>Maybe Irish Diancecht fitted this role too (Does
anyone
>knows the etymology of Diancecht? Cecht = Shakti?).
I have Dian Cecht as "Swift Plow" (dian "swift" cecht "plow") but
Pokorny lists cecht as meaning "powerful" (I don't know where he gets this
definition) and relates it to Indic sakti. Dian Cecht certainly shares some
traits with the Celtic Apollo - but that's not to say that the Celtic Apollo is
an exact fit for the Greek Apollo (I think Lug is closer).
Isn't Apollo generally thought to have originated from an Anatolian
(Lycian?)guardian god (Apulunas is a "god of gates" known from an Hittite
inscription). Olmsted believes that when Apollo was introduced into Greece he
absorbed some traits from Hermes as well as a hypothetical Greek correlate of
Mitra/Mithra (a similar mix of Mercurial/Hermetic and Mithraic traits can be
applied to Lug).
-C. Gwinn