Trebopala the Hearth-Protectress
Lusitanian · deity · Iron Age (Cabeço das Fráguas inscription, c. 1st c. BC – 1st c. AD) · Recorded classification
Name leads with the English phrase 'the Hearth-Protectress'; attested form Trebopala (vocative in the invocatio). Native theonym from Celtic *trebo- ('dwelling') + *-pala ('protector', or 'flat land/sacred stone'). Probably a goddess. Attested only in the single Cabeço das Fráguas inscription — no other epigraphy and no narrative.
Domains
- home household
- flocks pastoral
Powers
- receive the opening sheep of the sacrifice
Sources
- Trebopala is named at the head of the Cabeço das Fráguas invocation as the recipient of a sheep; the theonym is read as 'protectress of the dwelling/community' or, via Lepontic-Ligurian 'pala' (sacred stone/flat land), 'altar/plain of the home'.: Cabeço das Fráguas inscription, Benespera (Guarda) (inscription); B. M. Prósper, 'We give you this lamb, o Trebopala!', Palaeohispanica (2014); Lenguas y religiones prerromanas (2002) (secondary)