Lugus
Lugus was a deity of the Celtic pantheon. His name is rarely directly attested in inscriptions, but his importance can be inferred from place names and ethnonyms, and 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 and Irish Lugh Lámhfhada.
Etymology
The exact etymology of Lugus is unknown and contested. The Proto-Celtic root of the name, lug-, is generally believed to have been derived from one of several different Proto-Indo-European roots, such as ' "black", ' "to break", and ' "to swear an oath".It was once thought that the root may be derived from Proto-Indo-European ' "to shine", but there are difficulties with this etymology and few modern scholars accept it as being possible.
Inscriptions
The god Lugus is mentioned in a Celtiberian inscription from in Spain, which reads:The exact interpretation of the inscription is debated, but the phrase "to Luguei" clearly indicates a dedication to the god Lugus.
Additionally, the name is attested several times in the plural, for example: nominative plural Lugoues in a single-word inscription from Avenches, Switzerland, on the capital of a Corinthian column, and dative plural in a well-known Latin inscription from Uxama, Spain:
The plural form of the theonym is also found in the following Latin inscriptions:
Lugo, Galicia, Spain:
Outeiro de Rei, Lugo, Galicia, Spain:
Sober, Lugo, Galicia, Spain:
Nemausus, France:
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.
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 with/by my right ".
Toponyms and ethnonyms
His name was commemorated in numerous place-names, such as Lugdunum, capital of the Roman province of Gallia Lugdunensis. Other such place-names include Lugdunum Clavatum and Luguvalium. It is also possible that Lucus Augusti is derived from the theonym Lugus, but Lucus in that place may in fact be purely Latin.Other places which are likely named after him include:
- Loudun, Ligueil, and Montluçon in France;
- Loudoun in Scotland;
- Dinlleu in Wales;
- Leiden in the Netherlands;
- Lugones in Asturias, Spain ;
- Legnica in Silesia;
- Lothian in Scotland;
- Luton in England.
Gaulish Mercury
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. The Irish god Lug bore the epithet samildánach, 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. Such a blanket identification is optimistic; Jan de Vries demonstrates the unreliability of any one-to-one concordance in the interpretatio romana.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 ; and bags of money. He is often armed with a spear. He is frequently accompanied by his consort Rosmerta, who bears the ritual drink with which kingship was conferred. Unlike the Roman Mercury, who is typically a youth, Gaulish Mercury is occasionally also represented as an old man.Triplism
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, is often mentioned in the same breath as his brothers Cú and Cethen, 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 and Lugaid mac Trí Con both have three fathers.Ludwig Rübekeil suggests that Lugus was a triune god, comprising Esus, Toutatis and Taranis, the three chief deities mentioned by Lucan, and that pre-Proto-Germanic tribes in contact with the Celts moulded aspects of Lugus into the Germanic god Wōdanaz i.e. that Gaulish Mercury gave rise to Germanic Mercury.
Sacred sites
High places, 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 in Ireland, was commemorated on 1 August. When the Emperor Augustus inaugurated Lugdunum as the capital of Roman Gaul in 18 BC, he did so with a ceremony on 1 August. 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, though more recent Arthurian scholarship has downplayed any such link between Lugus and Lancelot.