Litavis (Gaulish: Litauī 'Earth', lit. 'the Broad One')^[1][2] is a Gallic deity whose cult is primarily attested in east-central Gaul during the Roman period.^[1] She was probably originally an earth-goddess.^[2][1][3] In medieval Celtic languages, various terms derived from *Litauia came to designate the Brittany Peninsula.^[2]

Epigraphic evidence

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.^{[citation needed]} 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][5]

Name

Etymology

The Gaulish divine name Litauī ('Earth', lit. 'the Vast One') likely stems from Proto-Celtic *flitawī ('broad'; cf. Old Breton litan, Middle Welsh llydan, 'broad'),^[6] ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *Pleth₂-wih₁ ('the Broad One'; cf. Sanskrit Pṛthvī, Greek Plátaia; also Old Norse fǫld, 'earth').^[1][2][7][3]

The Gaulish personal name Litauicos ('sovereign', lit. 'possessor of the land') is also cognate with the Welsh Llydewig, meaning 'pertaining to Brittany', pointing to a Proto-Celtic term *Litauī-kos, here attached to the determinative suffix -kos.^[1]

Medieval terms

The medieval or 'neo-Celtic' names for the Brittany Peninsula (cf. Old Irish Letha, Old Welsh Litau, Old Breton Letau, Latinized as Letavia) all stem from an original *Litauia, meaning 'Land' or 'Country'.^[2] In the Irish Lebor Bretnach (11th c.), Bretain Letha means 'Britons of the Continent or Armorica, i.e. Bretons.' Linguist Rudolf Thurneysen proposed a semantic development from an Ancient Celtic term meaning 'broad land, continent' into the Insular Celtic names for the part of the Continent nearest the British Islands.^[1]

References

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