enemies inferred his having himself come; and Greek mythology represents Apollo occasionally attended by a raven, as in the story of Coronis.[1]
From these parallel instances it would seem that the one of the Lugoves to whom the ravens strictly belonged was Lugus, and that fits in with the story of the founding of the Lyons Lugdunum. Another conjecture is possible as to the Lugoves, namely, that they were Lugus with one or more solar brothers like himself, and not his father. There would be no lack of parallel instances: witness the three comrades at Arthur's court, namely, Peredur, Owein and Gwalchmai; or the three Ultonians, one of whom, Conall Cernach, avenges Cúchulainn's death, while the third, Loegaire, has no very distinct rôle assigned him. Similarly, in Norse mythology, Balder had several brothers, one of whom visited him in Hell, and a third avenged his death; even in Greek we have something of the same kind in the presence together of Apollo and Heracles, whose disputes remind one of the rivalry between Cúchulainn, Conall and Loegaire, which was made the subject of an elaborate tale entitled Bricriu's Banquet. More weight attaches here, however, to the fact that neither Lleu nor Lug is associated with a brother of a nature similar to his own; the former had an elder brother Dylan, who hied away to the sea as soon as he was christened; and the latter had two brothers who were dropped into the sea, never more to be heard of, whence it may be inferred that they were more like Dylan than Lleu. On the whole, then, it seems more probable that
- ↑ Ovid's Metamorphoses, ij. 542, where the raven's officiousness reminds one of the rôle played in the hamlets of Glamorgan by Blodeueᵭ as an owl: see p. 241, above.
