Reitia

Reitia is the best-attested deity of the Adriatic Veneti, the focus of the great spring-sanctuary at Baratella near Este, active from about the sixth to the first century BCE. Her name appears in the speaking-object dedicatory formula 'mego donasto śainatei reitiiai porai' — 'me gave (the dedicant) to Śainati Reitia Pora' — in which śainati ('the healer', perhaps better 'the civic patroness') and pora ('the good, the kind') accompany her name; a fuller version adds the dedication on behalf of the louderoi, the children. She is above all a goddess of writing: her deposit yielded hundreds of inscribed bronze styluses and tablets used as alphabet exercises, making her cult one of the richest sources for early literacy in ancient Italy, with women prominent among the dedicants. Pendant-axe pins offered by women also tie her to childbirth and healing. In the Roman period her worship continued and she was equated by interpreters with Juno, Diana and Artemis.

Domains

• writing and literacy
• healing
• childbirth and women

Powers

• to grant the art of writing and instruct in the alphabet
• to heal the sick and watch over women in childbirth

Epithets

• śainatei
• porai

Sources

• Wallace, R. E. (2008). 'Venetic.' In R. D. Woodard (ed.), The Ancient Languages of Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 124-140.
• McDonald, K. (2019). 'Education and Literacy in Ancient Italy: Evidence from the Dedications to the Goddess Reitia.' Journal of Roman Studies 109, 131-159.
• Marinetti, A. (2001). Le iscrizioni dal santuario di Reitia (scavi 1880-1916 e 1987-1991) / Die Inschriften aus dem Reitia-Heiligtum von Este. Mainz.