ORIGIN: Celtic [Welsh]
TYPE: God of Agriculture
INFORMATION: A son of Don and brother of Gwydion, he is known from a limited number of Welsh texts and was engaged in a mythical battle against the Arawn. Associated with ploughing and husbandry. The modern Welsh name for a farmer is amaethwr.
In Welsh mythology, Amaethon (Welsh: Amaethon fab Dôn (Welsh , meaning "Amaethon son of Dôn") was the god of agriculture, and the son of the goddess Dôn. His name means "labourer" or "ploughman", and he is cited as being responsible for the Cad Goddeu, or "Battle of Trees", between the lord of the otherworld, Arawn, and the Children of Dôn (the Welsh version of the Tuatha Dé Danann).
SOURCES:
The principal reference to Amaethon appears in the medieval Welsh prose tale Culhwch and Olwen, where he was the only man who could till a certain field, one of the impossible tasks Culhwch had been set before he could win Olwen's hand.
In the obscure early Welsh poem Cad Goddeu, a possible reference is made to Amaethon/Amathaon, but the passage is obscure. One possible interpretation, if the reading is accepted, is that he steals a dog, lapwing and roebuck from Arawn, king of Annwn (the otherworld), leading to a battle between Arawn and the Children of Dôn. Gwydion used his magic staff to turn trees into warriors who helped the children of Dôn win.
In one of the triads invented by Iolo Morganwg, he teaches magic to his brother Gwydion (this is not accepted as a genuine medieval triad by modern scholars).
ETYMOLOGY:
This theonym is derived from Proto-Celtic *Ambaxtonos meaning great follower, servant or ploughman, an augmentative form of ambactos (ultimately from *ambhi-ag-to-).