Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/196

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180
II. THE ZEUS OF

Fflam, and also Ffleudor mab Naf, or Ffleudor son of Nav;[1] while the Triads (i. 15 = ij. 26 = iij. 114) seem to speak of the same personage as Ffleudur Fflam son of Godo; but Godo is not known to have any other meaning than that of a cover, shelter or roof; and in this kind of word, used as a proper name, we seem to have a synonym of Nwyvre or Sky in the sense of Οὐρανός and Varuṇa. Nwyvre is also mentioned in another Triad (i. 40 = ij. 5), which alludes to an expedition to Gaul under the leadership of Gwenwynwyn and Gwanar, sons of Lliaw son of Nwyvre and of Arianrhod their mother. With the reference to Ffleudor son of Nav, may be mentioned an allusion in the same story to a Gwenwynwyn son of Naw,[2] to be corrected doubtless into Nav; for there is a third passage in point which describes Gwenwynwyn as Arthur's rhyswr or huntsman, and calls him the son of Nav Gyssevin,[3] which means 'first or original lord.' Thus it is not improbable that in spite of the Lliaw or Lliaws of the Triads, Nwyvre was the same personage who is here called Nav Gyssevin.

It is, however, a matter of some doubt whether the names Nav Gyssevin and Nwyvre or Godo referred to the Celtic Zeus in the first instance, and not rather to a forgotten Uranus or Hymi, whose name also meant the sky, considered as a cover, a darkening cover (p. 115). The same doubt would likewise attach to the ancient name Camulos and the Irish Cumall. On the other hand, it is not to be believed that a cosmic giant subjected to the treatment

  1. R. B. Mab. p. 110; Guest, ij. 265. The MS. reads fflendor.
  2. R. B. Mab. p. 107; Guest, ij. 259: the MS. has naỼ, while the other, R. B. Mab. p. 110, is naf.
  3. R. B. Mab. p. 108; Guest, ij. 262.