Lugus

Lugus is a god of the Celtic pantheon. His name is rarely directly attested in inscriptions, but his importance can be inferred from place names and ethnonyms and status as king of the gods.[2][3] His nature and attributes are deduced from the distinctive iconography of Gallo-Roman inscriptions to Mercury, who is widely believed to have been identified with Lugus, 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).

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]

Name

Etymology

The etymology of the name is debated. Besides the Gaulish Lugos (pl. Lugoues, Lugouibus), the deity is attested in Old Irish Lug (Ogham: Lugu-), Middle Welsh Llew, and Celtiberian Luguei, which may point to a Common Celtic origin of the cult.[4][5] A Proto-Celtic compound *Lugu-deks ('serving the god Lugus') 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 that the root may be derived from Proto-Indo-European *leuk- ('to shine'), but there are difficulties with this etymology and few modern scholars accept it as being possible (notably because Proto-Indo-European *-k- never produces Proto-Celtic *-g-).[11]

According to linguist Xavier Delamarre, "it is not certain that there is an appellative behind this theonym; it is likely, given its presumed antiquity, that it is an unmotivated idionym (or that it has become so), possibly subject to various 'folk etymologies', one of the best known being Lugdunum = 'desideratum montem' from the Vienna glossary."[4]

Distribution of inscriptions to the Lugoves or to Lugus.

The theonym Lugu- was often used in proper names. It is the source of the place names Lugu-dunon ('Lugus' fortress'), at the origin of Lyon, Loudon, Laudun, Laon, Lea,[12] and perhaps Leiden; *Lugu-ialon ('Lugus' village'), at the origin of Ligueil; as well as Lugu-ualion ('Place of Lugus-Sovereign'), the ancient name of Carlisle.[4] It is also possible that Lucus Augusti (modern Lugo in Galicia, Spain) is derived from the theonym Lugus,[7][13] although a derivation from Latin lucus ('grove') cannot be ruled out either.[14]

It is also included in the personal names Lugu-dunolus, Lugu-uec[ca], Lugius, Lugissius, Lugu-rix, and Lugiola. The female name Lugu-selua, meaning 'Lugus' 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 'Lugus' stallion').[5]

Ethnonyms which may derive from Lugus 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 Lugus 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 exact interpretation of the inscription is debated, but the phrase "to Luguei" (where the theonym appears in the dative singular following the preposition to "to, for", thus "to/for Lugus") clearly indicates a dedication to the god Lugus.[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 Avenches, Switzerland, on the capital of a Corinthian column,[17] and dative plural in a well-known Latin inscription from Uxama (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]

[Scholars have long noted the interesting parallel between Lugus being worshiped by shoemakers in Spain and his Welsh counterpart Lleu being represented as a shoemaker in the 4th branch of the Mabinogi.[20][21]]

The plural form of the theonym is also found in the following 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 Proto-Indo-European root *h₂érkʷo 'bow, arrow'. Its cognates are found in Latin arcus and Modern 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 Lugus 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 Lugus", though it may also mean "I swear (luge) with/by my right (hand)".[28]

Gaulish Mercury

Julius Caesar in his De Bello Gallico identified six gods worshipped in Gaul, by the usual conventions of interpretatio romana giving the names of their nearest Roman equivalents rather than their Gaulish names. He said that "Mercury" was the god most revered in Gaul, describing him as patron of trade and commerce, protector of travellers, and the 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 Lugus. Mercury's importance is supported by the more than 400 inscriptions referencing him in Roman Gaul and Britain.[21] Such a blanket identification is optimistic; Jan de Vries[30] demonstrates the unreliability of any one-to-one concordance in the interpretatio romana.[31]

Iconography

The iconography of Gaulish Mercury includes birds, particularly ravens and the cock, now the emblem of France; horses; the tree of life; dogs or wolves; a caduceus, or herald's staff topped with a pair of snakes; mistletoe; shoes (one of the dedications to the Lugoves was made by a shoemakers' guild; Lugus'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"); and bags of money. He is often armed with a spear. He is frequently accompanied by his consort Rosmerta ("great provider"), who bears the ritual drink 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 "Lu" prechaun and notably leprechauns were also often represented as shoemakers.[32]

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

Gaulish Mercury is associated with triplism: sometimes he has three faces, sometimes three phalluses, which may explain the plural dedications. This also compares with Irish myth. In some versions of the story Lug was born as one of triplets, and his father, Cian ("Distance"), is often mentioned in the same breath as his brothers Cú ("Hound") and Cethen (meaning unknown), who nonetheless have no stories of their own. Several characters called 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.

Ludwig Rübekeil[33] suggests that Lugus was a triune god, comprising Esus, Toutatis and Taranis, the three chief deities mentioned by Lucan (who, at the same time, makes no mention of Lugus), and that pre-Proto-Germanic tribes in contact with the Celts (possibly the Chatti) moulded aspects of Lugus into the Germanic god Wōdanaz i.e. that Gaulish Mercury gave rise to Germanic Mercury.

Sacred sites

High places (Mercurii Montes), including Montmartre, the Puy-de-Dôme and the Mont de Sène, were dedicated to him.

Continuity in later Celtic narratives

In Ireland, Lugh was the victorious youth who defeats the monstrous Balor "of the venomous eye". He was the godly paradigm of priestly kingship, and another of his appellations, lámhfhada “of the long arm”, carries on an ancient Proto-Indo-European image of a noble sovereign expanding his power far and wide. His festival, called Lughnasadh ("Festival of Lugh") in Ireland, was commemorated on 1 August. His name survives in the village of Louth (anciently Lughmhagh, "Lug's plain") and the County Louth in which it stands. When the Emperor Augustus inaugurated Lugdunum ("fort of Lugus", now Lyon) as the capital of Roman Gaul in 18 BC, he did so with a ceremony on 1 August (this may be coincidental, however, as this date also commemorates Augustus' victory over Cleopatra at Alexandria). At least two of the ancient Lughnasadh locations, Carmun and Tailtiu, were supposed to enclose the graves of goddesses linked with terrestrial fertility.

Lugus has also been suggested as the origin not only of Lugh and Lleu Llaw Gyffes, but also the Arthurian characters Lancelot and Lot (most famously championed by the Arthurian scholar Roger Sherman Loomis), though more recent Arthurian scholarship has downplayed any such link between Lugus and Lancelot.

See also

Notes
  1. Bas-relief discovered in Paris in 1867 and preserved at the 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. Fee, Christopher R. (2004). Gods, Heroes, & Kings. Oxford University Press. 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. Delamarre 2003, p. 211.
  5. Matasović 2009, p. 248.
  6. Koch 2017, pp. 46–47.
  7. 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. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. 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.
  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. 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
  • Delamarre, Xavier (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental. Errance. ISBN 9782877723695.
  • Koch, John T. (2017). "Some epigraphic comparanda bearing on the 'pan-Celtic god' Lugus". Celtic religions in the Roman period. Celtic Studies Publications. pp. 37–56. ISBN 978-1891271250.
  • Matasović, Ranko (2009). Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic. Brill. ISBN 9789004173361.
  • Schrijver, Peter (1995). Studies in British Celtic Historical Phonology. Rodopi. ISBN 978-90-5183-820-6.
  • Simón, Francisco (2005). "Religion and Religious Practices of the Ancient Celts of the Iberian Peninsula". E-Keltoi: Journal of Interdisciplinary Celtic Studies. 6 (1). ISSN 1540-4889.

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
  • Media related to Lugus at Wikimedia Commons
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