The Matres are an important type of female local or tribal deity found across the Gaulish-speaking world. Their iconography is distinct, and so they must be treated as different from the other types of local Goddess. This iconography suggests that they had connections to fertility, plenty, and fate. Some modern Germanic Heathens treat them as related to the Germanic Idesa, deified female ancestors, and I think there may be something to this, though it doesn’t appear to work in all cases. According to Green, they are depicted in groups of three with: “long garments, sometimes with one breast bared, accompanied by symbols of fertility: babies, older children, fruit, bread, corn, or other motifs of plenty”. They are also shown with spindles, suggesting the link to both spinning and fate. In the Rhineland, they are called by the Latin term Matronae, and their iconography is distinctive, according to Green: “The ‘Matronae’ of the Rhineland are distinctive in that their iconography almost invariably shows a pattern of two mature goddesses wearing huge linen bonnets, flanking a younger girl with long, flowing hair.”

According to Olmsted, there were Matres of:

1. Roman Provinces,

2. Individual tribes or regions,

3. Districts within tribes or regions,

4. Villages and settlements, and

5. Localities.

The list that follows, taken from Olmsted, is not meant to be comprehensive, again, but to give some idea of the many types of Matres, their function, and importance:

A. Matres Ollotoutes: This name meaning “Mothers of All Peoples, appears to be a general term, invoking the Matres of all nations, giving us good evidence as to how the Matres were conceived.

B. Ambirenses Matronae: The Matres of the minor Rhenish tribe of the Ambireni.

C. Eburnicae Matrae: The Matres of the Eburones tribe.

D. Nemetiales Matrae: The Matres of the Nemetes. Note that they are distinct from Nemetonâ, or from Abnobâ, who were also associated with the territory of the Nemetes.

E. Matres Treveri: The Matres of the Treveri tribe.

F. Brittae Matres: The Matres of Britta, a town in Gaul.

G. Matres Nemausicas: The Mothers of the town of Nimes.

H. Materas Glanicas: The Mothers of the town of Glanum.