Mythology in the Low Countries Gallo-Roman in nature, particularly in the south and throughout Flanders: Erecura, the goddess of the earth, Gontia of Ghent (in Belgium), a local goddess, Rosmerta, goddess of fertility, and the deities mentioned by Saint Eligius in Flanders (Jupiter, Neptune, Orcus, Diana, and Minerva). Finally some deities were regional or specific to one clan: Arduinna was the Celtic goddess of the Ardennes forest. Nehalennia was a goddess of travellers in Zeeland, where over 160 stone votives depicting her image were located in the sea. Vagdavercustis was an ancient goddess of the Batavians mentioned on an altar near Cologne. Tanfana is another
Religion in ancient Rome the rural Faunus, supplemented by the Greek goddess Damia. Further Greek influences on cult images and types represented the Roman Penates as forms of the Greek Dioscuri. The military-political adventurers of the Later Republic introduced the Phrygian goddess Ma (identified with Roman Bellona, the Egyptian mystery-goddess Isis and Persian Mithras.) The spread of Greek literature, mythology and philosophy offered Roman poets and antiquarians a model for the interpretation of Rome's festivals and rituals, and the embellishment of its mythology. Ennius translated the work of Graeco-Sicilian Euhemerus, who explained the genesis of the gods as apotheosized mortals. In the last century