Lugus

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For the Philippine municipality, see Lugus, Sulu.
A three-headed image of a Celtic deity found in Paris; interpreted as Mercury and now believed to represent Lugus or Ogmios[1]

Lugos (

Gallo-Roman inscriptions to Mercury, who is widely believed to have been identified with him, and from the quasi-mythological narratives involving his later cognates, Welsh Lleu Llaw Gyffes (Lleu of the Skillful Hand) and Irish Lugh Lámhfhada
(Lugh of the Long Arm).

Name

Etymology

The etymology of the name is debated. Besides the Gaulish Lugos (pl. Lugoues, Lugouibus), the deity is attested in

Proto-Celtic compound *Lugu-deks ('serving the god Lug') can also be reconstructed from Gaulish Lugudeca, Old Irish Lugaid, and Hispano-Celtic Luguadici.[6][5] The Lugunae, goddesses attested to in Atapuerca (Burgos), are also linguistically related.[7]

The Proto-Celtic root *lug- has been tentatively derived from several different Proto-Indo-European roots, including *leug- ('black'),[8] *leuǵ- ('to break'),[9] and *leugʰ- ('to swear an oath').[10] It was once thought to be derived from PIE *leuk- ('to shine'), but most modern scholars rule this out, notably because Proto-Indo-European *-k- never produces Proto-Celtic *-g-.[11]

According to linguist

folk etymologies', one of the best known being Lugdunum = 'desideratum montem' from the Vienna glossary."[4]

Use in proper names

Distribution of inscriptions to the Lugoves or to Lug.

The theonym Lugu- is the source of the place names Lugu-dunon ('Lug's fortress'), at the origin of Lyon, Loudon, Laudun, Laon, Lea,[12] and perhaps Leiden; *Lugu-ialon ('Lug's village'), at the origin of Ligueil; as well as Lugu-ualion ('Place of Lug the Sovereign'), the ancient name of Carlisle.[4] Lucus Augusti (modern Lugo in Galicia, Spain) may be derived from the theonym Lug,[7][13] though perhaps from Latin lucus ('grove') cannot be ruled out.[14]

It is also in the personal names Lugu-dunolus, Lugu-uec[ca], Lugius, Lugissius, Lugu-rix, and Lugiola. The female name Lugu-selua, meaning 'Lug's possession', can be compared with the Greek personal name Theodulus ('God's slave').[5] In Insular Celtic are found the Brythonic Louocatus (< *Lugu-catus) and Old Welsh Loumarch (< *Lugu-marcos 'Lug's stallion').[5]

Ethnonyms which may derive from Lug include the Luggoni (or Lougonoi) of Asturias, as well as the Lougei, known from inscriptions in Lugo and El Bierzo.[7] The Lougoi of Scotland might also be related.[13]

Inscriptions

Votive inscription to the Lucoves Arquieni. Lugo, Galicia.

The god Lug is mentioned in a Celtiberian inscription from Peñalba de Villastar in Spain, which reads:

ENI OROSEI VTA TICINO TIATVNEI TRECAIAS TO LVGVEI ARAIANOM COMEIMV ENI OROSEI EQVEISVIQVE OGRIS OLOCAS TOGIAS SISTAT LVGVEI TIASO TOGIAS

The translation is debated, but the phrase "to Luguei" ("to/for Lug" with the theonym in the dative singular) clearly indicates a dedication to the god.[15][16]

Additionally, the name is attested several times in the plural, for example: nominative plural Lugoues in a single-word (and potentially Gaulish) inscription from

Osma
), Spain:

Lugovibus sacrum L. L(icinius) Urcico collegio sutorum d(onum) d(at)[18]
"Lucius Licinius Urcico dedicated this, sacred to the Lugoves, to the guild of shoemakers"[19]

This shows Lug being worshiped by shoemakers in Spain, parallel to his Welsh counterpart

Mabinogi.[20][21]

The plural form of the theonym is also found in Latin inscriptions:

Lugo, Galicia, Spain:

Luc(obo) Gudarovis Vale[r(ius)] Cle.[m](ens) v(otum) l(ibens) s(olvit)[22]

Outeiro de Rei, Lugo, Galicia, Spain:

Lucoubu Arquieni(s) Silonius Silo ex voto[23][24]

Sober, Lugo
, Galicia, Spain:

Lucubo Arquienob(o) C(aius) Iulius Hispanus v(otum) l(ibens) s(olvit) m(erito)[25][26]

[Both epithets Arquieni and Arquienobo are considered to be related to a

Latin arcus and English arrow.[13]
]

Nemausus (Nîmes), France:

Rufina Lucubus v(otum) s(olvit) l(ibens) m(erito)[27]

The majority of the known inscriptions dedicated to Lug come from the Iberian Peninsula, perhaps indicating this deity's particular importance and popularity among the Iberian Celts.[7]

An inscribed lead plate found in Chamalières in France includes the phrase luge dessummiíis, which has been tentatively interpreted by some scholars as "I prepare them for Lug", though it may also mean "I swear (luge) with/by my right (hand)".[28]

Gaulish Mercury

interpretatio romana). He said "Mercury" was most revered: patron of trade and commerce, protector of travellers, and inventor of all the arts.[29] The Irish god Lug bore the epithet samildánach ("skilled in all arts"), which has led to the widespread identification of Caesar's Mercury as Lug. There are frequent (over 400) inscriptions referencing Gaullish Mercury from the subsequent Roman Gaul and Britain.[21] The blanket identification of Lug with Mercury may go too far; Jan de Vries[30] demonstrates the unreliability of any one-to-one correspondence in the interpretatio romana.[31]

Iconography

The

bags of money. A widespread attribute is shoes: one of the dedications to the Lugoves was made by a shoemakers' guild; Lug's Welsh counterpart Lleu (or Llew) Llaw Gyffes is described in the Welsh Triads as one of the "three golden shoemakers of the island of Britain". He is often armed with a spear. He is frequently accompanied by his consort Rosmerta ("great provider"), who bears the libation with which kingship was conferred (in Roman mythology). Unlike the Roman Mercury, who is typically a youth, Gaulish Mercury is occasionally also represented as an old man. It has also been speculated that the Irish leprechaun shares the same root (le- from Lu-), and notably leprechauns were often represented as shoemakers.[32]

Triplism

Altar depicting a tricephalic god identified as Lug, discovered in Reims.

Gaulish Mercury is associated with triplism: sometimes he has three faces, sometimes three

Lugaid, a popular medieval Irish name thought to derive from Lug, also exhibit triplism: for example, Lugaid Riab nDerg
("of the Red Stripes") and Lugaid mac Trí Con ("Son of Three Hounds") both have three fathers.

Germanic Mercury
.

Sacred sites

High places (Mercurii Montes), including

Puy-de-Dôme and the Mont de Sène
, were dedicated to the god.

Continuity in later Celtic narratives

In Ireland, Lugh was the victorious youth who defeated the monstrous Balor "of the venomous eye". He was the paradigm of holy or priestly kingship, and his epithet lámhfhada “of the long arm”, carries on an ancient Proto-Indo-European image of a noble sovereign spreading his power far and wide (cf. "the long arm of the law"). His festival, called Lughnasadh ("Festival of Lugh") in Ireland, was commemorated on 1 August.

His name survives in the village of

Carmun and Tailtiu
, were supposed to enclose the graves of agricultural fertility goddesses.

The Celtic Lugh and Lleu Llaw Gyffes may also have influenced the

Lot (a theory championed most famously by Roger Sherman Loomis
), though more recent scholarship has downplayed such links.

See also

References

Citations

  1. Carnavalet Museum
    , from J.-L. Courcelle-Seneuil, Les Dieux gaulois d'après les monuments figurés (The Gallic Gods According to the Figurative Monuments), Paris, 1910.
  2. ^ Maccrossan, Tadhg (May 29, 2002). "Celtic Religion". Llewellyn Worldwide. Retrieved May 30, 2023. Lugus, like Odin, was king of the gods in the Celtic pantheon, was accompanied by crows and ravens, carried a spear, and closed one eye to do his magic (Odin offered his eye); like the Great Zeus in Hesiod's Theogony, he led the Tuatha Dé Danann gods in victory over the Fomorian giants. Lugh's birth and childhood also parallels that of Zeus.
  3. ISBN 0190291702
    . In The Baile in Scail ("The God's Prophecy") Lugh is seen as a sacred solar king and king of the otherworld, associated with Rosmerta, who is herself a kind of personification of Ireland, sometimes known as "the Sovranty of Ireland." Lugh followed Nuada as king of the gods in Ireland, and was with the mortal Dechtire the father of the great hero Cuchulainn.
  4. ^ a b c Delamarre 2003, p. 211.
  5. ^ a b c d Matasović 2009, p. 248.
  6. ^ Koch 2017, pp. 46–47.
  7. ^ a b c d Simón 2005.
  8. ^ Julius Pokorny, Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, Francke, 1959, 686.
  9. ^ Bernard Mees, Celtic Curses, Boydell & Brewer, 2009, p. 45.
  10. ^ H. Wagner, Studies in the Origins of early Celtic Civilisation, Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie, 31, 1970, p. 24.
  11. ^ Schrijver 1995, p. 348.
  12. ^ J.E.B. Glover, Allen Mawer, F.M.Stenton (1938). The Place-Names of Hertfordshire. Cambridge University Press. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ a b c Abad, Rubén Abad. (2008). "La divinidad celeste/solar en el panteón céltico peninsular". In: Espacio, Tiempo y Forma. Serie II, Historia Antigua, 21: 101.
  14. ^ García Alonso, Juan Luis (2001). "The Place Names of Ancient Hispania and its Linguistic Layers". Studia Celtica. 35 (1): 213–244.
  15. ^ Lejeune, Michel, Celtibérica, Universidad de Salamanca, 1997, pp. 8ff.
  16. ^ Koch, John, Celtic Culture: a historical encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2006, p.[page needed]
  17. ^ CIL XIII, 05078
  18. ^ Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, Vol. 2, Walter de Gruyter, 1974, p. 387, inscription 2818.
  19. ^ Gruffydd, William John. Math vab Mathonwy, University of Wales Press, 1928, p. 238.
  20. ^ Gruffydd, William John. Math vab Mathonwy, University of Wales Press, 1928, pp. 237ff.
  21. ^ a b Alexei Kondratiev, "Lugus: the Many-Gifted Lord", An Tríbhís Mhór: The IMBAS Journal of Celtic Reconstructionism #1, 1997
  22. ^ AE 2003, 952
  23. ^ IRPL, pp. 80-89.
  24. ^ ILER, p. 868.
  25. ^ IRPL, pp. 87-88.
  26. ^ ILER, p. 869.
  27. ^ CIL XII, 3080
  28. ^ Lugus: The Gaulish Mercury Archived 2005-03-06 at the Wayback Machine at Mabinogion.info. P.-Y. Lambert leaves this phrase partially untranslated, Que tu ... à ma droite ("May you ... to my right"), cited at L'Arbre Celtique.
  29. ^ Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico 6.17
  30. ^ Jan de Vries, Celtisches Religion (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer Verlag) 1961, pp 40-56.
  31. ^ Peter Buchholz, "Perspectives for Historical Research in Germanic Religion" History of Religions 8.2 (November 1968, pp. 111-138) p 120 and note.
  32. ^ 2001. Celtic Heroes, Changelings', and the Mothers. (37), pp.93-116.
  33. ^ Rübekeil, Ludwig. Wodan und andere forschungsgeschichtliche Leichen: exhumiert, Beiträge zur Namenforschung 38 (2003), 25–42.

Bibliography

Further reading

Epigraphic evidence
  • AE = L'Année épigraphique
  • CIL = Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, Vol XIII: Inscriptiones trium Galliarum et Germaniarum Latinae; Vol II: Inscriptiones Hispaniae Latinae.
  • ILER = Inscripciones Latinas de la España Romana
  • IRPL = Inscriptions Romaines de la Province de Lugo
  • Recueil des Inscriptions Gauloises [RIG], Tome 1: Textes gallo-grecs (CNRS, Paris, 1985)
Studies

External links

  • Media related to Lugus at Wikimedia Commons
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