class of dawn-goddesses, that she wedded a husband in the district, and that after a time she left both him and her children. Now and then, however, she returned to converse with the latter, especially the eldest of them, a youth named Rhiwaỻon, whom she carefully instructed as to the virtues of all kinds of herbs. He afterwards proved the founder of a famous family of physicians, whose descendants are widely spread in South Wales. The Physicians of Myᵭvai, as they were called, were historical, and attached to the princely house of Dinevor; but their ancestor was of mythic descent, and his name enables one to identify him in the Welsh Triads, where he is called Rhiwaỻon of the Broom (-yellow) Hair, and invested with a solar character: among other things, he is classed with two other solar heroes as being, like them, famous for his intimate knowledge of the nature of all material things.[1] It is impossible to say how far the original myth agreed with that of Lug, but the one thing yearly looked for was the appearance of Rhiwaỻon's mother, the Lady of the Lake: she occupied on the Welsh holiday the position assigned to Tailltiu at the Lugnassad, and to Athene at the Panathenæa. Further, the great
- ↑ See Triads, i. 10 = ij. 21b = iij. 70, and compare i. 22 = iij. 28, also i. 49 = ij. 43 = iij. 27, which go to prove that our Rhiwaỻon is to be identified with Rhiwaỻon son of Urien. Other passages in Welsh literature, such as Triad i. 52, suggest that the Lady of the Van Lake's name was Modron danghter of Avaỻach, and that among her children are to be reckoned not only Rhiwaỻon but also the solar heroes Mabon and Owein, with the latter's twin-sister Moruvᵭ. Urien, the father, is decidedly to be classed among the dark divinities; and this explains why, after her lover had long wooed the Lady that was wont to row on the Little Van Lake in a golden boat, the marriage did not take place till New-year's-eve, that is to say, the middle of winter: see the Cymmrodor, iv. 178-9.
