Amaethon
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In Welsh mythology, Amaethon or Amathaon ( Welsh ‘great ploughman’), was a son of Dôn and a presumed agricultural deity.
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[edit] Mythology
Amaethon appears or is mentioned in several Welsh mythological sources.
In Culhwch and Olwen 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 Welsh Triads he taught magic to his brother Gwydion.
In the poem Cad Goddeu Amathaon stole a dog, lapwing and roebuck from Arawn, king of Annwn (the underworld), leading to a war between Arawn and the Children of Dôn. Gwydion used his magic staff to turn trees into warriors who helped the children of Dôn win.<ref>Cad Goddau: The Battle of the Trees. translation by Lady Charlotte Guest, Welsh original. Jones' Celtic Encyclopedia.</ref>
[edit] Etymology
This theonym appears to be derived from Proto-Celtic *Ambaxtonos meaning "great ploughman, farmer, labourer", an augmentative form of ambactos (ultimately from *ambhi-ag-to-<ref>Proto-Celtic—English, English—Proto-Celtic lexicon from the University of Wales. Cf. also the Indo-European and Celtic data collected at the University of Leiden.</ref>).
[edit] Bibliography
<references/>
- 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 0-00-764059-5
