re so
called.

Gwydion has also a tricky, fraudulent character in the _Mabinogi_, and
although "in his life there was counsel," yet he had a "vicious
muse."[375] It is also implied that he is lover of his sister Arianrhod
and father of Dylan and Llew--the mythic reflections of a time when such
unions, perhaps only in royal houses, were permissible. Instances occur
in Irish tales, and Arthur was also his sister's lover.[376] In later
belief Gwydion was associated with the stars; and the Milky Way was
called Caer Gwydion. Across it he had chased the faithless
Blodeuwedd.[377] Professor Rh[^y]s equates him with Odinn, and regards
both as representing an older Celto-Teutonic hero, though many of the
alleged similarities in their respective mythologies are not too
obvious.[378]

Amaethon the good is described in _Kulhwych_ as the only husbandman who
could till or dress a certain piece of land, though Kulhwych will not be
able to force him or to make him follow him.[379] This, together with
the name Amaethon, from Cymric _amaeth_, "labourer" or "ploughman," throws
some light on his functions.[380] He was a god associated with
agriculture, either as one who made waste places fruitful, or possibly
as an anthropomorphic corn divinity. But elsewhere his taking a roebuck
and a whelp, and in a _Triad_, a lapwing from Arawn, king of Annwfn, led
to the battle of Godeu, in which he fought Arawn, aided by Gwydion, who
vanquished one of Arawn's warriors, Bran, by discovering his name.[381]
Amaethon, who brings useful animals from the gods' land, plays the same
part as Gwydion, bringer of the swine. The dog and deer are frequent
representatives of the corn-spirit, of which Amaethon may have been an
anthropomorphic form, or they, with the lapwing, may have been earlier
worshipful animals, associated with Amaethon as his symbols, while later
myth told how he had procured them from Annwfn.

The divine functions of Llew Llaw Gyffes are hardly apparent in the
_Mabinogi_. The incident of Blodeuwedd's unfaithfulness is simply that
of the _Maerchen_ formula of the treacherous wife who discovers the
secret of her husband's life, and thus puts him at her lover's
mercy.[382] But since Llew is not slain, but changes to eagle form, this
unusual ending may mean that he was once a bird divinity, the eagle
later becoming his symbol. Some myth must have told of his death, or he
was afterwards regarded as a mortal who died, for a poem mentions his
tom