Lugus#Caesar and Gaulish Mercury

The etymology of Lugus's name has been the subject of repeated conjecture, but no single etymology has gained wide acceptance.{{rp|211}}

The most commonly repeated etymology derives the name from proto-Indo-European *{{wikt-lang|ine-x-proto|lewk-|leuk-}} ("to shine"). This etymology is closely tied to proposals to identify Lugus as a solar god. However, Garrett Olmsted has pointed out that this derivation poses phonological difficulties. Proto-Celtic {{lang|cel-x-proto|lug-}} cannot develop from proto-Indo-European {{lang|ine-x-proto|leuk-}}, according to the known sound changes between the two languages.{{rp|181–183}} {{ill|Carlos Jordán Cólera|ca|Carlos Benjamín Jordán Cólera}} has noted that this root would result in Irish {{lang|mga|Luch}}, rather than the attested Irish {{lang|mga|Lugh}}.{{cite journal |url=https://ifc.dpz.es/recursos/publicaciones/26/22/40beltranetal.pdf |title=Novedades epigráficas en Peñalba de Villastar (Teruel) |last1=Jordán Cólera |first1=Carlos |last2=Marco Simón |first2=Francisco |last3=Beltrán Lloris |first3=Francisco |journal=Paleohispánica |volume=5 |pages=911–956 }}{{rp|918}}

{{ill|Heinrich Wagner (linguist)|de|Heinrich Wagner (Linguist)|lt=Heinrich Wagner}} and Erich Hamp have proposed that the name derives from a proto-Celtic word meaning "oath" (either {{lang|cel-x-proto|lugiom}} or {{lang|cel-x-proto|leugh-}}). John T. Koch has taken this hypothesis up, and proposed that the early Irish oath tongu do dia toinges mo thúath is a suppressed oath to Lugus.{{cite journal |last=Koch |first=John Thomas |title=Further to tongu do dia toinges mo thuath, &c. |journal=Études Celtiques |volume=29 |date=1992 |pages=249–261 |doi=10.3406/ecelt.1992.2008 }}{{rp|252}}{{rp|244}} A. G. van Hamel and Maier proposed a derivation from proto-Celtic {{lang|cel-x-proto|lugus}} ("lynx"), perhaps used allusively to mean "warrior", but an article by John Carey found the evidence for the existence of such a word in proto-Celtic lacking.{{cite book |last=Carey |first=John |date=2010 |chapter=Celtic *lugus "lynx": A Phantom Big Cat? |title=Celtic Language, Law and Letters: Proceedings of the Tenth Symposium of Societas Celtologica Nordica |editor-first=F. |editor-last=Josephson |series=Meijerbergs Arkiv för Svensk Ordforskning |location=Göteborg |pages=151–167 }}{{cite book |title=Religious Acculturation and Assimilation in Belgic Gaul and Aquitania from the Roman Conquest until the End of the Second Century CE |url=https://archive.org/details/bar-international-series-alasdair-watson-religious-acculturation-and-assimilatio |last=Watson |first=Alasdair |date=2007 |publisher=BAR Publishing |location=Oxford |doi=10.30861/9781407300368 |isbn=978-1-4073-0036-8 }}{{rp|66}} Other etymologies derive "Lugus" from the name of the Norse god Loki,{{rp|211}} proto-Celtic {{lang|cel-x-proto|luc-}} ("mouse" or "rat"),{{cite book |last=Coe |first=Paula Powers |chapter=Manwydan's Set and Other Iconographic Riffs |title=Heroic poets and poetic heroes in Celtic tradition: A Festschrift for Patrick K. Ford |editor1-first=Joseph Falaky |editor1-last=Nagy |editor2-last=Jones |editor2-first=Leslie Ellen |url=https://archive.org/details/heroicpoetspoeti0000unse |url-access=registration |date=2005 |location=Dublin |publisher=Four Courts Press |pages=42–54 |isbn=978-1-85182-849-4 }} and Gaulish {{lang|xtg|lougos}} ("raven").{{rp|53}}

A number of dedications to Lugus, dating between the 1st century BCE and 3rd century CE, have been found in Continental Europe.{{rp|190}} This epigraphic data is concentrated in Iberia; only a small number of inscriptions are known from Gaul, and none are known from Britain or Ireland.{{rp|593–594}} A peculiarity of this data is that the singular of Lugus's name is rarely recorded.{{cite journal |last=Marco Simón |first=Francisco |date=2006 |title=The cult of the Lugoves in Hispania |journal=Acta Archaeologica |volume=57 |issue=1–3 |pages=209–218 |doi=10.1556/aarch.57.2006.1-3.15 }}{{rp|215}} There is consensus that a Celtiberian inscription from Peñalba de Villastar features the singular.{{rp|353–354}} A minority interpret the Gaulish-language Chamalières tablet as invoking singular Lugus.{{rp|354}}{{rp|214}} The singular is inscribed on a ceramic sherd from {{ill|Oppidum de l'Ermitage|fr}}, but this is probably a theophoric name and not a reference to the god Lugus.{{rp|353}} Many Celtic gods are referenced both in the plural and the singular,{{efn|1=Arbois de Jubainville was aware of this and compared Lugus/Lugoves to the pairs Deo Vitiri/Dibus Vitiribus and Deo Mounti/Dis Mountibus known from Roman Britain.{{rp|355}} Joshua Whatmough points out that this feature is common to Gaul as well, where plural dedications to Mercury, Epona, and Silvanus are known.{{cite book |title=The Dialects of Ancient Gaul: Prolegomena and Records of the Dialects |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |publisher=Harvard University Press |date=1970 |last=Whatmough |first=Joshua }}{{rp|196}}}} but in dedications to Lugus the plural form ("Lugoves" or "Lucoves"{{efn|1=Garrett Olmsted explains the form "Lucoves" as a result of "the tendency to confuse the voiced and unvoiced series,

particularly c and g, [...] most frequent in Spain and Aquitania".{{rp|309}}}}) predominates.{{cite book |title=The Gods of the Celts and the Indo-Europeans |last=Olmsted |first=Garrett S. |date=2017 |edition=Revised |url=https://www.academia.edu/38135817 |location=Tazewell, Virginia }}{{rp|309}}

The nature of the Lugoves, and their relationship to Lugus, has been much debated.{{cite journal |title=Los Testimonios Epigraficos de LVG en Hispania |last1=Sagredo |first1=L. |last2=Hernández Guerra |first2=L. |url=https://www.academia.edu/33866674 |journal=Memorias de Historia Antigua |volume=17 |date=1996 |pages=179–202 }}{{rp|179}} The epigraphic record is equivocal as to the gender of these deities. The epithet {{lang|la|Arquienob(o)}} (attested at San Martín de Liñarán) has masculine gender, whereas the epithets {{lang|la|Arousa(bo)}} (attested on an altar from Lugo) and possibly {{lang|txr|Niirabo}} indicate the feminine.{{rp|215}} Henri Gaidoz contended that plural deities were minor in the Celtic pantheon, and that therefore Lugus could not have been the chief god of the Celts. Arbois de Jubainville and Joseph Vendryes argued that the Celts invoked even major gods (such as Mars) in the plural.{{rp|354–355}} Some scholars have tried to explain the multiplicity of the Lugoves through traits of Irish Lugh or Welsh Lleu.{{rp|214}}{{rp|51–52}} Marie-Louise Sjoestedt, for example, pointed out that Lugh was one of triplets.{{rp|83}} Maier has argued that the obscurity of the nature of the Lugoves limits the value of the epigraphic record as evidence for pan-Celtic Lugus.{{cite journal |last=Maier |first=Bernhard |title=Is Lug to be Identified with Mercury (Bell. Gall. VI 17, 1)? New Suggestions on an Old Problem |journal=Ériu |volume=47 |date=1996 |pages=127–135 |jstor=30007440 }}{{rp|128}} Krista Ovist argues against this point.{{rp|353–355}}

The element "lug(u)-" appears frequently in Celtic proper names. In many of these cases, an etymology involving the deity-name Lugus has been proposed.{{rp|219}}{{rp|132}} Celtic personal names with this element include Lug, Lugaunus, Lugugenicus, Lugotorix, Luguadicos, Luguselva, and Lougous.{{rp|220}} A number of cognate names are known from Irish Ogham inscriptions, for example, Luga, Lugudecca (perhaps, "serving the god Lugus"{{cite book |first=Ranko |last=Matasović |title=Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic |url=https://archive.org/details/matasovic-etymological-dictionary-of-proto-celtic |volume=9 |location=Leiden / Boston |series=Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series |publisher=Brill |date=2009 }}{{rp|248}}), Luguqritt (perhaps, "poet like Lugus"{{rp|221}}), and Luguvvecca.{{rp|220}} Some ethnic names have been connected with Lugus, for example the Lugi in Scotland{{rp|58}} and the {{ill|Lugones (tribe)|gl|lt=Lugones}} in Asturias.{{rp|63}} Place-names connected with Lugus include Lugii, Lougoi, Lougionon, Lugisonis, and Lugnesses.{{rp|221}} Lucus Augusti (modern-day Lugo) is the site of a Roman sanctuary with dedications to the Lugoves;{{rp|216}} its name may be derived from the deity-name Lugus, though it could simply be Latin for "grove of Augustus".{{cite journal |url=https://www.academia.edu/6505899 |title=The Place Names of Ancient Hispania and its Linguistic Layers |last=García Alonso |first=Juan Luis |journal=Studia Celtica |pages=213–244 |volume=35 |date=2001 }}{{rp|219}} The name of Luguvalium (modern-day Carlisle) is sometimes glossed as "wall of Lugus", but may instead derive from a personal name.{{rp|fn 4}}{{rp|213}}

File:France map Lambert-93 topographic-ancient Roman roads.svg (modern-day Lyon) at the heart of Roman Gaul]]

Since Arbois de Jubainville argued for the connection, the place-name "Lugdunum" has frequently been connected etymologically with Lugus. The most famous known by this name is Lugdunum (modern-day Lyon) in the region of Gallia Lugdunensis,{{efn|1=The Roman province, which stretched from Saône to Brittany, took its name from the city.{{rp|483}}}} a Roman colony and among the most important cities of Roman Gaul.{{rp|244–245}} The etymology of this place-name has been the subject of much conjecture. Following Arbois de Jubainville, the most widely held hypothesis analyses the name as {{lang|xtg|Lugus}} + {{lang|xtg|dunum}} ("fort"),{{efn|1=Gaulish {{lang|xtg|dunun}} or {{lang|xtg|dunum}} has the meaning "'citadel, fortified enclosure, mount".{{cite book|first=Xavier |last=Delamarre |title=Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental |date=2003 |location=Paris |edition=2nd |publisher=Éditions Errance }}{{rp|154–155}}}} that is, "the fortress of Lugus".{{rp|219–220}} Many other etymologies have been given.{{rp|483–484}} An ancient etymology derives it from a Gaulish word for raven.{{efn|1=This etymology, reported in the 2nd-century text De fluviis, is given as part of a founding legend of Lugdunum/Lyon: two founders with Gaulish names observe ravens over a hill, and decide to found a city there, deriving its name from {{lang|xtg|lougos}} ("raven") + {{lang|xtg|dunun}} ("hill"). The gloss of {{lang|xtg|dunun}} is correct, but the supposed Gaulish word {{lang|xtg|lougos}} is a hapax legomenon and has no clear cognates in other Celtic languages, though Zeidler has proposed a derivation from proto-Indo-European.{{cite journal |first=Jürgen |last=Zeidler|title=Review: Maier, Bernhard: Die Religion der Kelten|volume=55 |issue=1 |date=2007 |pages=208–230 |doi=10.1515/ZCPH.2007.208 |journal=Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie }}{{rp|215–216}}{{cite journal |last=Blom |first=Alderik H. |title=Endlicher's Glossary |journal=Études Celtiques |volume=37 |date=2011 |pages=159–181 |doi=10.3406/ecelt.2011.2332 }}{{rp|170}}}} Attempts have been made to analyse it as {{lang|xtg|*lugus}} ("luminous" or "clear") + {{lang|xtg|dunum}} ("hill"), bolstered by a medieval etymology which gives the gloss {{lang|la|mons lucidus}} ("shining mountain").{{cite book |title=Die Religion der Kelten in den antiken literarischen Zeugnissen |volume=3 |last=Hofeneder |first=Andreas |date=2011 |location=Wien |publisher=Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften |url=https://archive.org/details/9783700169970-gesamt-2 }}{{rp|131}}{{cite book |last=Evans |first=D. Ellis |title=Gaulish Personal Names: A Study of Some Continental Celtic Formations |location= Oxford |publisher= Clarendon Press |date=1967}}{{rp|219–220}}

The place-name Lugdunum is attested, in its cognate forms, as the name of as many as twenty-seven locations.{{rp|132}}{{efn|1=Christian-Joseph Guyonvarc'h lists 27 places connected with this name. He classifies 20 as certain, 5 as probable, and 2 as doubtful.{{rp|132}} Alfred Holder gives a shorter list of 16 in his Alt-celtischer Sprachschatz.{{rp|244}}}} Apart from Lyon, there is Lugdunum Convenarum (modern-day Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges), Lugdunum Batavorum (near Leyden), Lugdunum Remorum (modern-day Laon), two Welsh places named Din Lleu (the order of the elements reversed),{{Cite book|last=Lambert|first=Pierre-Yves|title=New approaches to Celtic place-names in Ptolemy's Geography|date=2005 |location=Madrid|publisher=Ediciones Clásicas|isbn=978-8478825721|editor-last=de Hoz|editor-first=Javier|pages=215–251|chapter=The place names of Lugdunensis [Λουγδουνησία]|editor-last2=Luján|editor-first2=Eugenio R.|editor-last3=Sims-Williams|editor-first3=Patrick}}{{rp|244–245}} and two cities of unclear location in North East England and Germania Magna.{{rp|509–510}} The wide range and abundance of these place-names has been used to argue for the importance of Lugus.{{rp|355–356}} Whatever the etymology, not all of these place-names must owe themselves a Celtic root. Lugdunum/Lyon was a major city, and other locations may have borrowed the name. Some two-thirds of the cognate place-names are attested only from the 10th century on; we know that Lugdunum Remorum had an older, native name (Bibrax) which was displaced in the 6th century.{{rp|129–130}}

File:Autel de Cernunnos, sculpture, 1er siècle.jpg to Apollo, Cernunnos, and Mercury]]

Commentaries on the Gallic War is Julius Caesar's first-hand account of the Gallic Wars (58 to 50 BCE). In giving an account of the customs of the Gauls, Caesar wrote the following:

{{blockquote

|{{lang|la|Deum maxime Mercurium colunt. Huius sunt plurima simulacra: hunc omnium inventorem artium ferunt, hunc viarum atque itinerum ducem, hunc ad quaestus pecuniae mercaturasque habere vim maximam arbitrantur. Post hunc Apollinem et Martem et Iovem et Minervam. De his eandem fere, quam reliquae gentes, habent opinionem.}}{{Perseus|Hirt.|Gal.|6.17}}

The god they reverence most is Mercury. They have many images of him, and they regard him as the inventor of all arts, the god who directs men on their journeys, and the most powerful helper in trading and getting money. Next to him they reverence Apollo, Mars, Jupiter, and Minerva, about whom they have much the same ideas as other nations.{{cite book |title=Caesar: The Conquest of Gaul |url=https://archive.org/details/caesarconquestof00hand |url-access=registration |date=1981 |first=S. A. |last=Handford |publisher=Penguin Books }}

{{rp|33–34}}

}}

Caesar here employs the device of interpretatio romana, in which foreign gods are equated with those of the Roman pantheon.{{efn|1=The equation of a Roman god with a foreign god was made on the basis of their perceived similarity, but, in practice, a clear equivalent was often absent, so one common trait or sphere of activity sufficed to justify the equivalence.{{rp|203}}}} With very few exceptions, Roman writings about Celtic and Germanic religion employ interpretatio romana, but the equations they made varied from writer to writer. This makes identifying the native gods behind the Roman names very difficult.{{cite book |title=Die Religion der Kelten in den antiken literarischen Zeugnissen |volume=1 |last=Hofeneder |first=Andreas |date=2005 |location=Wien |publisher=Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften }}{{rp|203–204}} Indeed, if their information was confused or their intention was propagandistic, reconstruction of native religion is next to impossible.{{rp|206–207}}

Caesar contrasts Gaulish Mercury with the other gods of the Gauls, insofar as he is the god about whom they do not have "much the same ideas" as the Romans. The Romans associated Mercury with trading and travel, but they did not think of him as "inventor of all arts".{{rp|132}} Another difference is suggested by the order in which the gods are presented: Mercury is given primacy, whereas the Romans considered Jupiter the most important deity.{{rp|206}} Moreover, Mercury's role as guide of souls to the underworld (an important aspect of the god for the Romans) goes unmentioned in this passage. Caesar elsewhere ascribes to the Gauls a belief in metempsychosis, which may have precluded Gaulish Mercury from this function.{{rp|134}}{{efn|1=Indeed, {{ill|Gerhard Bauchhenss|de|Gerhard Bauchhenß}} has pointed out that depictions of Mercury are very rare on Gallo-Roman tombs, suggesting that this aspect of Mercury was never assimilated into Gaulish religion.{{rp|547}}}}

The first Celtic god to be identified as Caesar's Gaulish Mercury was Teutates.{{efn|1=Teutates, one of the few Celtic gods known by his native name in Roman literature, has been a candidate for the identity of Gaulish Mercury since medieval commentators on Lucan. This identification was reasserted in the 17th century by Elias Schedius and was repeated through most of the 18th and 19th centuries. In modern times, this identification has received the support of {{ill|Jean-Louis Brunaux|fr}}.{{cite book |first=Jean-Louis |last=Brunaux |title=Les Gaulois |series=Guides Belles Lettres Des Civilisations |date=2005 |publisher=Les Belles Lettres |location=Paris }}{{rp|200–201}}{{rp|127}}}} This identification was widely accepted until the late 19th century, when Arbois de Jubainville proposed that Lugus lay behind Caesar's description. Arbois de Jubainville pointed to the prominence of "Lug(u)-" elements in Gaulish place-names, and a possible festival of Lugus at Lugdunum/Lyon (discussed below). He also drew comparison between Irish Lugh's epithet {{lang|mga|Samildánach}} ("master of all arts") and Caesar's description of Gaulish Mercury as "inventor of all arts".{{rp|127}} Maier has criticised this identification on the basis that "inventor of all arts", though not a Greco-Roman belief about the god Mercury, is a common literary topos in Roman descriptions of foreign religions. He also casts doubt on the possibility that an epithet like this, not otherwise attested in the epigraphic record, could have survived into medieval Irish literature.{{rp|132–134}}

A confusing aspect of Caesar's description of this cult is his reference to the "many images" of Gaulish Mercury; specifically he uses the word {{lang|la|simulacra}}, a word which had the connotation of worshipped idols for Roman authors.{{cite book |title=Roman Cult Images: The Lives and Worship of Idols from the Iron Age to Late Antiquity |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2020 |first=Philip |last=Kiernan |doi=10.1017/9781108766555 |isbn=978-1-108-76655-5 }}{{rp|40}} Archaeological evidence of anthropomorphic cult images is scant before the Roman conquest of Gaul.{{rp|205}} The testimony of some Roman authors suggests the Gauls did not produce images of their gods, though Lucan describes the Gauls as having wooden idols.{{rp|39–40}} Salomon Reinach suggested that Caesar meant to draw a comparison between aniconic monuments to Gaulish Mercury and the herms (aniconic monuments to Hermes, Mercury's Greek equivalent) he knew from Rome, but this is an unlikely use of the word {{lang|la|simulacra}}.{{rp|205–206}}{{rp|42}}

File:Moccus inscription, CIL XIII, 05676.png {{lang|la|deo Mercur(io) Mocco}} ("to Mercury of the Swine")]]

Certainly, after Caesar's conquest of Gaul, depiction and worship of Mercury was widespread.{{efn|1={{ill|Paul-Marie Duval|fr}} estimated that two-thirds of all monuments in the Roman world dedicated to Mercury have been found in Gaul.{{rp|593}}}} More images of Mercury have been found in Roman Gaul than those of any other God,{{rp|131}} but these representations of Mercury are conventional, and show no discernible Celtic influence.{{rp|537}} Epigraphic material does reveal some bynames of Mercury peculiar to Gaul, thought to be suggestive of native gods.{{cite encyclopedia |first=Gerhard |last=Bauchhenss |title=Mercurius in den Nordwestprovinzen |url=https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20VI-1%20Kentauroi%20et%20Kentaurides-O%C4%B1ax/page/n369 |encyclopedia=Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae |volume=6 |location=Zurich / Munich |publisher=Artemis |date=1992 |pages=537–54 }}{{rp|537}} An inscription from Langres attests to a Mercur(io) Mocco ("Mercury of the Swine"), perhaps Lugus.{{rp|98}} Other epithets—connecting Mercury with heights, particular Gaulish tribes, and the emperor Augustus—have been thought to be suggestive of Lugus.{{rp|101–102}}{{rp|316–318}} The epigraphic record has not produced any epithets portraying Mercury as inventor or master of arts.{{rp|134}}

File:Silver cup with Gallic divinities (Lyon Mus Gall-Rom 2004.0.02) 04.jpg]]

No images of Lugus are known.{{cite book|last= Deyts |first= Simone |date= 1992 |title= Images des dieux de la Gaule |location= Paris |publisher= Editions Errance }}{{rp|23}}{{cite book |last=Le Duc |first=Gwenaël |chapter=Existe-t-il des représentations du dieu Lugh? |editor1-first=John |editor1-last=Carey |editor2-first=John T. |editor2-last=Koch |editor3-first=Pierre-Yves |editor3-last=Lambert |title=Ildánach Ildírech: A Festschrift for Proinsias Mac Cana |publisher=Celtic Studies Publications |location=Andover / Aberystwyth |date=1999 |pages=97–99 }}{{rp|97}} However, a number of figures have been proposed to represent Lugus. A Gallo-Roman silver cup from Lyon is decorated with a number of figures, including a human counting money next to a raven. Pierre Wuilleumier identified the human figure as Mercury/Lugus, whereas {{ill|J.-J. Hatt|fr|Jean-Jacques Hatt}} identified the raven as Apollo/Lugus.{{rp|143}} Paula Powers Coe argued that the depiction of Mercury on an altar from Reims could be Lugus, as a rat (Gaulish {{lang|xtg|lucot}}) is depicted above Mercury, perhaps punning on Lugus's native name.{{rp|45}} Arguing from an association between Irish Lugh and pigs, {{ill|Gwenaël Le Duc|fr}} has proposed that the Euffigneix statue (of a Gaulish boar-god) is a representation of Lugus.{{rp|99}}

Lugh Lamfhota (literally, "Long-armed Lugh") is an Irish mythological figure from the Mythological Cycle and the Ulster Cycle. He is portrayed as a leading member of the Tuatha Dé Danann, a supernatural race in medieval Irish literature often thought to represent euhemerized pre-Christian deities. Alongside Fionn mac Cumhaill and Cú Chulainn (Lugh's supernatural son), he is one of the three great heroes of the Irish mythological tradition.{{cite encyclopedia |first=James |last=MacKillop |title=Lug Lámfhota |encyclopedia=Dictionary of Celtic Mythology |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2004 |edition=Online |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198609674.001.0001/acref-9780198609674-e-3067 }}{{cite encyclopedia |first=James |last=MacKillop |title=Tuatha Dé Danann |encyclopedia=Dictionary of Celtic Mythology |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2004 |edition=Online |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198609674.001.0001/acref-9780198609674-e-3684 }} The Irish celebrated Lughnasa, a harvest festival which fell on 1 August and which, according to Irish tradition, was established by Lugh in honour of his foster mother.{{cite encyclopedia |first=James |last=MacKillop |title=Lughnasa |encyclopedia=Dictionary of Celtic Mythology |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2004 |edition=Online |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198609674.001.0001/acref-9780198609674-e-3087 }}

Arbois de Jubainville made the connection between Lugh and Lugus.{{rp|69–70}} He adduced two connections between Irish Lugh and Celtic Lugus. Firstly, he drew attention to the (above discussed) correspondence between Lugh's epithet {{lang|mga|Samildánach}} ("master of all arts") and Caesar's description of Gaulish Mercury.{{rp|127}} Secondly, he pointed out that an annual concillium of the Gauls in Lugdunum/Lyon, instituted in 12 BCE in honour of the emperor Augustus, fell on exactly the same day as Lughnasa. He suggested that both must ultimately derive from a Celtic festival in honour of Lugus.{{rp|130}}{{rp|111}} Recent scholarship has tended to dismiss this as a coincidence.{{rp|515}}{{efn|1=There are a number of reasons 1 August may have been chosen for a festival in honour of Augustus: the month bore his name{{rp|130}} and the date was the anniversary of his political victory over Antony and Cleopatra.{{cite book |title=Roman Gaul: The Three Provinces, 58 BC - AD 260 |location=Oxford / New York |last=Drinkwater |first=J. F. |publisher=Routledge |date=2014 }}{{rp|111–113}}}} Maier has pointed out that the Continental Celts used a lunar calendar, whereas the Irish used a solar calendar, so continuity of a seasonal festival would be unlikely.{{rp|130}}

File:Jesus-College-MS-111 00370 185v (cropped) Math fab Mathonwy .jpg]]

Lleu Llaw Gyffes (literally, "Lleu of the Skillful Hand" or "Steady Hand") is one of the protagonists of the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi, a set of Welsh stories compiled in the 12th-13th centuries. He is a prince whose story culminates in him becoming ruler of Gwynedd.{{rp|68}}{{cite encyclopedia |first=James |last=MacKillop |title=Lleu Llaw Gyffes |encyclopedia=Dictionary of Celtic Mythology |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2004 |edition=Online |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198609674.001.0001/acref-9780198609674-e-3002 }} Though not depicted as other than human, Lleu is depicted with extraordinary or magical skills, like many other characters in Welsh mythology.{{rp|75}} Lleu (or characters similar to him) appears in other works of medieval Welsh literature. Notable examples are Lluch Llavynnauc (Lluch "of the Striking Hand" or Lluch "Equipped with a Blade") in Pa gur; Lluch Lleawc (Lluch "the Death Dealing") in Preiddeu Annwn; and Llwch Llawwynnyawe (Lluch "of the Striking Hand") in Culhwch.{{rp|69}}

John Rhys was the first to relate Lleu to Lugus, which he did in 1888. Rhys drew a comparison between an episode in the Mabinogi, wherein Lleu and his foster father Gwydion produce gold-ornamented shoes, and the inscription from Uxama Argaela, where the Lugoves are invoked by a group of shoemakers. This parallel has received a mixed reception.{{rp|70–71}} Joseph Loth felt that the episode was minor and the conclusion extravagant.{{cite journal |last=Loth |first=Joseph |title=Le Mabinogi de Math vab Mathonwy d'aprés W. J. Gruffydd et la mèthode en celto-mythologie |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6473497q/f288 |journal=Revue Celtique |volume=46 |date=1929 |pages=272–300 }}{{rp|297–299}} Jan de Vries agreed with Rhys, and further argued that the "Lugoves" in this inscription were Lleu and Gwydion.{{cite book |last=de Vries |first=Jan |title=Keltische Religion |date=1961 |url=https://archive.org/details/keltischereligio0000vrie |url-access=registration |location=Stuttgart |publisher=W. Kohlhammer }}{{rp|52}}

Though the stories told of Lleu and Lugh do not show many similarities,{{rp|75}} comparisons have been drawn between epithets of Lleu and Lugh: Lleu is {{lang|wlm|Llaw Gyffes}} ("of the Skillful Hand") and Lugh is {{lang|mga|Samildánach}} ("master of all arts"); Lleu is {{lang|wlm|Llawwynnyawe}} ("of the Striking Hand") and Lugh is {{lang|mga|Lonnbémnach}} ("of the Fierce Blows").{{rp|71}} Ronald Hutton points out that medieval Welsh and Irish literature are known to have borrowed superficially from each other (for example, the similar in name but dissimilar in character Welsh Manawydan fab Llŷr and Irish Manannán mac Lir). This would suffice to explain the common epithets.{{rp|75}}

Welsh Lleu and Irish Lugh are both linguistically correct as reflexes of a Gaulish or Brittonic name Lugus.{{rp|70}} Hutton notes that a medieval borrowing cannot explain the linguistic relationship between Lugh and Lleu. For the names to be cognate, their common origin must be prior to the respective sound changes in Irish and in Welsh.{{rp|75}} Jessica Hemming argues that, insofar as Lugus is entirely absent from the epigraphic record in Britain and Ireland, the etymology is questionable.{{cite book |last=Hemming |first= Jessica |chapter=Ancient tradition or authorial invention? The 'mythological' names in the Four Branches |editor-first=Joseph Falaky |editor-last=Nagy |title= Myth in Celtic literatures |volume=6 |location= Dublin |publisher= Four Courts Press |date=2007 |pages=83–104 }}{{rp|102}}

File:Portrait of Henri d'Arbois de Jubainville.jpg]]

The god Lugus was first reconstructed by Arbois de Jubainville in his monumental {{lang|fr|Le cycle mythologique irlandais et la mythologie celtique}} (1884). Arbois de Jubainville linked together Irish Lugh, Caesar's Gaulish Mercury, the toponym Lugdunum, and the epigraphic evidence of the Lugoves. By 1888, Sir John Rhys had linked Lugus with Welsh Lleu.{{rp|70–71}} Initial criticism of this theory (for example, from Henri Gaidoz) gave way to what Ovist has described as "uncritical affirmation" of the existence of a pan-Celtic god Lugus.{{rp|66}} Over the 20th century, the theory was further elaborated.{{rp|71}} The long inscription from Peñalba de Villastar was first published in 1942 and, by the 1950s, it had been identified as a unique dedication to Lugus in the singular.{{rp|595}}{{rp|914}} In a 1982 article, Antonio Tovar cited Lugus as an exemplar of the unity of ancient Celtic culture. Few other Celtic gods could be said to be attested in Gaulish, Insular, and Iberian sources.{{cite journal |last=Tovar |first=Antonio |date=1982 |title=The God Lugus in Spain |journal=Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies |volume=29 |pages=591–599 }}{{rp|592–593}}

Early doubts about Lugus were raised by Pierre Flobert (in the 1960s) and Stephanie Boucher (in the 1980s).{{rp|206}} However, scepticism about the god only entered the mainstream in the 1990s, coinciding with a wave of scepticism about the unity of the ancient Celts.{{rp|72}} The most important of these critiques was mounted by Bernhard Maier, in his 1996 article "Is Lug to be Identified with Mercury?".{{rp|72}} As well as criticising the identification of Caesar's Gaulish Mercury with Irish Lugh, Maier cast doubt on the value of the previously adduced epigraphic and toponymic data from Continental Europe. As Ovist put it, Maier "in effect, question[ed] the very existence of Continental Lugus".{{cite thesis |type=PhD |publisher=University of Chicago Divinity School |last=Ovist |first=Krista L. |date=2004 |title=The Integration of Mercury and Lugus: Myth and History in Late Iron Age and Early Roman Gaul |id={{ProQuest|305095727}} }}{{rp|353}}

Scepticism about the existence of Lugus has not become consensus.{{rp|73}} Recent monographs on the god by Krista Ovist (2004) and Gaël Hily (2012) have reaffirmed and elaborated on Arbois de Jubainville's reconstruction.{{cite journal |last=Maier |first=Bernhard |title=Review: Hily, Gaël: Le dieu celtique Lugus |journal=Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie |volume=61 |issue=1 |date=2014 |pages=253–255 |doi=10.1515/zcph.2014.018 }}{{rp|253–255}} The strength of the epigraphic and toponymic evidence has been marshalled in defense of the hypothesis by scholars such as Ovist and Zeidler.{{rp|221}}{{rp|355}}

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{{reflist}}

• Arbois de Jubainville, Henry d' (1884) Le cycle mythologique irlandais et la mythologie celtique. Paris: E. Thorin.
• Boucher, Stephanie (1983) "L'image de Mercure en Gaule" in La patrie gauloise d'Agrippa au VIème siècle. Lyon: Les Belles Lettres. pp. 57–69.
• Flobert, Pierre (1968) "Lugdunum, une étymologie gauloise de l’empereur Claude (Sénèque, Apoc. VII, 2, v. 9-10)" Revue des études latines 46: 264-280.
• Goudineau, Christian (1989) "Les textes antiques sur la fondation et sur la topographie de Lugdunum” in Aux origines de Lyon. Lyon: Alpara. pp. 23-36.
• Guyonvarc'h, Christian-Joseph (1963) "Notes de toponymie gauloise. 2. Répertoire des toponymes en LVGDVNVM" Celticum. 6: 368-376.
• Hily, Gaël (2012) Le dieu celtique Lugus. Rennes: Centre de Recherche Bretonne et Celtique.
• Maier, Bernhard (2001) Die Religion der Kelten: Götter - Mythen - Weltbild. Munich: C. H. Beck.
• Rhys, John (1888) Lectures on the origin and growth of religion as illustrated by Celtic heathendom. London: Williams and Norgate.

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Category:Celtic gods

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Category:Mercurian deities