Lug In France
From Lug To Mercury
In the text of Gallic Wars, Caesar clearly tells us that the
most honored god by the Gauls was regarded as the inventor of all the arts. The
conqueror of the Gallic Empire calls this god "Mercury". His aspect
as an inventor of all the arts - a trait totally foreign to the Latin Mercury –
identify the god as Lug(h)
He was deemed enough important for his name to be given to a
great feast celebrated in his honour: The Lugnasad by the ancient Irish people:
"Feast of Lug". Modern Lughnasadh (or Lùnasa ), is the root from
which derives the Gaelic name for the month of August (Lugnasd). The feast took
place in early August and was attended by a large number of people. It lasted
until the 19th century, and some localities still celebrate it.
Presence Of The Name Lug In Continental Celtia.
In Spain, an inscription discovered in Pénalba of Villastar
is dedicated to Lugus. In the northeast of the same country, in Osma (Old
Castile), the ancient city of Tarraconaise, the god is also invoked in the
plural form Lugoves. Lugoves , is found also in Avenches, Switzerland, engraved
on a limestone. Finally, an inscription to Lugovibus - although uncertain
because mutilated – has to be considered, found in Bonn, Germany.
Another element has to be taken into account (which analysts
almost ignore constantly): the duly attested existence of Gallo-Roman
anthroponymes formed on a root Lug-.
One knows Lugus, in Aies, on a shard;
l.iigius, Narbonne.
Lugetus, name of a potter.
l.ugunx, in ( lentjtiilly, in the Cher, on the a sandstone
stele (today exhibited in the Museum of Bourges.
At Bibracte, on a fragment of pottery, the same name is
found in abbreviated form Lugur; in the inscriptions, similarly indexed
summaries of the gods Gaulish names Albio-rix and CamuLo-rix.
The anthroponym Lugurix
can be compared with that of Lugotorix , name of a Breton chief from the
country of Kent, captured by the Romans in 54 B.C., to whom Caesar alludes in
The Gallic Wars.
The anthroponym Luguselva, a woman's name recorded in
Périgueux; "The one who belongs to the Lug" or "the one who
returns to the Lug".
It should be added that, according to Ernest Nègre, one
could recognize some of these anthroponymes in today's place names: Ligueil, in
Indre-et-Loire, France (Luggogalus , in 774), is said to be an ancient
Lugu-oialo , "land of Lugus"; Lue, in Maine-et-Loire ( Lugiacus , in
1060-1082), would go back to a proper name Lugius; Lugon, in Gironde, would have formed on a form of the
proper name Luguni.
All in all, we have a good small contingent of theophoric
anthroponymes that reinforce the existence on the territory of Gaul of a cult
to the god Lug. They render the fact that place names may have been given by
the Gauls as a tribute to this god.
The God Lug In French Place Names.
Lugudunum , "Fortress of the god-Lug", is found in
the designation of communes, villages and localities. Among the more recognized
- because the best attested to date - are Laon (Aisne), named Lugdunensis, in
549. There is also Lyon (Rhône), called by Strabon “Lougdounon” and by Pliny
“Lugdunum”. In addition to these two illustrious toponyms, there is Mont-Laü,
the locality of Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges, formerly Lougdounon, according to
Ptolemy (and Lugditnum, in the first Itinerary of Antonin).
Laons (Eure-et-Loir), known in 1250 as Loon , and Louin (Deux-Sèvres), attested as Loono in 1131, could be assimilated to the case of Laon (Aisne), similarly Loon to the same period (XIIth century), and which is an assured Lugdunum. For this last city, we also know the intermediate form Lauduni (in 966); it is found designating other localities. These are:
Laudun (Gard), Laudanum, in 1088;
Loudun (Vienne), Lauduno, on a Merovingian coin, and in 799-800;
Montlauzun (Lot), Lauduno, in 1178; Moulon (Loiret), Lauduni, in 1152;
Monlogis (Cantal), Laudine, in 1206:
Lauzun (Lot-et-Garonne), Lauzuno in the XIIIth century:
Lion-in-Beauce (Loiret), Lodonensi, in 886:
La Louasse (Cher), Lodun, in 1257;
Leudon-en-Brie (Seine-et-Marne), Ludon, in 1369:
Lucduno, in 692, and Lodun, in 1237, former manor house on the commune of
Parigné-l-Évêque (Sarthe), still attested today by the Bois and the Etangs de
Loudon (which may also have given its name to the hamlet(s) of Loudonneau(x),
territorium Ledunis, in the 11 th century, on the commune of Saint-Mars-la-
Brière, a few kilometers to the north).
It should be noted that some etymologists, while they most
often recognize for the second part of these compounds the link with the
Gaulish dunum, deny all connection with the god Lug, relating it to anthroponymes.
The personal name Laitdo would thus be at the origin of Laons (Eure-et-Loir)
and Moulon (Loiret). The name of nobody Laucus would have given birth to Laudun
(Gard), Lauzun (Lot-et-Garonne), Loudun (Vienne), Montlauzun (Lot), Monlezun
and Monlezun- d' Armagnac (Gers). This is very unlikely.
The God Of Heights
In the various toponyms mentioned, the exclusive association
of the name Lugu- with the Gallic - dunum is a characteristic that needs to be
questioned. What does it denote?
We have seen, in the study of the vocabulary of the war ( La
Gaule des combats, part III, 2 on "The fortresses"), which the
appellative dunum, quite widespread in our place names, served to designate
strongholds, usually on heights. Indeed, the vast majority of place names from
the Lugudunum model correspond to established localities on high sites. These
may be plateau’s, as in the case of Laons (Eure-et- Loir), Leudon (
Seine-et-Marne) or Lion-en-Beauce (Loiret). And there are isolated buttes,
hillsides or hills: thus in Laudun (Gard), Lauzun (Lot-et-Garonne), Loudon
(Sarthe), Loudun (Vienne) and Louin (Deux-Sèvres).
The ancient Irish text of the foundation of the Domaine of Tara (Suidigud Tellaig
Temra) describes Lug as a giant: "We were very surprised by the size of
his form. The top of his shoulders was as high as a wood, the sky and the sun
were visible between his legs, because of his size and beauty". He
therefore had the the size of a mountain. And it is often on mountains or hills
that the celebrations in the honour of Lug (Lugnasad) was celebrated in
Ireland. We know that the god assimilated to Mercury was honored under the
local nickname of DUMIAS at the summit of the Puy de Dome (inscription Mercurio
Dumiatï), in a sanctuary where would have been a gigantic statue of him, more
than 20 metres high, according to Pliny.
The study of the "Sacred Heights" has made us to
know also a dedication to Mercury Voségos ( Mercurio Vos[ego]), proving the
link between the god likened to the Roman Mercury and the sacred mountain of
the Vosges. Lug (and the others names by which he could be designated) would
thus have been a god in relation to predilection with high places. It is not
surprising that its divine name is found at the origin of localities
corresponding to this type of sites.
The god of fortresses
The Irish Lug is frequently portrayed in ancient
mythological tales as a youthful combatant, large in stature - as the previous
examples have noted - strong and brave, provided with an invincible spear that
he strikes furiously at his opponents. He was thus perceived as a warrior god,
a fighting hero. We can see another reason why the theonym Lug is found
associated in Lugu- compounds with the term -dunum: the study of the Gauls at
war showed that the appellative, if it was linked to heights, in the Celtic
language first referred to a military citadel, a stronghold. Put under the aegis of a fighting god, could these
oppida fear the enemy's assault? The names seem to have represented for the
Gallic peoples ostentatious witnesses of power, of the declared signs of
invincibility against neighboring nations. It is quite remarkable - thing which
does not seem to have been observed yet - that most of the Gallic Lugudunum
(retained as the most likely by the analysts and as such listed on our map)
have corresponded to settlements located near the territorial limits of
peoples. Laons was on the border between Carnutes and Eburovices-, Laudun, at
the Volcae Arecomici, was located at the very close to the Cavarer , Leudon was
located at the dividing line between Senones and Meldi; Loudun, among the
Pictavi, had settled not far from the border with the Turones and the Andecavi;
Lyons-la-Forêt was on the border of the Veliocasses and Bellovaci;
Monlezun, was close to the territory of
the Bigerriones: Monlezun-d'Armagnac is situated at the point of the division
between Elusates and Tarbelli; Monlogis, among the Arverni , adjoined at the
border of the Ruteni, Moulon was near the place where the Carnutes and the
Senones had settlements, etc.
Two Lugudunum’s may
however seem to be the exception. Louin (Deux-Sèvres), is located in the heart of
the city of the Pictavi territory. In fact, this civitas grouped together after
the conquest, the territories that were hitherto separated (Rome rewarding the
Pictons for their alliance gave them lands in the Armorican West), so that
Louin had to be established formerly close to the border between Early Pictony
and the state of another people located further west. Loudon, in the Sarthe,
just east of Le Mans, seems - similarly - to have been located in the heart of
the Cenomani Nation. In fact, there has been an ancient internal division of
the land the course of the Sarthe River from north to south, before making a
division between the two. elbow to the height of Le Mans. This primitive
boundary is likely to be highlighted by hydronyms GUIRONDE and GIRONDE that
marked it and whose toponymy has kept trace.
The Luminous God
As the deity of high places and strongholds, Lug was also
perceived as a luminous god, related to solar radiation. In the Irish text of
The Tragic Death of the Children of Tuireann ( Oidhe chloinne Tuireann ), it is
said of Lug: "His face had the brightness of the sun". His hair was
blonde; his helmet and breastplate shone brightly under the star of the day;
his garments were embroidered with gold; his shoes themselves were golden.
Mythological and linguistic clues concur: the name Lug
connects to a leukl, luk root found in many other Indo-European languages.
European languages, such as the Greek leukos or the Latin lux (it gave birth to
many months of in modern languages, such as German Licht, English light or
French lumière, luire, lune, lucide, etc.). Lug thus represented for the Celts
the "Brilliant", the "Luminous" (the Welsh hero Lleu has
the same origin: in Welsh, Lleu means "light"). Places that we have
quoted as having taken their name from the Celtic theonym correspond to sites
well exposed to light, easily sunlit. Thus, Laudun (Gard) has developed in an
amphitheatre on a hill of 122 m overlooking the Tave; Lauzun (Lot-et-Garonne),
in the slope of a hill of 100 m; Louin (Deux-Sèvres), on the slope of a height
bordering the Thouet. We must also talk about Laon (Aisne), again called
Montlaon in medieval texts. The high town, camped on its clear mountain - steep
hill over 100 meters – enjoys the light of the immense Champagne plain, from
which it stands out strikingly.
We must mention the most famous of all the
"Citadelles-de-Lug": Lyon, and its Fourvière hill which, also more
than 100 m above the mists of the Saône and the Rhône, raises its rock towards
the rising sun. There, one can think, "the Celts had since long accustomed
to coming to worship the god that, every morning and almost within their reach,
they saw the emergence of the alpine sierra". "Is there a better
place for to adore the rising sun that this site where the view to the east is
extraordinarily beautiful?, adds Amable Audin. Seneca (in Apocoloquintose, 7,
2, v. 9-10) was already doing tell one of his characters about the sire of
Lyon: "I saw, overlooking two rivers, a hill that Phebus at his rising
always looks into the sky". Nothing better justified, gifted, than the
name of " Luminous Height of the god".
The god of religious
centers and sacred assemblies
Several of the locality names from the Lugudunum compound
correspond to sites that will remain in a major relationship with the sacred,
as if the LUG guardianship had marked them with an divine seal. The village of LOU1N (Deux -Sèvres), which we
saw installed on the slope of a hill, revealed a Gallo-Roman hypogeum, a
mausoleum (4th century), and a burial necropolis (5th century) indications, perhaps, of a prolonged use of
the site for religious purposes.
Mont-Laü (Haute-Garonne) has kept the name of the hill next
to it from Lugdunum/Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges. In this simple village,
archaeologists have revealed a large Gallo-Roman temple, a necropolis (V-VI
centuries) and also an important Paleo-Christian basilica (4th century), which
makes Saint-Bertrand the oldest Christianity of the Pyrenees. It will acquire
very early the title - kept until the Revolution - of the bishopric of
Comminges. Forsaking the name of the ancient LUG, it will take the sanctified
name of the bishop having noted the importance of the religious capital and
undertaken the construction of its large cathedral, which perpetuated the
former sacralization of the site.
The destiny of the ancient Gallo-Roman citadel of the Rèmes,
Laon, has also remained the same eminently connected with religion. Saint Remi
founded a bishopric instead of the ancient Lugdunum as early as the V th - VI
th centuries. Kings appropriate the sacred. They made of Laon a royal seat,
capital Carolingian between the 8th and 10th centuries. A Gothic cathedral -
one of the most important formerly built - will sit majestically on the rock;
close to her we'll install the episcopal palace. Throughout the Middle Ages,
the city was a religious and intellectual center.
The old Lugdunum of Lyon was and has remained a religious
high place. For a long time, Fourvière's Gallic past has been ignored.
Historians asserted that no protohistoric occupation had ever existed on this
Lyon hill, and that the city dates back to the creation by Proconsul Munatius
Plancus of a Roman colony in 43 BC.
Gallic etymology of the name of the town seemed almost incongruous.
Recent research has established that the well was occupied in the Latin period,
and even that sacred places existed in the heart of the of this hill: large
quadrangular enclosures, where banquets took place at ritual character. In Lyon
the first Christian church was built in Gaul. The basilica of Fourvière rises
today on the site where once they had to pray to the Celtic god. The archbishop
of the city still bears the honorary title of "Primate of the Gauls".
The light of the pagan Lug has been the light of Christian law.
It is in Lyon, city
of the Gauls, political, administrative and religious center after the
Conquest, that Augustus decided to institute an imperial cult and to build a
monumental altar dedicated to Rome divinized and to Augustus perceived in his
religious power. The sanctuary, installed on the rival height of Fourvière, the
hill of the àoix-Roussc, near the amphitheatre, was inaugurated in the year 12
A.D. Tiberius, the successor of Augustus, reads there to revere the Mercurius
Augustus, as several re-recorded inscriptions attest, the imperial cult took
the succession of the devotion once given to the Celtic deity. It was decided
to hold an "Assembly of the Gauls", Concilium Galliarum, near the
site of the Gallo-Roman sanctuary; it was to be to bring together each year the
delegates of the sixty Gallic cities, thus obliged to recognize the sacred
power of Augustus. Skillfully, this solemn feast read placed August 1, which
was the month of Augustus' birth, and from which it takes its name. But this
date - strange coincidence! - coincided with the one set by the Celts to
celebrate each year the Lug festival, which we mentioned: the Lugnasad,
"Assembly of Lug", a popular festival well attested in Ireland, which
celebrated the royal function, and during which all kinds of meetings were
held: feasts, games, races, horses, spirit contests, fairs, and maybe political
debates...
The god Lug was considered as god initiator and protector of
the assemblies: "Lug, son of Ethliu; it is he who first invented the
assembly in the beginning", specifies a version of Ethliu's from the Irish
text of the Adventures of Tuirill Biccreo and his sons. Didn't the Independent Gauls celebrate this
feast in the past, especially in Lyon?
And wouldn't the Romans have resumed, by disguising it, the sacred
commemoration?
The assimilation, or rather the absorption by the imperial
cult of the Gallic feast and the divinity of the indigenous pantheon thus
marked the first step in Romanization.
Other Lugudunum than Lyon may have once played a federating
role. One evoked the tradition as a political and intellectual centre attached
to Laon. Jean-Marie Desbordes notes about Lion-en-Sullias (suspected to be an
ancient "Citadelle-de-Lug") "At a certain time of the year, the
druids hold their meetings in a place dedicated, in the land of Ranges, which
is said to be at the centre of all Gaul." At the extreme south-eastern end
of the territory the Carnutes , this Lion-en-Sullias would have been a federal
sanctuary, by its position on the border of several Cities (border with the
Bituriges , with the Senones and a time with the Aedui). The same author quotes
also the site of Lion-devant-Dun, in the Meuse, "where a beautiful oppidum
de la Tène has been recognized", and where "the three former dioceses
of Rheims, Trier and Verdun met". (Formerly on the border of the Remi,
Treveri and Mediomatricî), at the "crossroads of three regions". Natural borders: the Argonne, the Jurassic
plateau of Lorraine and the alluvial plain of the Meuse.
But this analysis must be applicable to many other former
Lugudunum we pointed out that they were all located close to the border of
several Gallic peoples; they were once able to play a religious and unifying
role, and this was a common practice in the past, under the aegis of the god
Lug.
Les Noms D'origine Gauloise, La Gaule Des Dieux ( Jacques Lacroix)
