Litavis

Litavis (also Litauis or Litauī)[1] is a Gallic deity whose cult is primarily attested in east-central Gaul during the Roman period.[1] She was probably an earth-goddess.[2][1][3]

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. 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").[4]

Latin inscription reading "DEO MARTI CICOLLUI ET LITAVI" ("To Mars Cicolluos and Litavis").[1]

Name

The Gaulish divine name Litavi- (/litaui/; 'Earth', 'the Vast One') likely stems from Proto-Celtic *flitawī- ('broad'; compare with Old Breton litan, Middle Welsh llydan, 'broad'), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *Plethₐ-wih₁ ("the Broad One"; compare with Greek Plátaia, Old Norse fǫld, Sanskrit Pṛthvī 'earth').[1][2][5][3]

The 'neo-Celtic' names for the Brittany Peninsula (Old Breton Letau, Old Welsh Litau, Old Irish Letha, Latinized as Letavia) all stem from *Litauia ('earth, country').[2] In the Irish Lebor Bretnach (11th c.), Bretain Letha means 'Britons of the Continent or Armorica, i.e. Bretons.'[1] Thurneysen proposed a semantic development from Celtic 'broad land, continent' to the Insular Celtic name for the part of the Continent nearest the British Islands.[1] The Gaulish personal name Litavicos ('sovereign of the land') is cognate with the Welsh Llydewig, meaning 'pertaining to Brittany'.[1]

References

  1. Koch 2006, p. 1159.
  2. Delamarre 2003, pp. 204–205.
  3. West 2007, pp. 177–178.
  4. Koch, John T. "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.
  5. Matasović 2009, p. 135.

Bibliography

  • Delamarre, Xavier (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental (in French). Errance. ISBN 9782877723695.

Further reading

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.