reve, Deities This source names Trebaruna directly: "and he appears by name, alongside Trebaruna and other native deities, in the Cabeco das Fraguas sacrifice inscription, one of the longest surviving texts in the extinct Lusitanian language."
Reve, Deities This source names Reve directly: "by name alongside offerings made to Reve and other native figures."
Worshipped In
Sources
1. Jose d'Encarnacao
Jose d'Encarnacao, Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, Lisbon, 1975
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