Artio
Artio is a Celtic bear goddess. Evidence of her worship has notably been found at Bern in Switzerland. Her name is derived from the Gaulish word for 'bear', artos.
Name
The Gaulish theonym Artiō derives from the Celtic word for the 'bear', artos, itself from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ŕ̥tḱos. A Celtic form reconstructed as *Arto-rix could be the source for the name Arthur, via a Latinized form *Artoris. The Basque hartz is also presumed to be a Celtic loanword.Attestations
A bronze sculpture from the Muri statuette group, found near Bern in Switzerland, shows a large bear facing a woman seated in a chair, with a small tree behind the bear. The woman seems to hold fruit in her lap, perhaps feeding the bear. The sculpture has a large rectangular bronze base, which bears the inscription "Deae Artioni / Licinia Sabinilla". If the name is Gaulish but the syntax is Latin, a dative Artioni would give an i-stem nominative *Artionis or an n-stem nominative *Artio. That would perhaps correspond to a Gaulish n-stem nominative *Artiu.Other inscriptions to the goddess have been discovered in Daun, Weilerbach, Heddernheim, and Stockstadt.