Reitia is a goddess

Goddess

A goddess is a female deity. In some cultures goddesses are associated with Earth, motherhood, love, and the household. In other cultures, goddesses also rule over war, death, and destruction as well as healing....

, one of the best known deities

Deity

A deity is a recognized preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by believers....

 of the Adriatic Veneti

Adriatic Veneti

The Veneti were an ancient people who inhabited north-eastern Italy, in an area corresponding to the modern-day region of the Veneto....

 of northeastern Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

.
While her place in the Venetic pantheon cannot be known for certain, the importance of her cult

Cult (religious practice)

In traditional usage, the cult of a religion, quite apart from its sacred writings , its theology or myths, or the personal faith of its believers, is the totality of external religious practice and observance, the neglect of which is the definition of impiety. Cult in this primary sense is...

 to Venetic society is well attested in archaeological finds. A large body of votive offerings on pottery and metal objects has been found at a Venetic shrine in Baratella, near Este

Este, Italy

Este is a town and comune of the Province of Padua, in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Euganei Hills. The town is a centre for farming, crafts and industry worthy of note.-History:...

. In Venetic, she is given the epithets Śahnate, the Healer, and Pora, the good and kind. She was also a deity of writing

Writing

Writing is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and non-symbolic preservation of language via non-textual media, such as magnetic tape audio.Writing most likely...

; Marcel Detienne interprets the name Reitia as "the one who writes" (compare Proto-Germanic *wreitan- 'to write', Inscriptions dedicating offerings to Reitia are one of our chief sources of knowledge of the Venetic language

Venetic language

Venetic is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken in ancient times in the North East of Italy and part of modern Slovenia, between the Po River delta and the southern fringe of the Alps....

  The Romans

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 identified

Interpretatio graeca

Interpretatio graeca is a Latin term for the common tendency of ancient Greek writers to equate foreign divinities to members of their own pantheon. Herodotus, for example, refers to the ancient Egyptian gods Amon, Osiris and Ptah as "Zeus", "Dionysus" and "Hephaestus", respectively.-Roman...

 her with Juno

Juno (mythology)

Juno is an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counselor of the state. She is a daughter of Saturn and sister of the chief god Jupiter and the mother of Mars and Vulcan. Juno also looked after the women of Rome. Her Greek equivalent is Hera...

.

Other instances of the name

Reitia Chasma, a geological feature on the planet Venus

Venus

Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...

, is named after Reitia.

Books

• Sarah De Nardi, "Landscapes of the Prehistoric Veneto, Italy. A Plurality of Local Identities Reflected in Cult and Landscape Perception", Papers from the Institute of Archaeology, 2009
• Rex E. Wallace, "Venetic", in Roger D. Woodard, ed., The ancient languages of Europe (Cambridge, 2008; ISBN 0521684951), p. 124.
• Joachim Meffert, Die paläovenetische Votivkeramik aus dem Reitia-Heiligtum von Este-Baratella, 1998
• Marcel Detienne, The writing of Orpheus: Greek myth in cultural context (Johns Hopkins, 2002; ISBN 0801869544), p. 126
• Adolphus Zavaroni, Ancient North Italian Inscriptions from Este, 2001