Agrona
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In Celtic mythology, Agrona was a goddess of strife and war worshipped in Britain. The river Aeron in Wales comes from her name.
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Etymology & Fundamental Nature
The reconstructed lexis of the Proto-Celtic language as collated by the University of Wales [1] (http://www.wales.ac.uk/documents/external/cawcs/pcl-moe.pdf) suggests that the name is likely to be ultimately derived from the Proto-Celtic *Agronā. This Proto-Celtic word connotes the semantics of ‘Slaughter.’ This apparent semantic connotation has led Dr. John Koch at the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies to suggest that this personality may well personify “carnage”. This theory, if it is correct, would account for the associations with strife and war
Parallels in non-Celtic cultures?
If the theory is correct that Agrona is in fact a personification of ‘carnage’, this allows one to draw parallels with such beings in the mythology of other cultures as Eris, Brynhildr, Harpy, and Valkyrie beings.
Bibliography
- Ellis, Peter Berresford, Dictionary of Celtic Mythology(Oxford Paperback Reference), Oxford University Press, (1994): ISBN: 0195089618
- MacKillop, James. Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0192801201.
- Wood, Juliette, The Celts: Life, Myth, and Art, Thorsons Publishers (2002): ISBN: 0007640595
External Links
[2] (http://www.mythome.org/celtic.html) [3] (http://www.paralumun.com/celticgod.htm) [4] (http://www.daire.org/names/deities.html) [5] (http://www.wales.ac.uk/documents/external/cawcs/pcl-moe.pdf)