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Litavis

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Roman-period dedication naming Litavis together with Mars Cicolluis (deo Marti Cicollui et Litavi, 'to the god Mars Cicolluis and Litavis')

Litavis (Gaulish: Litauī, 'Earth', literally 'the Broad One') is a Gaulish earth-goddess known from votive inscriptions of east-central Gaul. She is named only as the partner of a god equated with the Roman Mars: Cicolluis in the territory of the Lingones, and Menobus at the frontier of the Sequani. Her name comes from a Proto-Celtic adjective meaning 'broad' and is cognate with the name of the Vedic earth-goddess Pṛthivī.[1][2] The same root produced the early medieval names for Brittany (Welsh Llydaw, Old Irish Letha).[3]

Name

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The Latin dedications give the goddess in the dative, Litavi. The Gaulish nominative was Litauī, from Proto-Celtic *ɸlitawī, the feminine of the adjective *ɸlitano- ('broad').[4][5] A masculine theonym Cobledu-litavus is also recorded among the Petrocorii, taken by some as a god of springs and by others as an epithet of Apollo.[6][7][8]

Cognates of Litauī survive in Old Irish lethan, Middle Welsh llydan and Old Breton litan, all meaning 'broad'. The Proto-Celtic form continues Proto-Indo-European *pl̥th₂wih₂ ('the broad one'), the feminine of the adjective *pl̥th₂u- ('broad').[4][5] The form *pl̥th₂wih₂ is commonly interpreted as an epithet of the Proto-Indo-European Earth-goddess *déʰǵʰōm. It underlies the name of the Vedic earth-goddess Pṛthivī, the Greek naiad Plataia, and ritual expressions such as Old Hittite palḫiš dankuiš daganzipaš ('broad dark earth-genius') and Young Avestan ząm pərəθβīm ('broad earth').[2][9]

The Insular Celtic reflexes of an earlier *Litawia ('the land, the country') became the names for the Brittany Peninsula: Welsh Llydaw, Old Breton Letau, Old Irish Letha ('Armorica'), and the Latinised Letavia.[3][2] Rudolf Thurneysen proposed that these forms reflect a semantic development from an ancient term meaning 'broad land, continent', later applied to the part of the European mainland nearest the British Islands.[2]

The element litavi- is also productive in Gaulish personal names. Julius Caesar names two Aeduan nobles formed on it, Litaviccus, whose coinage reads Litavicos, and Convictolitavis. The name Litavicos is cognate with Welsh Llydewig ('pertaining to Brittany'), pointing to a shared Proto-Celtic personal name *Litauīkos ('possessor, or sovereign, of the land').[1][2]

Interpretation

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The meaning of the name has led scholars to treat Litavis as an earth-goddess, that is the 'earth' seen as a deified entity.[10][1][9]

Litavis is known only as the consort of a war-god, a pattern that recurs in Gaulish religion, where a goddess is joined to a god in a divine couple.[11] In the surviving dedications the male partner carries the name of Mars: Mars Cicolluis in the Côte-d'Or texts and Mars Menobus at Dammartin-Marpain.[12][13]

Marie-Thérèse Raepsaet-Charlier has argued that the cult of Mars Cicolluis and Litavis helped to mark out the territory of the Lingones, Mars Cicolluis being the chief god of that people. The pair was honoured at the territorial sanctuary of Mâlain, on the edge of the pagus of the Mandubii at Aignay-le-Duc, and at a border sanctuary towards the Sequani. On this reading the sites where the couple was worshipped trace the frontier of the Lingon territory.[14]

The pair has also been interpreted as deities of the fertile and nourishing earth. André Buisson read Mars Cicolluis and Litavis as peaceful powers of agrarian plenty, worshipped at springs and river confluences.[15][a]

Epigraphy

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Litavis is attested only in inscriptions, always beside a god assimilated to Mars.[12] Five dedications from the Côte-d'Or, in the land of the Lingones, name her with Mars Cicolluis: one from Aignay-le-Duc and four from Mâlain (ancient Mediolanum).[2][12][b] A sixth, a bronze plaque from Dammartin-Marpain on the frontier with the Sequani, pairs her instead with a Mars called Menobus, an epithet not otherwise recorded.[13]

The dedicants bear Roman or Gaulish names, and several identify themselves as citizens of the Lingones.[17] At Aignay-le-Duc the text opens with the formula Augusto sacrum, which links the pair to the imperial cult.[13]

Text Find-spot Divine name Translation Reference Comments
Aug(usto) sac(rum) deo Marti Cicollui et Litavi P(ublius) Attius Paterc[l]u[s] v(otum) s(olvit) l(ibens) m(erito) Aignay-le-Duc Mars Cicolluis, Litavis Sacred to Augustus. To the god Mars Cicolluis and Litavis, Publius Attius Paterclus fulfilled his vow, willingly and deservedly. CIL XIII, 2887 The opening Augusto sacrum associates the pair with the imperial cult.
Marti Cicollui et Litavi [...] Mâlain (Mediolanum) Mars Cicolluis, Litavis To Mars Cicolluis and Litavis ... CIL XIII, 5599
[Marti Cicollui] et Lita[vi] Cresce[ns] Seni M[ar]tialis Mâlain (Mediolanum) Mars Cicolluis, Litavis To Mars Cicolluis and Litavis, Crescens, of Senius Martialis ... CIL XIII, 5600 The reading is fragmentary. The name of Mars Cicolluis is entirely restored.
[Mar]ti Cicollui et Litavi L(ucius) Mattius Aeternus ex voto Mâlain (Mediolanum) Mars Cicolluis, Litavis To Mars Cicolluis and Litavis, Lucius Mattius Aeternus, in fulfilment of a vow. CIL XIII, 5601
[Marti Cicollui] et Litavi ex voto suscepto v(otum) s(olvit) l(ibens) m(erito) Mâlain (Mediolanum) Mars Cicolluis, Litavis To Mars Cicolluis and Litavis, the vow having been undertaken, he fulfilled it willingly and deservedly. CIL XIII, 5602
Titalatus Sesti filius civis Lingon(us) Marti Menobi et Litavi v(otum) s(olvit) l(ibens) m(erito) Dammartin-Marpain Mars Menobus, Litavis Titalatus, son of Sestus, a citizen of the Lingones, to Mars Menobus and Litavis fulfilled his vow, willingly and deservedly. AE 2010, 1066 Bronze tabula ansata found in 2008. Here Litavis is paired with Mars under the epithet Menobus, otherwise unrecorded.

Notes

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  1. ↑ Buisson also glossed the name Cicolluis as 'the Nourisher' (from cico-, 'breast'), which he took to suit Litavis as an earth-goddess.[15] The meaning of Cicolluis is disputed, however, and Bernhard Maier renders the same name 'great protector'.[16]
  2. ↑ John T. Koch counts four dedications from the Côte-d'Or, leaving aside the fragmentary CIL XIII, 5600, in which the god's name is restored.[2]

References

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  1. 1 2 3 Delamarre 2003, p. 204.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Koch 2005, p. 1159.
  3. 1 2 Delamarre 2003, p. 205.
  4. 1 2 Delamarre 2003, pp. 204–205.
  5. 1 2 Matasović 2009, s.v. *ɸlitano-, *ɸlitawī.
  6. ↑ CIL XIII, 939
  7. ↑ de Vries 1961, p. 72.
  8. ↑ Buisson 1994, p. 182.
  9. 1 2 West 2007, pp. 177–178.
  10. ↑ Jufer & Luginbühl 2001, p. 49.
  11. ↑ de Vries 1961, p. 141.
  12. 1 2 3 Maier 1997, p. 172.
  13. 1 2 3 Raepsaet-Charlier 2013, p. 186.
  14. ↑ Raepsaet-Charlier 2013, pp. 186–188.
  15. 1 2 Buisson 1994, p. 183.
  16. ↑ Maier 1997, p. 73.
  17. ↑ Raepsaet-Charlier 2013, p. 187.

Bibliography

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  • Buisson, André (1994). "À propos du Testament du Lingon: note sur la localisation du tombeau". Bulletin de la Société historique et archéologique de Langres. 21 (315): 177–185.
  • Delamarre, Xavier (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental (2nd ed.). Paris: Errance. ISBN 978-2-87772-369-5.
  • de Vries, Jan (1961). Keltische Religion. Die Religionen der Menschheit (in German). Vol. 18. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer.
  • Jufer, Nicole; Luginbühl, Thierry (2001). Les dieux gaulois: répertoire des noms de divinités celtiques connus par l'épigraphie, les textes antiques et la toponymie. Paris: Errance.
  • Koch, John T. (2005). Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1-85109-440-7.
  • Maier, Bernhard (1997). Dictionary of Celtic Religion and Culture. Translated by Edwards, Cyril. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer.
  • Matasović, Ranko (2009). Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic. Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series. Vol. 9. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-17336-1.
  • Raepsaet-Charlier, Marie-Thérèse (2013). "Alésia et ses dieux: du culte d'Apollon Moritasgos à l'appartenance civique des Mandubiens à l'époque gallo-romaine". L'Antiquité Classique. 82: 165–194. doi:10.3406/antiq.2013.3831.
  • West, Martin L. (2007). Indo-European Poetry and Myth. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-928075-9.
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