Δηουόνα was allegedly a Celtic Goddess. Ausonius writes, apparently talking of the modern city of Burdigala (Bordeaux), France (The Order of Famous Cities):
Salve, fons ignote ortu, sacer, alme, perennis,vitree, glauce, profunde, sonore, inlimis, opace. Salve, urbis genius, medico potabilis haustu, Divona Celtarum lingua, fons addite divis.
“Hail, fountain of source unknown, holy, gracious, unfailing, crystal-clear, azure, deep, murmurous, shady, and unsullied! Hail, guardian deity of our city, of whom we may drink health-giving draughts, named by the Celts Divona,—a fountain added to the roll divine! Not Aponus in taste, not Nemausus in azure sheen is more clear, nor Timavus’ sea-like flood more brimming-full.”
So this was a Goddess of springs. And yet, how can this Name appear in Jan Długosz list of Polish Gods and Goddesses as Dziewanna, a Goddess of the Wild, the Polish Diana? Did Długosz simply read Ausonius? Or was something else at play here?
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Maybe Teofil Tomicki is right with his thesis that the continental Celts are Slavs? Maybe Długosz didn’t read Ausonius? After all, both proper names sound identical. By the way, this Ausonius (368), writing about Mosel, wrote clearly about the Sarmatian settlers in Hunsrück west of the Rhine. Slavic names in this region were perfectly described by Hubert Marjan in 1894 (Rheinische Ortsnamen).
Yes, as you know, Marjan’s work was discussed here previously.
That being said, this Divona was reported around Bordeaux – to the extent we can rely on Ausonius’ rather loose narrative.
The same Ausonius wrote a poem about a Germanic girl – Bisulla (from the area beyond the Rhine at the source of the Danube). Exactly the same name is mentioned by Ammianus, who describes the countries north of the Black Sea, naming the river – supposedly the Vistula. Is this proof/circumstantial evidence of the Germanness of the areas from the Rhine to the Don, or of their Slavic character in the 4th century?