at Wurtemburg; the Irish versions sing of “Lug, master of all the arts”; “Lug, with whom are all the arts”; “Prince of the manifold sciences.” At Tara, Lug asserts his mastery of all the arts and sciences of his day—champion, harper, antiquary, professor, artificer and carpenter.[1] In Welsh legend he is a skilled shoemaker, and the shoemakers of Corduba regarded the Lugoves[2] as their patrons. In his present form as a fairy, the Lughprechán or Lughcropán, he is still an accomplished shoemaker. He had nine chariots in the Battle of Magh Tured[3]; in this like other solar gods, and the horse cultus and races and chariots of which there are evident traces connected with Tara Tailltiu, Brug (the “prison of Liath Macha,” Cuchulaind’s divine steed)[4]; Carmun; the pillars called “Eclasa” or horse rod, at Knockainey, “Echlainn Loga” and “Echlasc Chon Chulainn.”[5] Indeed it is probable that pious clerics or chiefs at Tara and Tailltiu emulated Josiah when “he took away the horses of the Sun” at Jerusalem and “burned the chariots of the Sun with fire,” for Lug was inventor of the óenach, or sacred race-course, and the horse rod.[6] and had nine war chariots of his own.
First we may note how many Irish sanctuaries are said to bear the names of women (queens, heroines or goddesses), and that the place-names, being probably pre-Celtic and so irreducible by Celtic philologists, were thus artificially
- ↑ De Bello Gallico, vi. 17: Hibbert Lectures (Rhys), iv. pp. 2-6; Irish Nennius, p. 46; “Children of Tuireann,” Atlantis, iv. p. 161; Metrical Dind Senchas, ed. E. Gwynn; Todd Lecture Series, R.I. Acad. x. p. 51; Harleian MS. 5280; Irish Mythological Cycle (De Jubainville, ed. Best, pp. 98, 100).
- ↑ Mommsen, “Corp. Inscr. Lat.” ii. No. 2818; Triads, i. 79.
- ↑ Revue Celtique, xii. p. 99.
- ↑ The “prison,” Trans. R.I.Acad. xxx. p. 81, Rath nahEchraide, the fort of said steeds (Agallamh, Irische Texte, iii. p. 230).
- ↑ Rev. Celt. xxv. p. 29; Mesca Ulad, p. 17; Silva Gadelica, ii. p. 161.
- ↑ Rev. Celt. xxvi. p. 29; see Metr. Dind. S. x. p. 199 and cf. p. 271. For a “horse rod,” cut from a sacred tree, see Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, Introd. pp. lxxix. cf. p. clxiv.
