Westropp— The Earthworks, Sfc, of S. E. Co. Limerick. Ml 



(D) — Local Cultus ok the Great Gods. 



Lug Lamiifada. Most glorious of all the gods of Erin is "Lug of the 

 long hand," 1 "the god, twin-born with the day," the sun. His epithet was a 

 note in many a religion, the creed of every high religion that "God's hand 

 was not shortened," and recalls the pictures of the Disc God of Egypt with 

 his hand-ended rays blessing his devotees. The euhemerists could not conceal 

 Lug's nature — " Lug, like the sun is the splendour of his face, men are unable 

 to look upon it " ; " as brilliant as a summer's day he rose from Manannan's 

 territory in the east " ; " he rode the steed of Mananmin (the white-maned 

 wave), swift as the bleak, cold wind in spring" ; when he is in the west men 

 ask "what else than the Sun is it? It is the radiance of Lug Lamhfada.''- 

 He was " Master of all the arts," " Lug, with whom are all the arts." Caesar 

 when he spoke of the Gaulish Mercury, " the inventor of all the arts," 1 evi- 

 dently meant Lugus. In Gaul he was a centre of cultus ; the towns called 

 "Lugdunum"' were his special seats, three still echo his name — Lyons, Laon, 

 and Leyden ; the fourth is now St. Bertrand de Comminges, where the 

 Lugnasad festival was kept in August, as it was in Ireland. He seems to 

 have been personified (like the war goddesses) by a raven, " Lougos," being so 

 translated ; 5 so Odin had two raven spies. He and his divine " boy," like Lug 

 and CuChulaind, were represented in Gaulish carvings. 



Not to repeat his long story in Ireland, he was son of the Dagda, but his 

 mother was Ethniu, daughter of the horrible darkness god Balor, the god of the 

 evil eye. Lug's slingstone drove the eye through the fiend's head, as his 

 Greek equivalent Hermes slew Argos, the many-eyed night. 7 He was 

 worshipped by Mac Greine, one of the three divine husbands of Erin. Men 

 were called from him Mog Loga ; his great sanctuaries were at " Lugmagh," 

 or Louth, and Naas, which last was known as " Lis Logha " ; perhaps its mote 



1 Hib. Leofc. iv., p. 3S4 ; " Ir. Myth. Cycle," ch. xiii. 



2 " Fate of Children of Tuireann " (Atlantis, iv, p. 101); "Feis tige Chonain," 

 Oasianic Soc), p. 25. 



3 Renues Dind. S. (Rev. Celt., xvi, p. 77), ' ' Irish Nennius," p. 47. 



4 Hib. Lect. iv, p. 419. A fifth Lugudunum belonged to the church of Le Mans. 

 "Lugnasad," see Sanas Chormaic, p. 99, Hib. Lect. iv, pp. IIS, II 1 .) ; but, to contrary. 

 Rennes Dind. S., Rev. Celt., xvi, p. 51. 



"Folk-Lore, xvii, p. 104, ravens appeared in flocks when Lugdunum was built. 

 Manuel de 1'Antiijnite Celtique (Dottin, 1!)00), p. HI. 



L. na hU., f. 101b ; "The Cuohullin Saga " (Miss Eleanor Hull), hi, lxii, pp. 15 20 : 

 "Compert Con Chulaind " (Rev. Celt., ix, pp. 1-13; "Tain bo Cualnge," p 96. 

 Cuchullain and Lug were too individualized to merge into one. For Gaulish carvings see 

 Rev. Celt., xxvii, p. 319 ; xxviii, p. 224, " Lug and Cu Cluilainn, his son, in Gaul." 



1 "Ir. Myth. Cycle," p. 113. 



