Litavis

Litavis (also Litauis or Litauī) is a Gallic deity whose cult is primarily attested in east-central Gaul during the Roman period. She was probably an earth-goddess.

Her name is found in inscriptions found at Aignay-le-Duc and Mâlain of the Côte-d'Or, France, where she is invoked along with the Gallo-Roman god Mars Cicolluis in a context which suggests that she might have been his consort. Also, a Latin dedicatory inscription from Narbonne (which was in the far south of Gaul), France, bears the words “MARTI CICOLLUI ET LITAVI” ("To Mars Cicolluos and Litavis").

Name
The Gaulish divine name Litavi- (/litaui/; 'Earth', 'the Vast One') likely stems from Proto-Celtic *flitawī- ('broad'; compare with Old Breton litan, Middle Welsh llydan, 'broad'), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *Plethₐ-wih₁ ("the Broad One"; compare with Greek Plátaia, Old Norse fǫld, Sanskrit Pṛthvī 'earth').

The 'neo-Celtic' names for the Brittany Peninsula (Old Breton Letau, Old Welsh Litau, Old Irish Letha, Latinized as Letavia) all stems from *Litauia ('earth, country'). In the Irish Lebor Bretnach (11th c.), Bretain Letha means 'Britons of the Continent or Armorica, i.e. Bretons.' Thurneysen proposed a semantic development from Celtic 'broad land, continent' to the Insular Celtic name for the part of the Continent nearest the British Islands. The Gaulish personal name Litavicos ('sovereign of the land') is cognate with the Welsh Llydewig, meaning 'pertaining to Brittany'.