Demetos

Demetos (Dyfed, Dyfed) is a Cymric and Brythonic god known by inference from the name of the Demetae tribe of what is modern-day Dyfed in Gwynedd.

If such a god existed he was the tutelary god of the Demetae tribe and his name would mean ‘god of drunkenness’ indicating him to be a martial deity, and part of the Celtic practice of getting drunk before a major battle.

A warrior deity, linked to the ancient Celtic practice of getting drunk before going to battle. He is the male equivalent of the battle goddess Medd (Maev).

Not a god you’ll generally encounter. He is the tutelary deity of the ancient Celtic tribe of the Demetae who lived in South West Wales. In modern Welsh Demetae mutates to Dyfed and this is the name of the south-western county of Wales today. Though this is a fairly modern re-naming it’s known from the Mabinogion that this region was known as Dyfed in early times. For the first line of the Mabinogion names Pwyll as the leader of Dyved. In Welsh ‘Dy’ is the concatenated form of ‘Duw’ or Deity and ‘fed’ is the mutated form of Medd which means both ‘mead’ and ‘drunkeness’. Thus the Demetae were the ‘people of the god of drunkenness’. However, it is well attested that the anceint Celts used to get drunk before engaging in battle. Hence Medd or Maev (a female deity whose name also means drunkenness) is a goddess of battle and it is possible to imply that Demetos, as a god of drunkenness, was also a god of battle.

In the Mabinogi of Culhwch ac Olwen a figure known as Dyfel mab Erbin figures amongst Arthur’s host.

Dyfel literally means ‘god of honey’ and he is linked to the genealogies of the rulers of Dyfed; a descendant of Pwyll. This Dyfel may be cognate with Dyfed based on location in the realm of Dyfed and the fact that mĂȘl (honey) is the principal sugar component of medd (mead); one is, quite literally, derived from the other. Also, the old Cymric form of Dyfed is Dyvet and missing the stroke from the ‘t’ in mis-transcription yields Dyvel: mead gets transformed back into honey.