Loucetios
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In Gallo-Roman religion, Loucetios (Latinized as Leucetius) was a Gallic god known from the Rhine-Moselle region, where he was identified with the Roman Mars.<ref name="jufer"/> Scholars have interpreted his name to mean ‘lightning’.<ref name="xdel">Template:Cite book</ref> Mars Loucetius was worshipped alongside the goddess Nemetona.<ref name="wightman219">Template:Cite book</ref>
Name and etymologyEdit
The name Loucetios derives from a Celtic stem *lowk-et-, meaning 'flash of lightning, thunderbolt' (cf. Old Irich lóchet), itself from the root *lowk- ('bright, light'; cf. Middle Irish luach 'glowing light', Middle Welsh llug 'eyesight, perception'). It is the source of the place name Luzech, attested as Luzechium in 1326 CE.Template:Sfn
The name may be a reference to either a Celtic common metaphor for battles as thunderstorms (cf. Old Irish torannchless, the 'thunder feat'), or else the divine aura of the hero (the lúan of Cú Chulainn).<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> It is presumably analogous to Oscan Loucetius ‘light-bringer’, an epithet of Jupiter.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>
Inscriptions and shrinesEdit
About a dozen inscriptions in honour of Mars Loucetius have been recovered, mainly from eastern Gaul, with a particular concentration among the Vangiones and Aresaces (two Rhenish tribes). Inscriptions to him have also been found at Bath and Angers;<ref name="jufer">Template:Cite book The sites listed for Loucetius/Leucetius are Strasbourg, Worms, Eisenberg, Groß-Gerau, Klein-Winternheim, Frauenstein, Großkrotzenburg, Marienborn, Angers, and Bath.</ref> the altar at Bath specifies that it was dedicated by a citizen of the Treveri.<ref>RIB 1, 140.</ref>
Inscriptions often invoke Mars Loucetius together with Victoria or Nemetona<ref name="wightman219"/> (or both, in the case of the Eisenberg inscription<ref name="ae2007">AE 2007, 1044.</ref>). Edith Mary Wightman considers this pair “closely similar to if not identical with, Lenus and Ancamna”,<ref name="wightman219"/> who are known chiefly from the territory of the Treveri adjacent to those of the Aresaces and Vangiones.
Four of the inscriptions to Mars Loucetius are also dedicated IN H(onorem) D(omūs) D(ivinae),<ref>These are the inscriptions at Groß-Gerau (AE 1991, 1272), Großkrotzenburg (CIL XIII: 7412), Worms (CIL XIII: 6221), and Eisenberg (AE 2007, 1044).</ref> ‘in honour of the divine house’ (i.e. the imperial family).
Wightman further suggests that the shrine of Mars Loucetius at Klein-Winternheim, south of Mainz, was “a central one for the Aresaces”,<ref name="wightman219"/> the ancient inhabitants of the Mainz-Bingen area.
Modern literature
In Neil Gaiman's American Gods, LeucotiosTemplate:Sic appears in chapter three, during Shadow's (the main character) dream of forgotten gods. Gaiman's Leucotios is described as a “man with ... white hair, with a necklace of teeth about his neck, holding a drum”.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>