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.

• Matasović, Ranko (2009). Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic. Brill. ISBN 9789004173361.

• Koch, John T. (2006). Celtic culture : a historical encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1-85109-440-7.
• West, Martin L. (2007). Indo-European Poetry and Myth. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-928075-9.

Further reading

• “Litavia” — article in Jones’ Celtic Encyclopedia by Mary Jones
• “Litavis” — Litavis in the will of Lingon (in French); automatic Google translation into English
• Etymological translations of “Litanus,” “Litaui/Litavi,” “Litauis/Litavis,” etc. by Patrick Cuadrado (in French); automatic Google translation into English