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Tanfana was a Germanic goddess worshipped above all by the tribe of the Marsi. Her name survives only through a single but striking passage in Tacitus.
In AD 14 the Roman general Germanicus fell upon the Marsi while they were celebrating a festival. His army destroyed the far-famed sanctuary of Tanfana and carried out a massacre. Tacitus paints the night in dark colours.
About Tanfana's nature we know almost nothing – no myth, no image survives securely. She stands for the many local Germanic deities whose cults were alive but of whom only fragments have outlasted time.
"The far-famed sanctuary they called Tanfana was levelled to the ground."after Tacitus, Annals 1.51 (public domain, own translation)
Tanfana shows how much of Germanic belief was lost. Continue with the Marsi and Baduhenna.
The Marsi · Nerthus – the earth goddess · Germanic Religion · Baduhenna · The Matronae.
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