Britannia

From FB:

“March 24th marks the feast day of the Norse god Heimdall, the Christian Archangel Gabriel, and the Celtic goddess Britannia.

Britannia is best known as a national personification of the United Kingdom. The name is a Latinisation of the native Brittonic word for the island, Pretanī, which also produced the Greek form Prettanike or Brettaniai, which originally designated a collection of islands with individual names, including Albion or Britain. In Modern Welsh the name remains Prydain.

After the Roman conquest in 43 AD, Britannia meant Roman Britain, a province covering the island south of Caledonia (roughly Scotland). Britannia is the name given to the female personification of the island, and it is a term still used to refer to the whole island.

In the 2nd century, Roman Britannia came to be personified as a goddess, armed with a trident and shield and wearing a Corinthian helmet. After centuries of declining use, the Latin form was revived during the English Renaissance as a rhetorical evocation of a British national identity. The personification of the martial Britannia was used as an emblem of British maritime power and unity, most notably in “Rule, Britannia!”.

A British cultural icon, she was featured on all modern British coinage series until the redesign in 2008, and still appears annually on the gold and silver “Britannia” bullion coin series. In 2015 a new definitive £2 coin was issued, with a new image of Britannia.

The goddess Britannia was often associated with the Roman goddess Minerva, who was herself the Roman appropriation of the goddess Athena. Both Minerva and Athena are based upon the ancient Phoenician goddess Barati, recognised in the Indian Vedas as Goddess of the Waters. Athena and Minerva were goddesses of arts, trade, strategy in war, and wisdom. As the overseas and furthest territory of the Roman Empire, the British Isles soon became identified with the goddess of warfare and water. Her feast day is considered to be a day of orderliness and protection.”