Recht Wichtige (oder nur mächtig Phantasie Erregende?) Ergebnisse

Veleda was not the only prophetesses of the various Germanic tribes. Another was Ganna. But as I was paging through Jerzy Kolendo‘s “Vistula amne discreta,” a compendium of sources on the historic Polish lands, I noted a reference to another seeress – Waluburg (or Walupurg). Now this reference was particularly interesting because Kolendo was asserting that she came from the tribe of the ur-Suevi, the Semnones. Given that Semnones are also a decent candidate for having been originally Suavic rather than Teutonic, a discovery of a Teutonic name among their priestesses could swing the evidence if favor of a Teutonic origin.

The Czech prophetess and queen, Libuše

So with that, we got to work.

For the proposition of a Semnonian seeress, Kolendo cites SB III 6221 and the German RE, VIII A, 1 (1955).

The first is the Sammelbuch griechischer Urkunden aus Ägypten, volume (Band) 3:

The other citation is to a short entry by Gerold Walser in volume VIII A of the Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, aka the Pauly–Wissowa:

From this we learn of earlier analytical works such as:

• Edward Schröder‘s Walburg, die Sibylle. In: Archiv für Religionswissenschaft 19 (1916/1919), pages 196–200:

As well as:

• Wilhelm Schubart‘s report in Amtliche Berichte aus den Kunstsammlungen in Berlin 38, 1917, S. 332, Abbildung 109:

In fact this other article is the original publication that made Waluburg of the Elephantine isle famous (or as famous as an ancient seeress may become in modern times).

So what does Schubart say about this Waluburg?

First, let’s note that the ostrakon was found on Elephantine isle near Aswan (aka Assuan) on the southern border of Egypt. It is dated to the second century A.D. Now, Elephantine is a rather interesting location – the site of multiethnic communities dating years back. It is also the location of the discovery of the Elephantine papyri and was a site of a Jewish temple dating back at least to the 5th century B.C.

What is the subject of this inscription? It seems it’s a list of persons belonging to the military staff of the Roman prefect of Egypt along with the various attending servants and slaves, among them a seeress – the alleged Waluburg of the alleged Semnones. Schubart surmises that she may have been a slave/servant of a Roman officer (Germanic or otherwise) that had later been stationed in Egypt. However, Schubart is also careful to note that he leaves the interpretation of this inscription, including seemingly the accuracy of the reading of the name of the prophetess and of the name of the tribe, to the Germanist experts.

Nevertheless, this desire to see a Semnonian where there is only a Sinonian has permeated the subject for over a century with various people simply repeating this as an already established conclusion. Thus, Schröder’s article above does not quibble with the basis equation of Sinones with Semnones or with the general interpretation of the inscription. He merely notes that waluburg may have meant as much as “staff'” or seer. He further surmises that she may have been one of a number of Germanics that had been stationed in Egypt (rather than a peculiar bounty of some Roman officer).

We also have Brill’s New Pauly  (via the words of Wolfgang Spickermann from Bochum) which restates the same basic notion:

“(Βαλουβουργ; Baloubourg). Semnonian seer (‘Sibyl’), mentioned on an AD 2nd-century óstrakon from Elephantine (in Egypt): Βαλουβουργ Σήνονι σιβύλλᾳ (SB III 6221). The inscription contains a list of people on the staff of the praefectus Aegypti; W. was therefore in Roman service and may have been responsible for interpreting omens and soothsaying. Her name may trace back to Gothic *walus (pilgrim’s/traveller’s staff or magic wand).”

But question marks remain and some readily (somewhat) admit the same.

The above Abbildung is obviously hardly helpful in trying to resolve the question so we have to ask where is this ostracon currently? Well, it’s where it’s been: at the Berlin papyrus collection which, however – everyone should be happy – has gone largely digital.

This is the actual ostracon from the Berliner Papyrusdatenbank:

A complete resource for folks wanting to study this more (including all the relevant publications mentioning the ostracon) can be found here.

So what does the description of this look like? Well, on the one hand we have the following:

with the included “Apparatus: which explains that:

On the other hand we have the following description of the ostracon text with a telling question mark:

“Liste von Personen (im Dativ), die zum Stab des praefectus Aegypti gehörten: zum einen militärisches Gefolge (cornicularii, centuriones, actuarii), zum anderen Dienerschaft (Sklaven, Freigelassene, Walker. eine Sibylle namens Walburg (Baluburg) vom Stamm der Semnonen (?)).”

Thankfully, you can zoom in on the text. But if you do that then, if anything, things get even less clear:

For other related stuff see this Wikipedia entry.

Brooklyn Museum’s Elephantine Isle by Edwin Howland Blashfield – likely looked much the same in Roman times

PS Now, Sibylle used above is one of the German words for prophetess. The other interesting word for the same thing is phitonissa or pythonissa. That name comes from Pythia, the oracle Delphi whose name seems to come the Python, the snake of the Delphic oracle. Now, if the above seems similar to pytanica, this is likely no coincidence. It seems that the Suavic pytac – to ask questions – may be related to the name of Python – the connection with the snake and the seeress of the same names seems more than coincidental.   

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