Lugo
LugoGalicia
Romance reduction of Latin Lucus Augusti, 'the sacred grove of Augustus'. A compound of lucus (Latin, 'consecrated grove, ritual clearing') + the genitive of the emperor Augustus. The Roman foundation of 13 BC sat on a preexisting Celtic sanctuary: the most widespread reading identifies its titular god with Lug, the pan-Celtic deity of light and crafts, whose name the Latin homophony leveraged.
Evolution of the name
- Lug- (santuario celta) Celtic before the 1st century BC
- Lucus Augusti Latin from 13 BC
- Lugo medieval Galician from the 8th century
Reflections, to the letter
The name of the place holds two religions, one on top of the other. Before the Romans, the Celts had a sanctuary here to the god Lug —pan-Celtic deity of light and crafts, whose name gave Lyon (Lugdunum) and Carlisle (Luguvalium)—. In the year 13 BC, the emperor Augustus founded a city on the same hill and called it Lucus Augusti, 'the sacred grove of Augustus', leveraging the near-homophony with the indigenous god. The Romans did not destroy the Celtic sanctuary: they translated it. The walls the pilgrim crosses today —three and a half kilometres of 3rd-century stonework, a World Heritage Site— surround the same enclosure where the god of light was once offered to.
Glossary
- Calque
- A literal, element-by-element translation of a name or expression from another language: Spanish rascacielos calques English skyscraper, French point de vue calques the same expression. In toponymy, the Romans calqued many indigenous sacred places, translating the local deity to a Latin equivalent or reinterpreting the original name.
- Onomatologist
- A specialist in onomastics, the linguistic discipline that studies proper names — of persons (anthroponyms), places (toponyms) and institutions.
- Pan-Celtic
- Common to all branches of the Celtic world —Gaulish, Brittonic, Hispanic, Gaelic—. Some deities (Lug, Brigantia, Belenos, Cernunnos) were worshipped from Ireland to Hispanic Galicia, and their names survive in European place names spread over thousands of kilometres.
- Possessive genitive
- A Latin case marking belonging. In toponymy, it indicates the owner or the patron: [lucus] Augusti = '[the sacred grove] of Augustus'. When the declensions were lost, the genitive was fixed as the full place name.
- Pre-Roman
- Prior to the Romanisation of the Iberian peninsula (3rd century BC); applied to toponyms, linguistic roots and populations.
- Theonym
- A proper name of a deity. The pre-Roman peninsular theonyms (Lug, Cosus, Bandua, Reue, Endovellicus) are documented on votive altars and are among the few clues we have about the indigenous religions before Rome.
Sources
- Navaza, G. — Toponimia de Galicia
- Búa, C. — Estudios de teonimia antigua hispánica
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Camino Primitivo