Loucetios

 ( Gaulish Gods ) 

In Gallo-Roman religion, Loucetios ( as Leucetius) was a Gaul god known from the Rhine-Moselle region, where he was identified with the Roman Mars. Scholars have interpreted his name to mean ‘lightning’.

Mars Loucetius was worshipped alongside the goddess Nemetona.

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Name and etymology 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.

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). It is presumably analogous to Oscan language Loucetius ‘light-bringer’, an epithet of Jupiter.

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Inscriptions and shrines 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 Rhine tribes). Inscriptions to him have also been found at Bath and Angers; The sites listed for Loucetius/Leucetius are Strasbourg, Worms, Eisenberg, Groß-Gerau, Klein-Winternheim, Frauenstein, Großkrotzenburg, Marienborn, Angers, and Bath. the altar at Bath specifies that it was dedicated by a citizen of the Treveri. RIB 1, 140.

Inscriptions often invoke Mars Loucetius together with Victoria or Nemetona (or both, in the case of the Eisenberg inscription AE 2007, 1044.). Edith Mary Wightman considers this pair “closely similar to if not identical with, Lenus and Ancamna”, 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),These are the inscriptions at Groß-Gerau ( AE 1991, 1272), Großkrotzenburg ( CIL XIII: 7412), Worms ( CIL XIII: 6221), and Eisenberg ( AE 2007, 1044). ‘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”, the ancient inhabitants of the Mainz-Bingen area.

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Modern literature In Neil Gaiman's American Gods, Leucotios 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”.

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Bibliography

• Xavier Delamarre (2025). 9782877723695, Errance. ISBN 9782877723695

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