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Lugus

Encyclopedia : L : LU : LUG : Lugus

For the Philippine municipality, see Lugus, Sulu
Lugus was a deity attested to by inscriptions in Gaul, Germany and Switzerland and worshipped in Britain, in Ireland (compare Lugh), and in other ancient Celtic regions. His cult in the Iberia peninsula was centered among the Celtiberians (Simón, who provides a map). In the northwest, in Gallaecia, as Lugo he is mentioned in three inscriptions from Sober and Otero del Rey. He may appear in the plural: Lucubo Arquienobo, Locoubu Arquienis. Garcia Quintela (2003) suggests that a sanctuary dedicated to this native god might have been the basis for the foundation of the city of Lucus Augusti, the modern Lugo, Galicia. An inscription from Peña Amaya, north of Burgos, that is dedicated to Dibus M(agnis?) Lucubo(s) testifies to the supreme nature of this god among Cantabrian people. Several Latin inscriptions containing dedications to the Lugoves, a plural form again, have been found in Switzerland and Spain). His importance in the Celtic pantheon can be deduced from a multitude of ancient placenames and from figures in later Celtic mythology, such as the Irish Lugh and Welsh Lleu Llaw Gyffyes.

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Gaulish Mercury

Julius Caesar in his De Bello Gallico identified six gods worshipped in Gaul, by the usual conventions of interpretatio 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 (skilled in all arts), which has led to the identification of Caesar's Mercury as Lugus. Juliette Wood interprets his name as deriving from Proto-Celtic *lugios, oath, which would support this identification of Mercury as a god of contracts.

Iconography

The assertion that Mercury was most revered in Gaul is supported by the number of Gaulish inscriptions to Mercury. His iconography includes birds, particularly ravens and the cock, now the emblem of France; horses; the tree of life; dogs or wolves; a pair of snakes (cf Hermes's Caduceus); 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, Mercury's mother is Maia, meaning in Latin "she who provides"). Unlike the Roman Mercury, who is always a youth, Gaulish Mercury is occasionally also represented as an old man.

Triplism

Image of a tricephalic god identified as Lugus, discovered in Paris
Enlarge
Image of a tricephalic god identified as Lugus, discovered in Paris

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 Cu 'Hound' 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 'Lughaidh of the Red Freckles' and Lugaid mac Trí Con 'Lughaidh Son of Three Hounds' both have three fathers.

Rübekeil (2003:38) suggests that Lugus was a triune god, comprising Esus, Toutatis and Taranis, the three chief deities mentioned by Lucanus (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 Wodinaz.

Sacred sites

High places (Mercurii Montes), including Montmartre, the Puy-de-Dôme and the Mont de Sène, were dedicated to him. In Christian times he seems to have been assimilated into the archangel Michael, and many of the former Mercurii Montes became "St Michael's Mounts".

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. 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. 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 Llew Llaw Gyffes, but also the legendary British king Lud and the Arthurian characters Lancelot and Lot. The relationship with the latter two characters is no longer widely accepted.

Foreign parallels

It has been suggested that the Germanic deity Wotan (English Woden) was influenced by Gaulish Mercury (see "triplism" above), and his name is possibly reflected in Germanic Loki. There is no one-to-one correspondence between Germanic and Celtic gods, however, and Lugh is also likely related to Frea and her brother Freyr.

Etymology

Lugus's name has been interpreted as deriving from the Indo-European root *leuk-, light, and he has long been considered a sun god. This etymology is problematic because Proto-Indo-European *k did not under any known circumstances become *g- in Proto-Celtic, but remained *k. The direct descendent of the Proto-Indo-European root *leuk- (‘white light’) in Proto-Celtic is *leuk- as in the name of the Celtic lightning god Leucetios. So if one applies the principles of Occam's razor, *leuk- is not the most plausible etymology (though some have suggested that PIE *leuk had a variant form *leug-, which could indeed produce a Common Celtic *lug-).

The contemporary compilation of etymological lexica at the universities of Leiden and Wales [link] [link] suggest that this name is derived from Proto-Celtic *Lug-u-s, but this Proto-Celtic lexeme exhibits great ambiguity in its semantics both in Proto-Celtic and in Proto-Indo-European.

The Proto-Celtic lexeme *Lug-u-s may be related to the initial morpheme in the Proto-Celtic *lug-rā ‘moon’ (sometimes proposed as the proto-form behind Welsh lloer, though Eric Hamp suggests an alternative etymology for lloer, from Common Celtic *lus-rā, where the root would be cognate with that of Latin luridus [earlier *lus-idus] "pale yellow"). Another possibility is Proto-Indo-European *leug- meaning blackness, dimness, darkness (thought by Pokorny to be the root of the ill-attested Gaulish word lugos ‘raven’), or *leug- ‘swamp, peat-bog’. Proto-Celtic *Lug-u-s may equally be related to Proto-Celtic *lug- meaning "oath, pledging, assurance" on the one hand and "deceive" on the other (derived from Proto-Indo-European *leugh- ‘avowal, deception’). Conversely, the name may be derived from a Proto-Celtic compound such as *φlū-wgū-s, which would convey the meaning of ‘flowing vigour,’ or else from *φlūgū-s meaning ‘flight, flying, soaring, etc.’

The name may also be related to Old Irish lug "lynx", perhaps indicating the existence of a Proto-Celtic root that denoted an animal with "shining eyes", from PIE *leuk- "to shine" (compare Greek lunx "lynx", perhaps from a zero-grade form *luk- with infixed nasal).

This god’s name may also be cognate with Latin lugubris "mournful, pertaining to mourning," from lugere "to mourn," from a Proto-Indo-European base *leug- "to emotionally upset, disturb" (cf. Greek lygros "mournful, sad," Sanskrit rujati "breaks, torments," Lettish lauzit "to break the heart"). This would give the Proto-Celtic word *lugu-s a meaning akin to “upsetting power,” making him etymologically cognate with the Norse god Loki.

The name may equally be analysed as a compound of two Proto-Indo-European bases: *pleu- "flow, float" (cf. O.E. flowan, Du. vloeien "to flow," O.N. floa "to deluge," O.H.G. flouwen "to rinse, wash", from P.Gmc. *flo-; cf. Skt. plavate "navigates, swims," plavayati "overflows;" Armenian helum "I pour"; Gk. plyno "I wash," pleo "swim, go by sea"; L. pluere "to rain;" O.C.S. plovo "to flow, navigate"; Lith. pilu "to pour out," plauti "rinse") and *gheu- “to pour out.” The would enable the reconstruction of a Proto-Celtic word *φlu-gu-s connoting the notions of “flowing gush” and “floating gust.”

Survival of the name in toponyms

His name was commemorated in numerous place-names, such as Lugdunum (Celtic *Lugdunon or *Lugudunon, "fort of Lugus"; modern Lyon, France), capital of the Roman province of Gallia Lugdunensis. Other such place-names include Lucus Augusti in the Galician area of Spain (modern Lugo, Spain), Lugdunum Clavatum (modern Laon, France) and Luguvallium (modern Carlisle, England). It has been suggested that London may be named after him also.

Other places which are likely named after him include:

Loudun and Montluçon in France; Loudon in Scotland; Dinlleu in Wales; Leiden in the Netherlands;

References

External links

 

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