Monumentum
Altar to Luna from Gimmeldingen
This sandstone altar was dedicated to Luna, who is mentioned as a male deity.
Altar to Luna from Gimmeldingen
Ortolf Harl
The New Mithraeum
27 Oct 2023
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Sprater, 4 and fig. 8; Finke in BRGK XVII, 1927,53 No. 164.
Deo / Lune / ..... / .... O / ..... / ..... /l(ibens) l(aetus) [m(erito)].
The fact that Luna is mentioned as a male deity should not be explained (as Sprater does) by the linguistic phenomenon that the word "moon" in German is masculine. In the Orient the moon was conceived as a male deity as well (Cumont, Astrology and Religion, New-York- London. 1912, 125f).
Finke, however, suggests, that the word deo may already have been carved in before the altar was dedicate…