the Goddess-mothers are called after the Roman conquest Matrae, Matres or Matronae, they are, more still than Épona, the goddesses of abundance, the richness, the family.

Goddesses of water and mainly of the sources and the fountains, healers, they do not resemble however to the Roman goddess-mothers.

Many fountains and places devoted to Matrae were christianized under the name of Sainte Marthe or of Sainte Marguerite, sometimes, but more rarely, under the name of Sainte Madeleine or of Sainte Brigitte. For example, the monastery of Kildare (Ireland), was built for Sainte Brigitte, to adapt to the worship of Brigit; this building is famous for its Sheela Na Gig (or Sheila-Na-Gig), sculptures figurative female with the grotesque features, representing a development and exaggeration of the sex, which indicates that, in spite of the Roman invasion and christianization, the area preserved its worship of the fertility and the memory of the goddess-mother.

They were sometimes comparable with Minerve, more rarely with Venus, Junon, Diane, Cérès or Cybèle.

One represents them in the form of groups of women carrying of the babies whom they nurse.

They are symbolized by three circles or a triangle of spheres, and by the association of heart, palmettes and florets which one finds today in modern esoteric companies.