Ataegina

The name Ataegina is most commonly derived from a Celtic source: according to Cristina Maria Grilo Lopes and Juan Olivares Pedreño, French scholar D'Arbois de Jubainville and Portuguese scholar José Leite de Vasconcelos interpreted her name as a compound from *ate- 'repetition, re-' *-genos '(to be) born'. Thus, her name would mean 'The Reborn One' ("renascida", in the original).[5][6][7]

Others propose a connection to the domain of nocturnal or underworld deities: Gabriel Sopeña tentatively saw a connection with Irish adaig 'night', which may indicate a relation to the underworld.[8] Similarly, in a 1998 article, Eugenio Luján, based on the epigraphic evidence available until then, supposed that Adaecina is the original spelling of her name, and related it to Irish adaig,[lower-alpha 1] and both deriving from a Proto-Celtic *adakī. This form would account for both words, but Luján refrained from offering a definitive etymology.[11]

Italian linguist Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel argues for a Celtic etymology, from *atakī ('night'), from an earlier *at-ak-ī ('interval'). Thus, de Bernardo proposes, her name means "the one of the night".[12] In a later article, she describes Ataecina as "the goddess of the nighttime", and derives her name from *Atakī-nā 'the divine (night)time'.[13]

That said, her presence in decidedly non-Indo-European Iberian regions suggest that she may have an older, indigenous origin, in which case her name's etymology is more likely Iberian, Aquitanian or Tartessian.[14]

In his late 19th century study, José Leite de Vasconcelos, while proposing a Celtic reading of her name, also supposed her origins as a Celticized indigenous deity.[15] Spanish historian José María Blázquez Martínez supported the idea of Ataegina's indigenous character, while remarking that a Celtic interpretation of her name as 'reborn' is "inviable", and that her connection to Irish 'night' is "difficult".[16]

Her name appears with adjective Turobrigensis, which seems to indicate a place called Turibriga or Turobriga.[19][20] Similar epigraphic attestations read Turibrige, [T]urubricae and Turibri, which led professor Amílcar Guerra to indicate a form *Turibris.[21][22]

This place is interpreted by scholarship to mean the main center of her cult,[23][24][25] but its precise location is unknown. Classical author Pliny indicated it belonged to Celtic Beturia.[20]