KULT IZVORSKE NIMFE I NJENO IME U AKVESIJENSKOJ JEDINICI MUNICIPALNE AUTONOMIJE!? / THE CULT OF THE SPRING NYMPH AND HER NAME IN THE AQUAE S... UNIT OF MUNICIPAL AUTONOMY!?

Abstract

Researching religious and cult phenomena in the Illyrian ethnic and lin­guistic continuum is demanding and difficult. The reason is poor preservation of lite­rary and epigraphic sources and historical processes of Romanization, Christianizati­on, Slavization, Islamization, and modernization that layered the Illyrian strata. For that reason, sometimes even individual findings have great value. One such finding that was first published by Arthur Evans is interesting. It is a triangular fragment of a plate with a relief reminiscent of iconography of goddess Diana and with the text: Si­lvia vot(um) n(uncupavit). The aforementioned find originates from site of Crkvište, on left bank of Bosna River (downstream of its source) in settlement Blažuj, where many other finds from time of Roman rule were also found. The aforementioned finding can also be connected with the representation of a female figure in central part of mosaic found under entrance to hotel “Bosna” (at Ilidža in western Sarajevo), in administrative and urban center of Aqu(a)e. It is possible that this mosaic depicts an anthropomorphic personification of a spring nymph, perhaps the goddess - patroness of Aqu(a)e. Admi­nistrative and urban center of Aqu(a)e is located in an area that has been called Lužani since Middle Ages. The name Lužani is derived from the archaic word for “forest”, “fo­rest”, and when translated into Latin it gives silva, silvae, f. It is possible to assume that the name of the entire municipal unit was actually Aqu(a)e Silviae, which would then be preserved in the medieval and Ottoman names of Banja (Ilidža) and Lužani. This Silvia may be the Roman identification of the indigenous goddess Thana, who, in co­njunction with the indigenous deity Vidasus, appears on inscriptions found in Topu­sko, a locality that was once and is now known for its mineral - thermal and medicinal springs. In historiography and archaeology, indigenous couple Vidasus and Thana are usually interpreted with the Roman Silvanus and Diana, or the Greek Pan and Artemis. Thana, who is generally interpreted with Diana, was the deity of forest and hunting. It is possible that “mother Jana” from the mythology of the Balkan-Slavic speakers and Zana from the mythology of the Albanian speakers originate from this Illyrian Thana. Somewhere in the urban-administrative area of Aqu(a)e, there were certainly temples of these syncretized and interpreted deities of the forests, hot and healing springs, he­alth resorts, possibly somewhere near the sulfur spas and pools themselves.