Litavis

Litavis (Gaulish: Litauī 'Earth', lit. 'the Broad One'){{Sfn|Koch|2006|p=1159}}{{Sfn|Delamarre|2003|pp=204–205}} is a Gallic deity whose cult is primarily attested in east-central Gaul during the Roman period.{{Sfn|Koch|2006|p=1159}} She was probably originally an earth-goddess.{{Sfn|Delamarre|2003|pp=204–205}}{{Sfn|Koch|2006|p=1159}}{{Sfn|West|2007|p=|pp=177–178}} In medieval Celtic languages, various terms derived from *Litauia came to designate the Brittany Peninsula.{{Sfn|Delamarre|2003|pp=204–205}}

Epigraphic evidence

File:Inscription with the name of goddess Litavis.jpg

Her name is found in inscriptions found at Aignay-le-Duc and Mâlain of the Côte-d'Or, France, where she is invoked along with the Gallo-Roman god Mars Cicolluis in a context which suggests that she might have been his consort.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} Also, a Latin dedicatory inscription from Narbonne (which was in the far south of Gaul), France, bears the words "MARTI CICOLLUI ET LITAVI" ("To Mars Cicolluos and Litavis").Koch, John T. "[http://www.biab.ac.uk/online/results1.asp?ItemID=20105 Ériu, Alba, and Letha: When Was a Language Ancestral to Gaelic First Spoken in Ireland?]" Emania: Bulletin of the Navan Research Group 9 (1991): 17–27.Barbet, Gérald; Billerey, Robert. "Une plaque de bronze avec dédicace découverte en Franche-Comté". In: Gallia, tome 61, 2004. p. 286. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/galia.2004.3065; www.persee.fr/doc/galia_0016-4119_2004_num_61_1_3065

Name

= Etymology =

The Gaulish divine name {{lang|xtg|Litauī}} ('Earth', lit. 'the Vast One') likely stems from Proto-Celtic {{lang|cel|*flitawī}} ('broad'; cf. Old Breton {{lang|obt|litan}}, Middle Welsh {{lang|wlm|llydan}}, 'broad'),Bader, Françoise. "Les grands de l'Iliade et les Achéménides". In: Revue des Études Grecques, tome 112, Juillet-décembre 1999. p. 375. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/reg.1999.4376; www.persee.fr/doc/reg_0035-2039_1999_num_112_2_4376 ultimately from Proto-Indo-European {{PIE|*Pleth₂-wih₁}} ('the Broad One'; cf. Sanskrit {{Transliteration|sa|Pṛthvī}}, Greek {{Transliteration|grc|Plátaia}}; also Old Norse {{lang|non|fǫld}}, 'earth').{{Sfn|Koch|2006|p=1159}}{{Sfn|Delamarre|2003|pp=204–205}}{{Sfn|Matasović|2009|p=135}}{{Sfn|West|2007|p=|pp=177–178}}

The Gaulish personal name Litauicos ('sovereign', lit. 'possessor of the land') is also cognate with the Welsh {{lang|cy|Llydewig}}, meaning 'pertaining to Brittany', pointing to a Proto-Celtic term *Litauī-kos, here attached to the determinative suffix -kos.{{Sfn|Koch|2006|p=1159}}

= Medieval terms =

The medieval or 'neo-Celtic' names for the Brittany Peninsula (cf. Old Irish {{lang|sga|Letha}}, Old Welsh {{lang|owl|Litau}}, Old Breton {{lang|obt|Letau}}, Latinized as {{lang|la|Letavia}}) all stem from an original *Litauia, meaning 'Land' or 'Country'.{{Sfn|Delamarre|2003|pp=204–205}} In the Irish {{lang|ga|Lebor Bretnach}} (11th c.), {{lang|mga|Bretain Letha}} means 'Britons of the Continent or Armorica, i.e. Bretons.' Linguist Rudolf Thurneysen proposed a semantic development from an Ancient Celtic term meaning 'broad land, continent' into the Insular Celtic names for the part of the Continent nearest the British Islands.{{Sfn|Koch|2006|p=1159}}

References

= Bibliography =

{{Cite book|last=Delamarre|first=Xavier|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C3BKPgAACAAJ|title=Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental|date=2003|publisher=Errance|isbn=9782877723695|language=fr|author-link=Xavier Delamarre}}
{{Cite book|last=Matasović|first=Ranko|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YN_YPQAACAAJ|title=Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic|date=2009|publisher=Brill|isbn=9789004173361|language=en|author-link=Ranko Matasović}}
{{Cite book|last=Koch|first=John T.|title=Celtic culture : a historical encyclopedia|date=2006|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=1-85109-440-7|author-link=John T. Koch}}
{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZXrJA_5LKlYC|title=Indo-European Poetry and Myth|last=West|first=Martin L.|date=2007|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-928075-9|author-link=Martin Litchfield West}}