Date
Name Cisa
Gender Feminine
Other Forms FormsZisa, Cysa, Ciza, Cisara
Edit Status Status
Meaning & History
Derived from Proto-Germanic *Tīwaz, the same etymological root as TYR, which evolved into Cyo and Ziu in Old High German.Cisa is mentioned in several medieval manuscripts dating back to the 12th to 14th centuries, among others the Codex Monac (circa 1135), the Codex Emmeran (circa 1135) and Melchior Goldast's Suevicarum rerum scriptores. All of these texts go back to the Excerptum ex Gallica historia, a first-century BCE record of a Swabian military victory over Roman forces.
In said Excerptum ex Gallica historia, Cisa is identified as a goddess of the Suevi who was venerated in modern-day Augsburg, Germany. Her feast day, the so-called "dies Cize", was celebrated on the 59th day after the first day of August, meaning September 28 and involved games and merrymaking.19th-century scholar Jacob Grimm suggested that Cisa may be the same figure as Tyr's unnamed wife, mentioned by Loki in the 13th century Poetic Edda poem Lokasenna.
Furthermore, Grimm proposed a connection between Cisa and the "Isis" of the Suebi attested by Tacitus in his 1st century CE work Germania based on the similarity of their names, if not their functions. He also referenced a record of a pagan Duke of Swabia named Esenerius who established a chapel in his castle in Kempten with a venerated image of Cisa. Grimm theorized that Cisara, Augsburg's former name, might be interpreted as *Cisae ara, "Cisa's altar".
18th-century librarian Christian August Vulpius, however, believed Cisa (or Ciza, as he called her) to be a Sorbian fertility goddess and "a kind of CERES for the Vindelici", who offered her grain, crops and cereals at her altar in Augsburg on her feast day.
In said Excerptum ex Gallica historia, Cisa is identified as a goddess of the Suevi who was venerated in modern-day Augsburg, Germany. Her feast day, the so-called "dies Cize", was celebrated on the 59th day after the first day of August, meaning September 28 and involved games and merrymaking.19th-century scholar Jacob Grimm suggested that Cisa may be the same figure as Tyr's unnamed wife, mentioned by Loki in the 13th century Poetic Edda poem Lokasenna.
Furthermore, Grimm proposed a connection between Cisa and the "Isis" of the Suebi attested by Tacitus in his 1st century CE work Germania based on the similarity of their names, if not their functions. He also referenced a record of a pagan Duke of Swabia named Esenerius who established a chapel in his castle in Kempten with a venerated image of Cisa. Grimm theorized that Cisara, Augsburg's former name, might be interpreted as *Cisae ara, "Cisa's altar".
18th-century librarian Christian August Vulpius, however, believed Cisa (or Ciza, as he called her) to be a Sorbian fertility goddess and "a kind of CERES for the Vindelici", who offered her grain, crops and cereals at her altar in Augsburg on her feast day.