Ogmios
Ogmios (sometimes Ogmius; Ancient Greek: Ὄγμιος) is the name given to a Celtic god of eloquence described in Heracles, a c. 175 CE work of the Syrian satirist Lucian.
Lucian's text was much read in the Renaissance, and "Gallic Hercules" (as Ogmios was known) inspired a number of artistic works, including drawings by Albrecht Dürer and Hans Holbein the Younger.
[4]: 70 The Nomina im Indogermanischen Lexikon notes the similarity with ἐπόγμιος (epógmios, "ruling over the furrows"), an epithet of the Greek god Demeter.
[6]: 81 [7]: 363 Xavier Delamarre suggests that Ogmios is a reflex (through proto-Celtic) of proto-Indo-European *h₂óǵmos ("way"), derived from the PIE verbal root *h₂eǵ- ("to drive").
To their notion, he is extremely old,[a] bald-headed, except for a few lingering hairs which are quite gray, his skin is wrinkled, and he is burned as black as can be, like an old sea-dog.
I thought, therefore, that the Celts had committed this offence against the good-looks of Heracles to spite the Greek gods, and that they were punishing him by means of the picture for having once visited their country on a cattle-lifting foray, at the time when he raided most of the western nations in his quest of the herds of Geryon.
Yet, though led by bonds so weak, the men do not think of escaping, as they easily could, and they do not pull back at all or brace their feet and lean in the opposite direction to that in which he is leading them.
In fact, they follow cheerfully and joyously, applauding their leader and all pressing him close and keeping the leashes slack in their desire to overtake him; apparently they would be offended if they were let loose!
Since the artist had no place to which he could attach the ends of the chains, as the god’s right hand already held the club and his left the bow, he pierced the tip of his tongue and represented him drawing the men by that means!
His choice of subject matter in Heracles was no doubt tailored towards this end; his listeners, likely in the Greek East, would have hardly been familiar with Celtic society.
Paul Friedländer pointed out that Lucian's introduction of the Celt borrows material from the Tabula Cebetis, a popular philosophical ekphrasis.
Eugenio Amato suggests that if Lucian had encountered a druid, he would have been unlikely to credit a member of the maligned religious order so highly.
[9]: 133 Lucian's characteristic mixture of satire and journalism, and especially the mockery he directs towards religious feeling, make him a problematic source for the history of religion.
[10]: 144 Marion Euskirchen took the "detailed iconographic elements of the image described by Lucian, as well as their unusual combination" to speak to its veracity.
[9]: 133 Hafner, for example, argued the image was identifiable as a classical depiction of Heracles' enemy Geras,[19]: 147–153 though Euskirchen is unconvinced the ekphrasis can be read this way.
[16]: 121 Wolfgang Spickermann [de] suggests that Lucian composed plausible elements (allegorical painting, the god Ogmios, his stay in Gaul) fictitiously for literary ends.
[17]: 59 More recently, scholars such as Gerhard Bauchhenß [de] and Hofeneder have counted the paucity of archaeological evidence for Ogmios (discussed below) against the reality of this image.
The latter curse invokes Dis Pater and another god to damage a young woman's body in order that she may be made unmarriageable.
[16]: 122 Eugène Hucher [fr] connected Lucian's image of Ogmios with coin-type from Armorica, on one side of which is depicted a beardless male bust with a number of pearl-like chains extending from his head.
Any relationship of this coin-type with Ogmios is largely rejected now, following arguments by Charles Robert,[3]: 91 who pointed out that the coins appear to be copies of Greek staters of Philip II, and in any case diverge from Lucian's Ogmios insofar as the coins depict a young man, with chains emerging from his head rather than his mouth, and no faces on the end of these chains.
[26]: 270–271 de Vries accepts the possibility that these coins represent a different iconographic variety of Ogmios, known in the north of Gaul.
Théodore Reinach wanted to emend this to Herculei Ogmio, but it is more likely that this the inscription originally reproduced the known name-pairing Hercueli Graio.
[3]: 92–93 A votive altar to Hercules Gallicus in Piedimonte Matese (in Italy),[k] a name-pairing not otherwise attested, could be connected to Ogmios, but is more likely to be related to a local toponym.
If it developed like "gn", the initial g would be dropped, in which case proto-Celtic *Ogmo- would have give rise to Middle Irish *Úam or *Óm rather than Ogma.
[31]: 297 John Arnott MacCulloch [de] connected Ogmios with some episodes from the Irish tale Táin Bó Cúailnge: one, where a gloomy figure drags seven unwilling figures by a chain around his neck; another, where Cú Chulainn grows angry and his body distorts itself horribly, in such a way as MacCulloch compares with iconography of Ogmios.
[4]: 66–67 John Rhŷs proposed that Eufydd fab Dôn, a minor figure of Welsh mythology, was cognate with Ogmios.
[3]: 95 Such sources such as Andrea Alciato's much-read Emblemata and the mythographies of Annius of Viterbo and Natalis Comes popularised the myth of "Gallic Hercules" among humanists and artists.
[36]: 426 Albrecht Dürer's rendition of Ogmios as Hermes (pictured above) is well known, but there is also a drawing from the School of Raphael, a wall painting in the Escurialense, and a very large number of printed woodcuts.
