Celtus

In Greek mythology, Celtus (/ˈsɛltəs/; Ancient Greek: Κέλτος, Keltos /ˈkɛlˌtɒs/) was regarded as the eponymous progenitor of the Celts.[1]

There are two alternative traditions. One, found in Appian's Illyrian Wars,[2] holds that Celtus was the son of Polyphemos and Galatea and the brother of Illyrius and Galas.[3] The other, found in the Erotica Pathemata ("Sorrows of Love") by the 1st-century grammarian Parthenius of Nicaea,[4] and also known from the medieval Etymologicum Magnum,[5] has Celtus as the son of Heracles and Celtine.[6]

References

1. Irad Malkin The Returns of Odysseus: Colonization and Ethnicity 1998 0520920260 p. 248 "Braccesi suggests that Diomedes was therefore the 'archegetes [founding leader] of the Gauls' ... It has also been suggested that the aitiological-eponymic tale of the Cyclops Polyphemos and Galatea, parents of Keltos (Celts, ...)"
2. Appian, Illyrian Wars 1.2
3. The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle 1832
4. Parthenius of Nicaea, Erotica Pathemata 30
5. Etymologicum Magnum, 502. 45 under Keltoi
6. Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, Wordsworth Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, p. 230