Paterna

The person traditionally known as Paterna is attested in a Roman inscription discovered at Rheder in Germania Inferior, generally dated to the third century CE (TNMM 2148). The text records the fulfilment of a vow connected with a man named Firminus and has often been interpreted as a dedication to Deus Invictus Mithras. Under the traditional reading, Paterna would represent one of the very few women associated with the Mithraic cult in the surviving epigraphic record.Little can be said with confidence about the dedicator. Under the traditional interpretation, Paterna may have belonged to the…