These Greek, Nordic and Celtic gods may not seem to have much in common at first glance, but they resemble each other in several ways, all of which illuminate aspects of their characters. All three are intellectual, associated with the arts, and have magical or oracular powers in addition to an unforgiving nature.
Superficially, however, they couldn’t be more different. As Jaan Puhvel says, “With his one-eyed paralyzing battle magic (herfjöturr, literally “host fetter”) and spear Gungnir [Odin] resembles Lugh, but the external appearance of the Celtic whiz kid could not be more unlike the old man with his slouch hat…” (195) Lugh and Apollo fit together better, both being young and radiant, and many-skilled.
I have summarized their similarities below:
| Lugh | Odin | Apollo | |
| solar | x | — | x |
| arts/poetry | x | x | x |
| ravens | x | x | x |
| mantic | — | x | x |
| war | x | x | ? |
| wolves | — | x | x |
| exile | — | x | x |
| healer | x | ? | x |
| ruthlessness | x | x | x |
The Sun, Mercury, and Triplets
First, both Lugh and Apollo have solar characteristics. Apollo took over from Helios as sun-god in the Classical world, especially during the late, Hellenistic period. Lugh’s name mgiht come from a word for light. Odin is the outlier here, although a late and non-canonical tradition has the sun and moon as his eyes. (I suspect it comes via Horus, the Egyptian god.) 
Tacitus said that the Germans worshipped Mercury. Many have seen the German Woden as Mercury, and some dedicatons of altars in Germany to Mercury seem to back this up. Mercurius Rex, for example, sounds more like the Germanic All-Father than the Roman god. (Simek: 214) Lugh in his versatility (one of his names was Samhildánach, “skilled in all arts”) and as patron of travelers would fit as a Celtic Mercury.
The image at the right is often connected to the Lugoves, who may have been a triple version of Lugh. (See my article on Lugos for more on this.)
Some Irish folktales tell how Lugh’s two brothers either died at birth or became seals. Odin often appears with two other gods, either his brothers Vili and Ve or Loki and Hoenir. Apollo is the odd one out here, literally, since he never appears as anything but a singular god.
Poetry, Shamanism, Magic
In the interpretatio romana Celtic gods associated with the arts were compared to Apollo, and if the Romans had reached Ireland, no doubt this would have included Lugh. Among his many skills he could play the harp and sing, and one of his names was Ildánach (“skilled in many arts”). Odin, too, is the god of poets, having gone to considerable trouble to get the mead of poetry.
Closely allied to Odin’s poetic inspiration is his more shamanic or at least magical side. (The extent of circumpolar religion and shamanism’s influence on Norse religion is still the subject of vigorous debate – the subject is very much a live one.) West (164) thinks that all three gods were influenced by shamanic ideas:
I should be inclined to ascribe them not to (Indo-)European inheritance but to the diffusion of shamanistic motifs from the Finno-Ugric peoples, from the east to Scandinavia and from the north, across Scythia and Thrace, to the Greeks.
Of course, such an assertion is hard to prove, and there has to be more than shamanic influence to these many-sided gods. Also, as Fritz Graf points out (40), the further we get from the Siberian home of shamanism, the less likely that there is any real connection between it and whatever behaviour it is being likened to.
Whatever the outcome, we know from the sources that Odin can fall into magical trances or speak spells, as well as seeking out prophecy through völvas and other mediums such as Mimir’s head.
The oracle at Delphi was one of Apollo’s oldest sanctuaries, and he had other oracles, both famous and humble. We know from Lugh’s parley with the doorkeeper of the Tuath that he numbered sorcery amongst his skills.
Ravens and War
Odin’s other furor, of course, is allied to the berserker and battle-rage. Odin shows two faces here, that of the cool strategist who teaches formations to his human proteges, and the raging warrior who shows superhuman strength. (Time and again in the myths and sagas we hear of him intervening personally in a battle.)
Lugh, among his many skills, is a warrior. He leads the Tuatha de Danaan against the Fomorians and wins. His battle-fury causes him to shape-shift, which makes him temporarily one-eyed, so both Lugh and Odin affect their eyes as part of their magic. The Metrical Dinshenachas calls him “warrior Lugh“. 
Apollo is rarely depicted as a warrior, except in the Iliad, where he does intervene personally on the Trojan side. He fights mainly as an archer, although he intervenes more physically against Patroclus:
Three times did he climb upon it, and three times did Apollo push him back, laying his hand upon the boss of his shield. And when Patroclus climbed for the fourth time, then Apollo cried to him in a dreadful voice: “Go back, Patroclus; it is not for you to take the great city of Troy, no, nor even for Achilles, who is a far better man than you.”
To the Greeks, archers were a bit sneaky, unlike the regular soldiers who had to face their foes. (Graf: 13) This definitely ties up with Odin, who was also accused of being unfair in battle, and rarely closes with a foe, preferring to throw his spear, as he did at the beginning of the Aesir-Vanir war. Irish Lugh’s weapon was also the spear, and his epithet Lámfhada “of the long arm” suggests action at a distance. (MacKillop: 306)
The three gods have ravens in common, while Apollo and Odin share wolves and serpents. Lugh gets a warning of the Fomorian’s approach from two ravens, and ravens tended his son Cu Cuchlainn when he was ill. The word lugos means “raven”, and there are ravens on coins from Lugdunum (named for Gaulish Lugos).
Hugin and Munin fly out each day and report back to Odin about what they have seen, while Apollo gets the bad news about his lover from a raven. (He turns it from white to black in his rage.)
As well as two ravens, Odin has two wolves for his pets, while Apollo had the titles Lycegenes, Born of a Wolf, and Lycoctonus, Wolf-Killer. Odin also turned himself into a snake to get the mead of poetry from Gunnlod, while Apollo’s relations with snakes were less happy. He killed the Python at Delphi, and instituted his own oracle in its place. (His son, Asklepios, had sacred snakes in his shrines.)
Two suffered exile and punishment: Apollo had to serve Priam’s father Laomedon for a year as punishment, building the Trojan wall, after which Laodemon drove him away without paying him. Odin was banished from Asgard for raping Rind. (Saxo grammaticus) Lugh starts out as an outsider, but once he proves his versatility to the doorkeeper of the Tuatha, he is accepted as one of them.
Healing and Ruthlessness
Apollo was a healer-god, a plague-god who could also cure the disease, and seems to have merged with another healer-god, Paion, whose cult dates back to the most ancient Greek records. Apollo took over the name and passed it to his son, Asklepios.
Lugh included healing among his many skills, but the main healer-god of the Irish was Diancécht and his son, Miach. (Some tradtitions make Diancécht Lugh’s grandfather.) Odin, like Lugh, could heal as part of his magic, as the Havamal tells us:
“I know a second one which the sons of men need, those who want to live as physicians.” (Havamal 147)
The later Second Meresburg Charm refers to Odin healing Baldr’s lame horse, as well. Odin heals the prince Sivard (Saxo), in exchange for Sivard giving him all the slain. Lugh heals his son, Cúchulainn. (Lugh and Apollo have sons who are in sense their doubles – they possess some of their father’s powers, intensified. Odin, famously, has lost his son Baldr, and it is hard to see what quality of Odin’s Baldr embodies.)
Finally, all three gods share an implacable ruthlessness. Odin will cut down his favourites, or see them die, to swell his army at ragnarok. To be fair, he sacrifices his eye, nearly dies, and gives up his dignity and status in pursuit of knowledge, so he is equally ruthless with himself.
As for Lugh, he makes the Sons of Tuireann get various magical items as penance for killing his father, but won’t let them use one, a pigskin that heals all wounds, to cure theirs. They die, and their father is left mourning them. Apollo’s unforgiving, remorseless nature is well-known. Ask Marsyas or Niobe. Or, as Clymene said in the play Phaethon:
O fair-beamed Sun, how you have destroyed me and him here. You are rightly called Apollon (‘Destroyer’) among mortals, (by) whoever knows the divine powers’ unspoken names. (West: 129)
Two of these gods have been fitted into the Indo-European schema by Georges Dumézil, who saw Lugh and Odin as the dark, avenging, magical side of the priestly/judicial 1st function. (Greek myth gives but poor pickings for the I-E comparativist, but usually the first function is given to Zeus and Ouranos, or else Zeus in two aspects: the god of justice and the thunderer.)
Foreign Gods?
While Lugh can be seen as a prototypically Irish deity, both Odin and Apollo have a sort of otherness about them. Many have theorized that Apollo comes from the Near East, while the Saami magicians the Germanic peoples encountered or heard tales about may well have influenced their war-god Odin. (Snorri has Odin come from Troy, ironically. That would link Apollo and Odin directly if there was any chance of its being true.)
The temptation is to say that the three make up an Indo-European pattern. We would need some sort of linguistic parallel to link them, which we don’t have. All we can say for sure is that these three European civilizations felt the need for a magical, warlike, implacable god with ravens, snakes, and wolves for his symbols.
Graf, Frtiz, 2008: Apollo (Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World), Routledge. (Kindle)
Green, Miranda 1997: Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend, Routledge. MacKillop, James 2004: Dictionary of Celtic Mythology, OUP. Puhvel, Jaan 1987: Comparative Mythology, John Hopkins University Press.
Rutherford, Ward 2015: Celtic Mythology: The Nature and Influence of Celtic Myth from Druidism to Arthurian Legend, Weiser Books, (Google eBook)
Simek, Rudolf 2007: Dictionary of Northern Mythology (trans. Angela Hall), D. S. Brewer (reprint).
West, M. L. 2007: Indo-European Poetry and Myth, OUP.
If you like the top, click here.
We Are Star Stuff 
That was great. I’ve read a lot about Apollo and Odin, but there’s not much information concerning Lugh.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah, there’s whole books on Apollo and Odin, but not Lugh. Someone should write one…
LikeLike
I think you’ve found a niche in the market there…
LikeLike
Pingback: Magpies (and Skadi) – We Are Star Stuff
you forgot lugh = loki, both fire deities (the harsh summer sun) which resemble Hepaistos, Mercurys darker brother.
Balder-Loki-Odin (woden)
Bel- lugh- gwyidion
Apollo-hephaistos-mercury
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s an interesting idea. I’ll have to look into that. I like the idea of Odin and Gwydion – that really works for me.
LikeLike
Pingback: Brigit and Lugh | We Are Star Stuff
Pingback: Sokkvabekkr and Saga: Beneath the Waves | We Are Star Stuff
Pingback: Will the real sun-god (dess?) please stand up? |
Actually, Georges Dumézil had already compared Apollo’s functions to Odin’s functions and stated that both are trifunctional and cover similar functions (see “Apollon sonore et autres essais”, 1982). Moreover, another french scholar, Bernard Sergent, put in parallel Lug and Apollon in his “Celto-Hellenica”, published in “Livre des Dieux. Celtes et Grecs”, 2004, in which the comparison between Lug and Apollo cover over more 360 pages).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for the information. I’ll have to check those out.
LikeLike
both Lugh and Odin have a strong mercurial side to themselves – Lugh being a kind of “Macgyver” and no stranger to pranks – like Loki, too. Odin being a kind of psychopompos like Hermes/Mercury.
All those “solar” deities are bound to a mercurial aspect by mythology – close kinship – be it younger brother or blood brother.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes – I have considered a Odin, Mercury and Lugh post. I think Lugh does combine elements of Odin and Loki, which makes him a very interesting god.
LikeLike
Between the year 0 and about 200 there is great upheaval in scandinavia. Archeologists find that villages and large farms that have existed in the same place for a thousand years disapear and new dwllings apear nearby. One explanation is that mercenaries from the roman army come back home and use their expertize in violence to assert themselves. Odin is also a late god or a god that gained prominence rather late.
Imho, it is better to seek the origins of Odin on the continent and maybe among the environment in the camps of the Foederati than among the sami.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I tend to agree with your theory about Odin coming from Germany. But as Snorri describes him, you can see Saami influence in his magical powers. The Saami have had more influence on Norse myth and religion than they are generally given credit for, and it wouldn’t be surprising if Odin’s followers co-opted their abilities and powers for their god.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I tend to agree with your theory about Odin coming from Germany. But as Snorri describes him, you can see Saami influence in his magical powers. The Saami have had more influence on Norse myth and religion than they are generally given credit for, and it wouldn’t be surprising if Odin’s followers co-opted their abilities and powers for their god.
The problem is that the sami culture enter scandinavia very late. Scholars debate wether the sami languages started diverging 3TYA or 2TYA. Also, reindeerherding is pretty late as well. IMHO, the sami probably came from the finnish gulf, karelia like, migrated into scandinavia and subjugated/destroyed the remaining huntergatherers in scandinavia armed with their superior technology of reindeer herding. Just as neolithic farmers had pushed hunter gatherers off areable land some 2-3TY before or so. But im not well read in the stories of Wotan, if he has similar qualities of Odin then it seems the influence would not be Sami.
Imho, Odin represents a celtic influence most of all. The celts dominated pre roman ironage europe. And the germanics would have been as impressed by them as they were later by the romans. The change i was speculating about with Foederati was the displacement of Tyr as the main god. But maybe that happened earlier too? This is really difficult to get a grip on. Tyr seems pretty warlike too and I always thought that the focus on war came from the contact with the romans.
Btw, did you hear of this neat indication of celtic influence on germanics/proto germanics? Or at least, indication on deep cultural contact. Åsa Fredell is a scholar of petroglyphs that claims that a petroglyph from 200bc (or a little later, she says 200-0) on the west coast of sweden shows the legend of Crunniuc and Macha and the chariot race. Recorded in the Ulster Cycle?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macha
LikeLike
Okay, but if the Saami got to Scandinavia 2 -3 000 years ago that gives them plenty of time to influence the later development of a god whose shape may have evolved in Roman times. And since Odin (as opposed to Wotan or Wodan) is a Scandinavian god, it would be strange if he didn’t take on some local colouring when he came north from Germanic territory.
There’s certainly plenty of room for Celtic influence on German and Scandinavian religion – we know that there was exchange (trade, etc) between Ireland and Scandinavia in early medieval times, and the Norwegians took over the Orkney Islands in the 8th – 9th centuries.
As for poor old Tyr, he remains a mystery.
LikeLike
Very interesting! I really enjoyed reading this!
I want to mention, however, that Apollo is a war deity as well. Apart from his role in Iliad, Apollo had military based festivals celebrated in his honour. In Sparta, Apollo was essentially a war god, holding spear in one hand and bow in another. Apollo and Athena were worshipped as war Gods there.
According to Hesoid, Apollo was born clutching a golden blade. He even used the golden sword occasionally, like during the slaying of the giant Tityos, during the gigantomachy.
LikeLike
Thanks – I didn’t know that. That makes the three gods even more similar.
LikeLike
Lugh was not a solar deity. This is a misconception I keep seing on the Internet. There is no confirmation that there was a solar deity in Ireland but if there was it wasn’t Lugh. Lugh was more likely considered to be synonymous with the constellation Orion and has more in common with Þórr and possibly Sigurd.
Óðin’s Irish counterpart is the Dagda, who like Óðin has many names one of which literally translates as horseman all father. The only difference between the two is the Óðin is responsible for the invention of Runes whereas in the Irish pantheon, Ogam script is said to have been invented by Ogma, who shares other mercurial attributes. I wouldn’t rule out that once upon a time Ogma was another of the Dagda’s names but certainly in the surviving literature they are presented as different deities.
LikeLike
I don’t think I said Lugh was a solar deity, although perhaps I could have been clearer about that. But one interepretation of his name is “light” so he may well have some light/sun connection, even if it isn’t central to his character as a young warrior and master of all skills.
I was intrigued, however, by the Odin/Dagda comparison. It’s not an obvious one, but when you think about it they do have their similarities. The Dagda’s persona is that of a rather clownish character, but once you look past that he is a magician, and cunning. Both are gods who can swallow humilation to achieve their ends, and not lose sight of the goal. Like Odin, he has two brothers, Ogma and Ler, although Vili and Ve are very ill-defined deities.
Thanks for the thought-provoking comment!
LikeLike
You have to remember that the stories of the Irish mythological cycle were written down by Christian monks. The two deities that got the harshest treatment in those pieces are the Dagda and Crom Cruach who were both the supreme gods of their pantheon (and possibly Crom was a regional variation on the Dagda.) They got this treatment imo because of their importance.
Lugh however, like Thor, was very important to farmers – Lughnasadh is a harvest festival. In the second battle of moytura, Lugh steps forward to defeat Balor who has an evil eye that can destroy anything or anyone at a glance. Balor is probably representative of blight. This and most other indicators in the mythological cycle suggest that Lugh was a harvest god and/or weather god who possibly was a later development on an earlier hunter god (as previously mentioned, the constellation Orion).
On the association with light, his weapons are generally associated with weather phenomena, and his spear or dart is lightening. I think different deities, rather than being associated with planetary phenomena (with the possible exceptions of Brigid and Boann (Brigid – Venus Dawn and spring goddess, Boann moon but also the Milky Way and the moon part is only a theory of mine – white cow, the moon in certain phases looks like cow horns) – but they ruled different parts of the year. Other than the Dagda who was the master of all. Lugh’s fame lived on for the very reason that he wasn’t the most important god of the priestly caste or the warriors – but of the farming folk and Ireland was a land of mostly agricultural workers up until less than a century ago.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pairing Lugh and Thor makes a lot of sense to me. They do have a lot in common – champions, gods who proected the people and the harvest.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You have to remember that the stories of the Irish mythological cycle were written down by Christian monks. The two deities that got the harshest treatment in those pieces are the Dagda and Crom Cruach who were both the supreme gods of their pantheon (and possibly Crom was a regional variation on the Dagda.) They got this treatment imo because of their importance.
Lugh however, like Thor, was very important to farmers – Lughnasadh is a harvest festival. In the second battle of moytura, Lugh steps forward to defeat Balor who has an evil eye that can destroy anything or anyone at a glance. Balor is probably representative of blight. This and most other indicators in the mythological cycle suggest that Lugh was a harvest god and/or weather god who
LikeLike
Though Lugh may not have been a solar deity, I seem to remember that in one legend his appearance on the battlefield was mistaken for the rising of the sun in the west instead of the east. Another link between Apollo, Odin and Lugh is the eagle. Apollo’s priest Periphus was transformed into an eagle and becomes the king of birds. Odin takes eagle form when he steals the mead of poetry. Llew, (if he is the Welsh form of Lugh), transforms into an eagle when he is wounded with a spear and perches in a tree.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s true – you could certainly use that if you wanted to make a case for Lugh as a sun/light god.
I didn’t know that there were so many eagle associations among the three, but it makes sense.
LikeLike
Apols for the double post!
LikeLiked by 1 person