- Amaethon
In
Welsh mythology , Amaethon or Amathaon ( Welsh ?‘great ploughman’), was a son ofDôn and a presumed agriculturaldeity .ources
The principal reference to Amaethon appears in the medieval Welsh prose tale "
Culhwch and Olwen ", where he was the only man who could till a certain field, one of the impossible tasks Culhwch had been set before he could win Olwen's hand.In the obscure early Welsh poem "
Cad Goddeu ", a possible reference is made to Amaethon/Amathaon, but the passage is obscure. One possible interpretation, if the reading is accepted, is that he steals adog ,lapwing androebuck fromArawn , king ofAnnwn (the underworld), leading to a battle between Arawn and the Children of Dôn. Gwydion used his magic staff to turn trees into warriors who helped the children of Dôn win. [Cad Goddau: The Battle of the Trees. [http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/cadgoddeu.html translation by Lady Charlotte Guest] , [http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/cadgoddeu-w.html Welsh original] . Jones' Celtic Encyclopedia.]In one of the triads invented by
Iolo Morgannwg , he teaches magic to his brotherGwydion (this is not accepted as a genuine medieval triad by modern scholars).Etymology
This may be derived from Proto-Celtic *"Ambaxtonos" meaning "great ploughman, farmer, labourer", an augmentative form of "ambactos" (ultimately from "*ambhi-ag-to-" [ [http://www.wales.ac.uk/documents/external/cawcs/PCl-MoE.pdf Proto-Celtic—English] , [http://www.wales.ac.uk/documents/external/cawcs/MoE-PCl.pdf English—Proto-Celtic] lexicon from the University of Wales. Cf. also the Indo-European and [http://www.indo-european.nl/cgi-bin/query.cgi?root=leiden&basename=%5Cdata%5Cie%5Cceltic Celtic data] collected at the University of Leiden.] ). However it could also derive from the Welsh word "amaeth" ("agriculture").
Bibliography
*Ellis, Peter Berresford, "Dictionary of Celtic Mythology"(Oxford Paperback Reference), Oxford University Press, (1994): ISBN 0-19-508961-8
*MacKillop, James. "Dictionary of Celtic Mythology". Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-19-280120-1.
*Wood, Juliette, "The Celts: Life, Myth, and Art", Thorsons Publishers (2002): ISBN 0-00-764059-5External links
* [http://www.mythome.org/celtic.html Celtic Gods and their Associates]
* [http://www.paralumun.com/celticgod.htm Celtic Gods]
* [http://www.daire.org/names/deities.html Some Major Celtic Gods and Goddesses]
* [http://www.wales.ac.uk/documents/external/cawcs/pcl-moe.pdf Proto-Celtic — English lexicon]
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