Gilfaethwy son of Don & The Ploughman

Gilfaethwy son of Don & The Ploughman

It is a fact that Gwydion's brother Gilvaethwy can be found nowhere else in the entire corpus of Welsh vernacular literature other than in the Fourth Branch, but I propose that he is one and the same, (in the mind of the author of Math vab Mathonwy) with the Amaethon (also Gwydion's brother), of the Cad Goddeu or Kat Godeu (The Battle of the Trees) and of Culhwch ac Olwen. I don’t believe this is a new suggestion either, though I don't recall where I might have read it. Both names contain the Welsh word amaeth, in the case of Gilvaethwy it is the mutated form faeth, and means: farmer or agriculture. The endings in both names 'wy' and 'on' both signify divinity. Others have derived Amaethon from a proto-celtic word ambaxtonos, meaning: 'divine ploughman'.

Like Gilfaethwy in Math, Amaethon, in the poem Kat Godeu is responsible for a war between the Children of Don and the Lord of Annwfn after he steals a dog (Canis Major), a lapwing (Corvus) and a roebuck (Capricornus) from him. Gilfaethwy is the cause of the war in the mabinogi of Math because of his lust for Geowin (who, as explained in 'Lleu Llaw Gyffes and Perseus', is Ursa Minor, and when pregnant Ursa Major which contains The Plough). Gilvaethwy and Amaethon are, then, essentially the same character, playing esentially the same role, with essentially the same name.

The constellation Bootes is also called The Ploughman because he drives the oxen of The Plough, the great asterism of Ursa Major, and is credited by the Greeks with the invention of the plough. Whereas Amaethon appears in Culhwch and Olwen in the remarkable series of exchanges where it is stated that only he could till the field of Ysbaddaden Pencawr in one day, which is precisely what Bootes does - once a day, every day.

In another Greek tradition Bootes is known Arctophylax The Bear Watcher or Lover of the Bear(s) because he gazes upon those constellations, as Gilvaethwy gazes upon Goewin. Accepting all of this, it is easy to see why we can equate Bootes with Gilvaethwy/Amaethon. What is further beginning to emerge at this stage is that, it is not only the direct pictorial clues and the mythical allusions which urge these identifications but also the spatial and geometric relationships which the constellations share.

Gilvaethwy/Amaethon - The Divine Ploughman