Lugus the Many-Skilled
Celtiberian · deity · Late Iron Age to Roman period (1st c. BC – 3rd c. AD) · Recorded classification
Name leads with the English phrase 'the Many-Skilled', echoing the Irish epithet Samildánach. Attested forms: Celtiberian Luguei (dat. sg.) at Peñalba de Villastar; Latin Lugoves/Lugovibus (plural) at Uxama. The frequent plural ('the Lugoi') is a genuine peculiarity of the cult. Lugus is pan-Celtic but is here authored under his Celtiberian/Iberian attestations (the Gaulish and Insular cognates are covered elsewhere in the registry).
Domains
- crafts skill
- sovereignty kingship
Powers
- command every art and craft
Epithets
- Lugus The pan-Celtic god of crafts, oaths, and sovereignty (cf. Irish Lugh, Welsh Lleu)The Peñalba de Villastar inscription; the Lugoves dedications (primary)
- Lugoves the Lugoves / the divine Lugus-triad (dat. Lugovibus)Votive dedication to the Lugoves by the shoemakers' guild, Uxama (Hispania) (primary)
Relations
- equated with: LugusReciprocal of gaulish_lugus.equated-with — One pan-Celtic god: Peñalba de Villastar's LVGVEI and Hispanic Lugoves dedications (Uxama) carry the same theonym known in Gaul (cf. Avenches Lugoves); regional cult forms differ and the plural Lugoves stays unexplained.Peñalba de Villastar rock inscription (Celtiberian, dative LVGVEI) (primary); J. C. Olivares Pedreño, Los dioses de la Hispania céltica (2002) (secondary)
Sources
- Lugus is attested in Celtiberia both singular and (more often) plural as the Lugoves: a Celtiberian rock inscription at Peñalba de Villastar (Teruel) dedicates 'Luguei', and a Latin inscription from Uxama (Osma) records a shoemakers' guild dedicating to the Lugoves.: Peñalba de Villastar inscription (K.3.3), Teruel (inscription); CIL II 2818, Uxama (Osma, Soria) (inscription)
- The Iberian dedications, dated 1st c. BC – 3rd c. AD, are central to identifying Lugus as the continental cognate of the Irish Lug and Welsh Lleu; Rhys compared the shoemaker connection at Uxama with Lleu's gold-ornamented shoes in the Mabinogi.: J. Rhys, Celtic studies; B. M. Prósper, 'CIB. to Luguei...: Syntax and deities in Peñalba de Villastar' (study of K.3.3) (secondary)