Stone statue of the goddess Nehalennia, dating to about 150-250 A.D., and now in the National Museum of Antiquities (Rijksmuseum van Oudheden), Leiden, Netherlands.
Worshipped in what is now the territory of the Netherlands, Nehalennia was venerated in a great temple on the island of Walcheren, off the coast of Zealand (South-Western Holland). Here scores of images of the goddess have been found, often represented sitting on a throne. She was regarded as the Lady of the sea and protected the sailors and merchants; she was frequently shown standing with her foot resting on the prow of a ship, and accompanied by sea animals, like fishes, dolphins and water monsters. It seems that her name could mean “the Leader” or “Woman who Steers”, always with reference to her function as patron goddess of sea goers, but also with wider implications. For the Celts, the journey of the dead to the Otherworld was believed as a voyage through the sea, to reach an island located far off in the Western seas. Nehalennia was probably also a goddess of the dead, and this could be confirmed by the frequent presence of a dog at her side, an animal often associated to the world of the dead or as a guide for the dead. The goddess wass further associated to the fertility of the earth and to the crops production, and was frequently represented with symbols of abundance: the cornucopia, baskets full of cereals or a plenty of fruits. Lastly, the fact that sometimes on altars dedicated to Nehalennia appeared the symbols of the sun and the moon, has suggested a wider cosmological function of the goddess, who could be regarded as the personification of the journey across the seasons of the year, which assures fertility and abundance to humankind and guarantees the continuous alternation and intertwining of life and death.

[Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leiden-Nehalennia-statue.JPG]