Re: Romans pay homage to Silbury? | Forum

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Romans pay homage to Silbury?

Littlestone Mar 14, 2007 18:52:12

Replying to moss

But to go back to Tombo's piece, and his assertion that, (Julian Cope also makes the same point) Sil could be identified with Suil, the eye goddess found in other cultures, he sees it as the "solar" eye, not in this instance as a water goddess which Sulis at Bath was.

Well... who knows, Tombo may be right but its all speculation. Just seems that there's so much water around Silbury (streams, rivers and wells) that a water goddess cult would fit in more neatly. And the whole point in starting this thread was the thought, and hope (through possible Roman finds), that more about the meaning Silbury and the surrounding area might be uncovered.

moss Mar 15, 2007 07:15:57

Replying to Littlestone

Littlestone wrote:

[
Well... who knows, Tombo may be right but its all speculation. Just seems that there's so much water around Silbury (streams, rivers and wells) that a water goddess cult would fit in more neatly. And the whole point in starting this thread was the thought, and hope (through possible Roman finds), that more about the meaning Silbury and the surrounding area might be uncovered.

What you need to do is find earlier iron age evidence of a shrine, which means digging... both the rivers and Swallowhead are dry some of the time, thats why wells were dug by the romans at the foot of Silbury, if they were throwing in votive offerings like they did at the Bath spring, they were requesting something of the gods. If you think of Sulis as the water goddess of this area, you must also see her as being linked to the sun, as Miranda Green does.. To follow Tombo's analogy of an eye goddess, think of looking down on the flat top of Silbury covered with chalk, that is the eye, according to Dames, looking up into the sun/sky...