Ogmios

Ogmios (῍Ογμιος) was a god of the Gauls whom Lucian of Samosata describes as a bald old man armed with a bow and club. He led a group of men connected to him by chains that reached from their ears to his tongue, which some researchers believe to be a symbol of eloquence. Lukian reports that the Gauls equated him with Hercules , but two escape signs found in Austria also connect him (in the East Celtic tradition) with Hermes .

In Irish mythology he is associated with Ogma and thus one of the closest Gallic parallels to Ogma's brother Dagda .

etymology

In the lexicon of the Protoceltic language created by the University of Wales , the name is derived from * Ogmjos , a word that is related to the term furrow and can also mean impressive - for example through eloquence, knowledge or leadership. The usual etymology, which goes back to Lucian, refers to the ancient Greek words ogmos (furrow) and agô (leadership).

Ogmios in the Middle Ages

Louis XIV as Ogmios / Hercules with club on the Porte Saint-Martin (left)

According to one (of several) legends, Ogmios / Herakles is the founder of Paris . On his way to the gardens of the Hesperides he gathered the Parrhasians from the Arcadian mountains around him, settled them at the foot of Montmartre and called them Parisians. When King Henry II entered the city in 1549 , he was greeted by a Gallic Hercules ; Louis XIV had himself depicted on his triumphal arch at the Porte Saint-Martin as Hercules with a club in his fist.

swell

Lucianus , Hercules Gallicus , in: Opera, ed. MD MacLeod, Oxford 1972-1987, Vol. I, pp. 20-22; German translation: The Gallic Hercules , in: Lukian, works in three volumes. Edited by Jürgen Werner / Herbert Greiner-Mai. Translated from the Greek by Christoph Martin Wieland (Library of Antiquity). Berlin-Ost: Aufbau-Verlag 2nd ed. 1981, vol. 3, 164–167.
CIL 13, 11295 (uncertain)
Leroux 1960a, 213

literature

Rudolf Egger: Roman antiquity and early Christianity . Selected writings by Rudolf Egger; At the end of his 80th year of life. Ed .: Artur Betz , Gotbert Moro. 2 volumes (1962/63). Publishing house of the history association for Carinthia, Klagenfurt.
Marion Euskirchen: Art. Ogmios . In: Der Neue Pauly 8 (2000), 1121f.

Web links

Wiktionary: Ogmios - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

University of Wales Protoceltic Lexicon ( Memento of March 27, 2006 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

↑ Lucianus, Hercules Gallicus, in: Opera, ed. MD MacLeod, Oxford 1972-1987, Vol. I, pp. 20-22; German translation: The Gallic Hercules, in: Lukian, works in three volumes. Edited by Jürgen Werner / Herbert Greiner-Mai. Translated from the Greek by Christoph Martin Wieland (Library of Antiquity). Berlin-Ost: Aufbau-Verlag 2nd ed. 1981, vol. 3, 164–167.
↑ Theodor Mommsen , Roman History, Eighth Book, Chapter 3. 3rd edition Berlin 1886, vol. V, p. 94 = dtv-Ausgabe München 1976, vol. 6, p. 100: “The power of speech was symbolically represented in a bald, wrinkled, sun-scorched old man, the Bow and club leads and from his pierced tongue to the ears of the person following him run fine golden chains - that is, the arrows fly and the blows of the eloquent old man and the hearts of the crowd follow him willingly. This is the Ogmius of the Celts; to the Greeks he appeared like a Charon dressed as Heracles. "

[1] Lucianus, Hercules Gallicus, in: Opera, ed. MD MacLeod, Oxford 1972-1987, Vol. I, pp. 20-22; German translation: The Gallic Hercules, in: Lukian, works in three volumes. Edited by Jürgen Werner / Herbert Greiner-Mai. Translated from the Greek by Christoph Martin Wieland (Library of Antiquity). Berlin-Ost: Aufbau-Verlag 2nd ed. 1981, vol. 3, 164–167.

[2] Theodor Mommsen , Roman History, Eighth Book, Chapter 3. 3rd edition Berlin 1886, vol. V, p. 94 = dtv-Ausgabe München 1976, vol. 6, p. 100: “The power of speech was symbolically represented in a bald, wrinkled, sun-scorched old man, the Bow and club leads and from his pierced tongue to the ears of the person following him run fine golden chains - that is, the arrows fly and the blows of the eloquent old man and the hearts of the crowd follow him willingly. This is the Ogmius of the Celts; to the Greeks he appeared like a Charon dressed as Heracles. "