A member of the Tuatha Dé Danann, a group of supernatural beings, Lugh is portrayed as a warrior, a king, a master craftsman and a saviour.
[8] In the past his name was generally believed to come from another suggested Proto-Indo-European root *leuk-, "flashing light", and since the Victorian era he has often been considered a sun god, similar to the Greco-Roman Apollo.
However, the figure of Lugh in Irish mythology and literature seems to be a better match with a romanized god identified with Mercury, described by Julius Caesar in his De Bello Gallico.
[4] There are serious phonological issues with deriving the name from *leuk-, notably that Proto-Indo-European *-k- never produced Proto-Celtic *-g-;,[9] for this reason, most modern specialists in Celtic languages no longer accept this etymology.
[15] When he appears before the wounded Cú Chulainn in the Táin Bó Cúalnge he is described as follows: A man fair and tall, with a great head of curly yellow hair.
[16]Elsewhere Lugh is described as a tall young man with bright red cheeks, white sides, a bronze-coloured face and blood-coloured hair.
He is described by Bres as follows: Elsewhere in the same passage, the following remark is made: Lugh's father is Cian of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and his mother is Ethniu (Eithne in Modern Irish), daughter of Balor of the Fomorians.
"[23] A folktale told to John O'Donovan by Shane O'Dugan of Tory Island in 1835 recounts the birth of a grandson of Balor who grows up to kill his grandfather.
The grandson is unnamed, his father is called Mac Cinnfhaelaidh and the manner of his killing of Balor is different, but it has been taken as a version of the birth of Lugh, and was adapted as such by Lady Gregory.
[29] In Ireland's other great "sequestered maiden" story, the tragedy of Deirdre, the king's intended is carried off by three brothers, who are hunters with hounds.
He offers his services as a wright, a smith, a champion, a swordsman, a harpist, a hero, a poet, a historian, a sorcerer, and a craftsman, but each time is rejected as the Tuatha Dé Danann already have someone with that skill.
[34] Using the magic artefacts the sons of Tuireann have gathered, Lugh leads the Tuatha Dé Danann in the Second Battle of Mag Tuireadh against the Fomorians.
[36] Lugh instituted an event similar to the Olympic games called the Assembly of Talti which finished on Lughnasadh (1 August) in memory of his foster mother, Tailtiu, at the town that bears her name, now Teltown, County Meath.
He made 300 wooden cows and filled them with a bitter, poisonous red liquid which was then "milked" into pails and offered to Bres to drink.
[44][45] He had several wives, including Buí (AKA Buach or Bua "Victory") and Nás, daughters of Ruadri Ruad, king of Britain.
Lugh possessed a number of magical items, retrieved by the sons of Tuirill Piccreo in Middle Irish redactions of the Lebor Gabála.
The late narrative Fate of the Children of Tuireann not only gives a list of items gathered for Lugh, but also endows him with such gifts from the sea god Manannán as the sword Fragarach, the horse Enbarr (Aonbarr), the boat Scuabtuinne / Sguaba Tuinne ("Wave-Sweeper"),[48] his armour and helmet.
Lugh's spear (sleg), according to the text of The Four Jewels of the Tuatha Dé Danann, was said to be impossible to overcome,[49] taken to Ireland from Gorias (or Findias).
There is yet another name that Lugh's spear goes by: "A [yew] tree, the finest of the wood" (Early Modern Irish: eó bo háille d'ḟíoḋḃaiḃ),[55] occurring in an inserted verse within The Fate of the Children of Tuireann.
[58] Squire adds that Lugh's spear which needed no wielding was alive and thirsted so for blood that only by steeping its head in a sleeping-draught of pounded fresh poppy leaves could it be kept at rest.
[58] When a battle was near, it was drawn out; then it roared and struggled against its thongs, fire flashed from it, and it tore through the ranks of the enemy once slipped from the leash, never tired of slaying.
[58] According to the brief accounts in the Lebor Gabála Érenn, Lugh used the "sling-stone" (cloich tabaill) to slay his grandfather, Balor the Strong-Smiter in the Battle of Magh Tuired.
Táthlum tromm thenntide tenn robūi ag Tūath Dé Danann, hī robriss súil Balair búain tall ar toghail in tromshlúaigh
A tathlum, heavy, fiery, firm, Which the Tuatha Dé Danann had with them, It was that broke the fierce Balor's eye, Of old, in the battle of the great armies.
[62] Lugh is also seen girt with the Freagarthach (better known as Fragarach), the sword of Manannán, in the assembly of the Tuatha Dé Danann in the Fate of the Children of Tuireann.
[48] In the Lebor Gabála,[66] Gainne and Rea were the names of the pair of horses belonging to the king of the isle of Sicily [on the (Tyrrhene sea)], which Lug demanded as éraic from the sons of Tuirill Briccreo.
This concurs with the name of the hound mentioned in an "Ossianic Ballad",[67] sometimes referred to by its opening line "Dám Thrír Táncatair Ille (They came here as a band of three)".
In the ballad, the hound is called Ṡalinnis (Shalinnis) or Failinis (in the Lismore text),[68] and belonged to a threesome from Iruaide whom the Fianna encounter.
Other places named for Lugh include the cairn at Seelewey (Suidhe Lughaidh, or Lug's Seat), Dunlewey, and Rath-Lugaidh in Carney, Sligo.
By the end of the first century AD it was known as "Lugdunum", a Latinized variant of the ancient Gaulish name *Lugudunon, meaning "Fortress of Lugh".