Tuatha De Danann

This “name” is usually translated as “folk of the goddess Danu.” They are also known by the earlier name: Tuath De (“tribe of the gods” or “divine tribe”). They’re a supernatural race in Irish mythology. Many of them are thought to represent deities of pre-Christian Gaelic Ireland.

The Tuatha De Danann are often pictured as kings, queens, druids, bards, warriors, heroes, healers, & craftsmen who have supernatural powers. They live in the Otherworld but interact with humans & the human world. They’re associated with sidhe.

Their traditional rivals are the Fomorians (Fomoire), who might represent the destructive powers of nature, & whom the Tuatha De Danann defeated in the Battle of Mag Tuired.

Prominent members include the Dagda (“the great god”), The Morrigan (“the great queen” or “phantom queen”), Lugh, Nuada, Aengus, Brigid, Manannan, Dian Cecht the healer, & Goibniu the smith, 1 of the Tri De Dana (“three gods of craft”).

They’re immune to ageing & sickness, & who have magic powers. The powers most often attributed to them are control over the weather & the elements, & the ability to shape shift themselves & other things.

They’re also said to control the fertility of the land. The tale De Gabail in t-Sida says the 1st Gaels had to establish friendship with the Tuatha De Danann before they could raise crops & herds.

They live in the Otherworld, which is described as either a parallel world or a heavenly land beyond the sea or under the earth’s surface. Many of them are associated with specific places in the landscape, especially the sidh mounds.

These are the ancient burial mounds & passage tombs which are entrances to Otherworld realms. The Tuatha De Danann can hide themselves with a feth fiada (“magic mist”) & appear to humans only when they wish to.

In euhemerized accounts, the Tuatha De Danann were descended from Nemed, leader of a previous wave of inhabitants of Ireland. In non-euhemerized accounts, they’re descended from Danu/Anu, a mother goddess. They came from 4 cities to the north of Ireland (Falias, Gorias, Murias, & Finias), where architecture, the arts, & magic.

According to Lebor Gabala Erenn, they came to Ireland “in dark clouds” & “landed on the mountains of the Conmaicne Rein in Connachta.” Otherwise Sliabh an Iarainn, “and they brought a darkness over the sun for 3 days & 3 nights.”

Sliabh an Iarainn (anglicized Slieve Anierin) is a mountain in County Leitrim, Ireland. It’s part of the Cuilcagh Mountains.

They immediately burnt the ships “so that they should not of retreating to them, & the smoke & the mist that came from the vessels filled the neighbouring land & air. Therefore it was conceived that they had arrived in clouds of mist.”

Led by King Nuada, they fought the First Battle of Magh Tuireadh on the west coast, in which they defeated & displaced the native Fir Bolg, who then inhabited Ireland. In the battle, Nuada lost an arm to their champion, Sreng.

Since Nuada was no longer “unblemished,” he couldn’t continue as king & was replaced by the half-Fomorian Bres, who turned out to be a tyrant.

The doctor Dian Cecht replaced Nuada’s arm with a working silver 1. (Think Bucky from Captain America.) He was reinstated as king. Back in those days, if a king wasn’t physically whole, then he wasn’t fit to be king.

However, Dian Cecht’s son, Miach, was dissatisfied with the replacement. So he recited the spell, “adult fri halt do and feith fri feth” (joint to joint of it & sinew to sinew), which caused flesh to grow over the silver over the course of 9 days & nights.

In a fit of jealous rage, Dian Cecht killed his own son. Because of Nuada’s restoration as king, Bres whined to his family & dad, Elatha, who sent him to look for help from King Balor of the Fomorians.

The Tuatha De Danann fought the Second Battle of Magh Tuireadh against the Fomorians. King Nuada was killed by King Balor’s poisonous eye. But KIng Balor was killed by Lugh (who was the champion of the Tuatha De Danann), who then took over as king.

A 3rd battle was fought against a wave of invaders, the Milesians, from the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula (present-day Galicia & Northern Portugal). These were descendants of Mil Espaine (who are thought to represent the Goidelic Celts).

The Milesians encountered 3 Tuatha De Danann goddesses, Eriu, Banba, & Fodla, who asked that the island be named after them. Eriu is the origin of the modern name Eire (which is the Irish language name for Ireland), & Banba & Fodla are still sometimes used as poetic names for Ireland.

Their 2 husbands (Mac Cuill, Mac Cecht, & Mac Greine) were kings of the Tuatha De Danann and created a magical storm in an attempt to drive them away. The Milesian poet calmed the sea with his verse, then his people landed & defeated the Tuatha De Danann at Tailtiu.

When Amergin was called upon to divide the land between the Tuatha De Danann & his own people, he cleverly allotted the portion above ground to the Milesians & the portion underground to the Tuatha De Danann.

The Tuatha De Danann were led underground into the Sidhe mounds by Manannan mac Lir & Tir na nOg onto a flowery plain/plain of honey attested to in the Voyage of Bran.

The Tuatha De Danann brought 4 magical treasure with them to Ireland, 1 a piece from their 4 cities: Dagda’s Cauldron, The Spear of Lugh, Lia Fail (The Stone of Fal), & Claiomh Solais (The Sword of Light).

Make a one-time donation

Make a monthly donation

Make a yearly donation

Choose an amount

Or enter a custom amount

Your contribution is appreciated.

Your contribution is appreciated.

Your contribution is appreciated.

DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearly

#aengus #amergin #anu #banba #battleOfMagTuired #bres #brigid #captainAmerica #celts #christian #claiomhSolais #conmaicneRein #connachta #countyLeitrim #cuilcaghMountains #dagda #dagdasCauldron #danu #deGabailInTSida #dianCecht #elatha #eriu #fethFiada #finais #firBolg #firstBattleOfMaghTuireadh #fodla #fomoire #fomorians #gaelic #gaels #galicia #goibniu #goidelic #gorias #iberianPeninsula #ireland #irish #irishMythology #kingBalor #kingNuada #leborGabalaErenn #liaFail #lugh #macCecht #macCuill #macGreine #manannan #manannanMacLir #miach #milEspaine #milesians #nemed #northernPortugal #otherworld #sidh #sidhe #sliabhAnIarainn #slieveAnierin #sreng #tailtiu #theMorrigan #theSpearOfLugh #theStoneOfFal #theSwordOfLight #tirNaNog #triDeDana #tuathDe #tuathaDeDanann2 #voyageOfBran

Annwn

This is the Otherworld in Welsh mythology. Ruled by Arawn (or, in Arthurian literature, by Gwyn ap Nudd), it’s a world of delights & eternal youth where disease is absent & food is ever-abundant. In both Welsh & Irish mythologies, the Otherworld was believed to be located either on an island or underneath the earth.

In the First Branch of the Mabinogi, it’s implied that Annwn is a land within Dyfed. While the context is a land within Dyfed. While the context of the Arthurian poem Preiddeu Annwfn suggests an island location.

Two other otherworldly feasts that occur in the Second Branch of the Mabinogi are located in Harlech in northwest Wales & on Ynys Gwales in southwest Pembrokeshire.

Locations inside Annwn:

• Caer Sidi (“Revolving/Spinning Fortress”): A fortress containing the Cauldron of Annwn, the “Chair” of Taliesin, & where Gweir was imprisoned.
• Caer Wydyr (“Glass Fortress”): A fortress guarded by 6,000 men whose watchman was difficult to converse with.
• Caer Pedryvan (“Four-Cornered/Peaked Fortress”): A fortress located on the “Isle of the Strong Door”
• Caer Vedwyd (“Fortress of God’s Peak)
• Caer Rigor (“Kingly Fortress”/”Fortress of Hardness”)
• Caer Golud (“Fortress of Riches”)

In the First Branch of the Mabinogi, Prince Pwyll of Dyfed offends Arawn (the ruler of Annwn) by baiting his hunting hounds on a stag that Arawn’s dogs had brought down. In recompense, he changes places with Arawn for 1 year & defeats Arawn’s enemy, Hafgan.

During this year, Pwyll doesn’t sleep with Arawn’s wife. This earned him gratitude & eternal friendship from Arawn. On his return, Pwyll became known by the title Penn Annwn (“Head/Ruler of Annwn”).

In the 4th Branch, Annwn is mentioned but doesn’t show up. It’s revealed that he sent a gift of otherworldly pigs to Pwyll’s son & successor, Pryderi. This leads to war between Dyfed & Gwynedd.

The epic poem, Cad Gaddeu describes a battle between Gwynedd & the forces of Annwn, led again by Annwn. It’s revealed that Amaethon, nephew to Math (King of Gwynedd), stole a female dog, a lapwing (a type of bird), & a male roedeer (or a roebuck) from the Otherworld.

This led to a war between the 2 peoples. The inhabitants of Annwn are shown as bizarre & hellish creatures. These include a “wide-mawed” beast with 100 heads & bearing a host beneath the root of its tongue & another under its neck, a 100-clawed black-groined toad, & a “mottled ridged serpent, with a thousand souls, by their sins, tortured in the hold s of its flesh.”

Gwydion, the Venedotian hero & magician, successfully defeats Arawn’s army, 1st by enchanting the trees to rise up & fight & then by guessing the name of the enemy hero Bran, this winning the battle.

Priddeu Annwfn, an early medieval poem found in the Book of Taliesin, describes a voyage led by King Arthur to the numerous otherworldly kingdoms within Annwn. Either to rescue the prisoner Gweir or to retrieve the cauldron of the Head of Annwn.

Over time, the role of king of Annwn was transferred to Gwyn ap Nudd, a hunter & psychopomp, who may have the Welsh personification of winter. Psychopomps are creatures, spirits, angels, demons, or deities in many religions whose responsibility is to escort newly deceased souls from Earth to the afterlife.

The Christian Vita Collen tells of St. Colleen vanquishing Gwyn & his otherworldly court from Glastonbury Tor with the use of holy water.

In Culhwch and Olwen, an early Welsh Arthurian tale, it’s said that God gave Gwyn ap Nudd control over the demons lest “this world be destroyed.” Tradition revolves around Gwyn leading his spectral hunts, the Cwn Annwn (“Hounds of Annwn”), on his hunt for mortal souls.

Make a one-time donation

Make a monthly donation

Make a yearly donation

Choose an amount

Or enter a custom amount

Your contribution is appreciated.

Your contribution is appreciated.

Your contribution is appreciated.

DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearly

#amaethon #angels #annwn #arawn #arthurianLiterature #bookOfTaliesin #bran #cadGoddeu #caerGolud #caerPedryvan #caerRigor #caerSidi #caerVandwy #caerVedwyd #caerWydyr #canAnnwn #cauldronOfAnnwn #chairOfTaliesin #culhwchOlwen #deities #demons #dyfed #earth #firstBranch #fourthBranch #glastonburyTor #gweir #gwydion #gwynApNudd #gwynedd #hafgan #houndsOfAnnwn #irishMythology #isleOfTheStrongDoor #mabinogi #math #otherworld #pembrokshire #pennAnnwn #preiddeuAnnwfn #princePwyll #psychopomps #secondBranch #spirits #stCollen #vitaCollen #wales #welshMythology #ynysGwales

So far I've got three saints (Brendan, Mél, Mobhí) who appear to be bynames for the Irish Dionysus, Midir, and I may have even found his very strangely inflected Ulster Cycle form, Furbaide Fer-Bend. Progress! Every extra name becomes an identifiable cameo character elsewhere in #IrishMythology.

The Dagda

Considered the great God of Irish Mythology. He’s the chief God of the Tuatha De Danann. The Dagda are portrayed as a father-figure, king, & druid. He’s associated with fertility, agriculture, masculinity, & strength. As well as magic, druidry, & wisdom. He can control life & death (with his staff), the weather & crops, as well as time & the seasons.

He’s often portrayed as a large bearded man or a giant wearing a hooded cloak. He owns a magic staff (lorc) of a dual nature: it kills with 1 end & brings to life with the other. He also owns a cauldron (the coire ansic), which never empties, & a magic harp (Uaithene, this may be the name of the harpist/player.).

The harp can’t be played unless called by its 2 bynames. The harp can fly itself to the Dagda when called. Think Thor’s hammer in the Marvel movies. He just sticks his hand out & the hammer comes to him. This is what happens with the Dagda & the harp.

He’s said to live in Bru na Boinne (Newgrange). Other places associated with or named after him include: Uisneach, Grianan of Aileach, Lough Neagh, & Knock Iveagh. The Dagda is said to be the husband of the Morrigan & the lover of Boann. His kids include: Aengus, Brigit, Bodb Derg, Cermait, Aed, & Midir.

The Dagda has several other names/epithets, that reflect aspects of his character:

• Eochu or Eochaid Ollathair, “horseman, great father” or “horseman, all-father”
• Ruad Rofhessa, “mighty one/Lord of great knowledge”
• Daire, “the fertile one”
• Aed, “the fiery one”
• Fer Benn, “horned man” or “man of the peak”
• Cera, “creator”?
• Cerrce, “striker”?
• Easal
• Eogabal

The Dagda was 1 of the kings of the Tuatha De Danann. The Tuatha De Danann are the race of supernatural beings who overcame the Fomorians, who inhabited Ireland previously, prior to the coming of the Milesians.

The Morrigan is depicted as his wife, his daughter was Brigit, & his lover was Boann, after whom the River Boyne is named. Though she was married to Elcmar & with whom he had the Aengus. Before the battle with the Fomorians, he was coupled with the goddess of war, the Morrigan, on Samhain.

In the tract found in the Yellow Book of Lecan, there were 3 items the Dagda named together, his staff (lorc), the shirt (leine) of protection from sickness, & the cloak (lumman) of shape-shifting color-changing.

The “great staff” (lorg mor) had a smooth end that brought the dead back to life. He resuscitated his son, Cermait Milbel with the smooth end of the staff. But the staff’s rough end caused instant death. The staff/club is also described in the Ulster Cycle narrative, Mesca Ulad. Where it was called the “terrible iron staff” (lorg aduathmar iarnaidi).

The Cauldron of the Dagda is 1 of the Four Treasures of the Tuatha De Danann. It was said “an assembly used not to go unsatisfied from it.” The cauldron “signified plenty.” His magic cauldron was otherwise known as the coire ansic (“the un-dry cauldron”).

After Uaithne, the Dagda’s Harper was abducted by the Fomorians, the Dagda went to the enemy’s hall & received his magic harp, which had 2 names. When the Dagda called upon his harp by its 2 names (Daur Da Blao & Coir Cetharchair), the harp leapt off the wall & came to him.

The harp was forbidden by the Dagda from supplying any sound. Unless it was called upon by the names, which translated to “Oak of Two Meadows” & “the Four Angled Music.” Hence, the harp was a richly ornamental magic harp made of oak which, when the Dagda played it, put the seasons in their correct order.

The Dagda had the skillet to play the “Three Strains” (joy, sorrow, sleep) which he used to immobilize the Fomorians & escape.

He had 2 pigs. 1 of which was always growing whilst the other was always roasting & ever-laden fruit trees. He is also described as being the owner of a black-maned heifer that was given to him from his labors prior to the Second Battle of Moytura. When the heifer calls her calf, all the cattle of Ireland are taken by the Fomorians as a tribute graze.

The Dagda is said to be the husband of the Morrigan, who’s called his “envious wife.” His kids include: Aengus, Cermait, & Aed (often called the 3 sons of the Dagda), Brigit, & Bodb Derg. He’s said to have 2 brothers, Nuada & Ogma. But this may be an instance of the tendency to triplicate deities. Elsewhere, the Dagda is linked exclusively with Ogma. The 2 are called “the 2 brothers.”

In the Dindsenchas, the Dagda is given a daughter named Ainge, for whom he makes a twig basket or tub that always leaks when the tide is in & never leaks when it’s going out. The Dagda’s dad is named Elatha, son of Delbeath.

Englec, the daughter of Elcmar, is named as a consort of the Dagda & the mom of his “swift son.” Echtgi the loathsome is another daughter of the Dagda’s named in the Banshenchas. Before the Second Battle of Mag Tuired, the Dagda builds a fortress for Bres called Dun Brese & is also forced y the Fomorian kings Elatha, Indech, & Tethra to build raths.

Raths (also called ringforts/ring forts) are small circular fortified settlements built during the Bronze & Iron Age & early Middle Ages up to about the year 1000 AD. They’re found in Northern Europe, especially in Ireland.

In the lead up to the Second Battle of Mag Tuired, when Lugh asks Dagda what power he’ll wield over the Fomorian host, he responds that he “will take the side of the men of Erin both in mutual smiting & destruction & wizardry. Their bones under my club will be as many hailstones under the feet of herds of horses.”

The Dagda has an affair with Boann, the goddess of the River Boyne. She lives at Bru na Boinne with her husband, Elcmar. The Dagda impregnates her after sending Elcmar away on a 1-day errand.

To hide the pregnancy from Elcmar, the Dagda casts a spell on him, making “the sun stand still” so he will not notice the passing of time. Meanwhile, Boann gives birth to Aengus, who’s also known as Maccan Og (“the young son”). Eventually, Aengus learns that the Dagda is his true dad & asks him for a portion of land.

In some versions of the tale, the Dagda helps Aengus take ownership of the Bru from Elcmar. Aengus asks & is given the Bru for laa ocus aidche. Because in Old Irish, this could mean either “a day & a night” or “day & night,” Aengus claims it forever. Other versions have Aengus taking over the Bru from the Dagda himself by using the same trick.

The Tochmarc Etaine tells the story of how Boand conceives Aengus by the Dagda. In the Aislinge Oengusso or Dream of Aengus, the Dagda & Boand help Aengus to find a mysterious woman who he has fallen in love with his dreams.

In a poem about Mag Muirthemne, the Dagda banishes an octopus with his “mace of wrath” using the words: “Turn thy hollow head! Turn thy ravening body! Turn thy resorbent forehead! Avaunt! Begone!” The Sea receded with the creature & the plain of Mag Muirthemne was left behind.

In the Dindsenchas, the Dagda is described as swift with a poison draught & as a justly dealing lord. He’s also called a king of Erin with hosts of hostages, a noble, slender prince, & the dad of Cermait, Aengus, & Aed.

He’s credited with a 70 or 80-year reign over the Tuatha De Danann. This was before dying at Bru na Boinne, finally succumbing to a wound inflicted by Cethlenn during the battle of Mag Tuired. The Dagda has similarities with the later harvest figure Crom Dubh.

He also has similarities with the Gaulish god, Sucellos, who’s depicted with a hammer & a pot, & the Roman god, Dis Pater. Dis Pater (a.k.a. Rex Infernus or Pluto) is a Roman god of the underworld. Dis was originally associated with fertile agricultural land & mineral wealth.

Make a one-time donation

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate

Make a monthly donation

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate monthly

Make a yearly donation

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate yearly

#1000AD #Aed #Aengus #Ainge #AislingeOengusso #Banshenchas #Boann #BodbDerg #Bres #Brigit #BronzeAge #BruNaBoinne #CauldronOfTheDagda #Cera #Cermait #CermaitMilbel #Cerrce #Cethlenn #CoirCetharchair #CoireAnsic #CromDubh #Daire #DaurDaBlao #Delbeath #Dindsenchas #DisPater #DreamOfAengus #Druid #Druidry #DunBrese #Easal #Echtgi #Elatha #Elcmar #Englec #Eochaid #Eochu #Eogabal #Erin #FerBenn #Fomorians #FourAngledMusic #FourTreasuresOfTheTuathaDeDanann #Gaul #Grianan #GriananOfAileach #Ireland #IrishMythology #IronAge #KingElatha #KingIndech #KingTethra #KnockIveagh #LaaOcusAidche #Leine #Lorc #LorgAduathmarIarnaidi #LorgMor #LoughNeagh #Lugh #Lumman #MaccanOg #MagMuirthemne #MescaUlad #MiddleAges #Midir #Milesians #Newgrange #NorthernEurope #Nuada #OakOfTwoMeadows #Ogma #OldIrish #Pluto #Raths #RexInfernus #RingForts #RiverBoyne #Rome #RuadRofhessa #Samhain #SecondBattleOfMagTuired #SecondBattleOfMoytura #Staff #Sucellos #TheDagda #TheMorrigan #TheTwoBrothers #ThreeSonsOfTheDagda #ThreeStrains #TochmarcEtaine #TuathaDéDanann #Uaithne #Uisneach #UlsterCycle #Underworld #Wizardy #YellowBookOfLecan

« Nuada and The Collector of Lost Souls », 1978

by Jim Fitzpatrick (Irish artist, born 1946)
Original illustration for "The Book of Conquests", by himself, EP Dutton, 1978

#vintagefantasyart #fantasyart #fantasyillustration #JimFitzpatrick #BookOfConquests #IrishFantasy #IrishMythology #CelticArtwork

Cian

In Irish mythology, Cian was nicknamed Scal Balb. Scal Balb is a nickname borne by other personages & means “dumb champion.” “Dumb” here means not being able to talk. He was the son of Dian Cecht, the doctor/physician of the Tuatha De Danann. He’s best known as the dad of Lugh Lamhfada. His brothers are Cu, Cethen, & Miach. Cian means “enduring one,” it signifies long, enduring, far, & distant.

Cian was unalived by the sons of Tuireann. For which Lugh demanded various treasures from around the world as eraic (or compensation).

In the saga Cath Maige Tuired, Cian’s marriage to Ethniu is a dynastic 1 following an alliance between the Fomorians & the Tuatha De Danann. Ethniu & Cian had a son named Lugh. In the Lebor Gabala Erenn, Cian gives Lugh to Tailtiu, the queen of Fir Bolg as a foster child.

Cian’s downfall, & the subsequent revenge by his son, Lugh, forcing on the perpetrators the impossible “quest” for treasures is told in “The Fate of the Children of Tuireann.” In the story, Cian is killed by the sons of Tuireann (Brian, Iuchar, & Iucharba) after trying unsuccessfully to escape from them in the form of a pig.

Lugh set them on a series of seemingly impossible tasks/quests as recompense. They completed them all. But were mortally wounded completing the final task/quest. Despite Tuireann’s pleas, Lugh denied them the use of 1 of the items they’d retrieved: the magic pigskin of Tuis that healed all wounds. They succumbed to their wounds/injuries. Tuireann died from grief over their bodies.

Make a one-time donation

Make a monthly donation

Make a yearly donation

Choose an amount

Or enter a custom amount

Your contribution is appreciated.

Your contribution is appreciated.

Your contribution is appreciated.

DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearly

#Brian #CathMaigeTuired #Cethen #Cian #Cu #DianCecht #Eraic #Ethniu #Fomorians #Irish #IrishMythology #Iuchar #Iucharba #LeborGabalaErenn #Lugh #LughLamhfada #Miach #PigskinOfTuis #QueenTailtiuOfTheFirBolg #ScalBalb #TheFateOfTheChildrenOfTuireann #TuathaDéDanann #Tuireann

« The Battle of Moira », 1980

by Jim Fitzpatrick (Irish artist, born 1946)
Cover illustration for "The Battle of Moira", by Samuel Ferguson, Ed. Ian Adamson, 1980

#vintagefantasyart #fantasyart #fantasyillustration #JimFitzpatrick #SamuelFerguson #IrishFantasy #IrishMythology

Yesterday's findings on #IrishMythology through a lens of Early Christian #Hagiography make me now pretty certain the Manannán was indeed understood to be a fire god, not a sea god. This is exciting because it goes against centuries of folk tradition on three islands that consider him principally as a deity of sea and the afterlife.

Thread ensues!
(I'll try to keep the follow-ups unlisted this time)

This week's mystery Saint is the Saints Colmán, of whom there are 3 significant, and only 2 who have surviving Hagiographical 'Lives' that I can find.

I happened across these guys with a false preconception - I misread Crónán, the father figure of St. Coemgen (the Wild Magician god Cian) as Colmán, and read Colmán first expecting to find Dian Cécht/Cathbad, the Healing and Sacred Incantation god. And I found him! Only to realise I had read the wrong dude.

And now I am confused.
#IrishMythology

Great progress today on the reconstruction of #IrishMythology, as I found the saint-cognates of Cian and his father, Dian Cecht. Cian is mostly as you expect - the stories contained in the saint are the Magician Of The Wilds And Byways, the hermit-god who enforces hospitality and respect among travellers. And, of course, raises Lugh secretly. :)

But Dian Cecht is.. Not entirely as expected. Pretty genderqueer in at least one place, hilariously so in fact. And fairly petty. Enjoyably petty.

Oh, one last point: at present, as mentioned up-thread, I have every reason to read Midir as being, like Arawn, the underworld god as well as the Lunar god.
His consort Etain could be a face of the Bean Fhionn, the death-goddess Pale Lady face of the otherwise highly solar Áine.
Saint Brendan's voyage could be the journey that all souls take to the underworld, or to reincarnation, like the night-voyage of Ra.
This guy isn't just Dionysus, he's Hades.

And he was born dead.
#Myth #IrishMythology

Now, it's possible that Brigid and Midir are sometime lovers, too. The Dawn/Sun and the Moon are often very sexually liberal gods, and the birth #myth seems to hint at a Sun-Reviving-Moon motif that may have been understood to repeat each lunar cycle. I wouldn't rule it out.

Anyways, enjoy today's key finding PSA ;)

#IrishMythology

So, from Brendan's #myth we have him as a similarly-aged sibling of hers, and a possible case of him rejecting her romantic advances if she's the coded highborn girl that approaches him while he sits in a chariot.

(Midir later marries a more Persephone-alike goddess, Etain, while Brigid appears elsewhere as a later consort of their other younger brother Aonghus)

From her myth, we have a traumatic double-birth motif for a half-brother who's associated with dusk/night.

:)
#IrishMythology

If this boy is Midir, then he's encoded in Xtian #myth as "Saint Brendan". I don't know if he reappears in Brigid's account, but in his own story his birth circumstances aren't related, only that he's showered with adoration and foster parents after he is born. No mention is made of her being born the same day, but it does relate how she comes to live with him as a child.

Midir has an epithet "the proud", which would make sense if he were the higher-born, maybe spoilt sibling.
#IrishMythology

So these siblings, a solar girl and a putative lunar boy, resemble the Norse Sun and Moon siblings, Sól and Máni, in gender and relation. But the Irish case seems to encode a #myth about the new moon -the Sun revives the "dead" Moon as it draws closer to her during its waning. Thereafter the Moon is revived and grows to full strength. I don't think I've seen this Sun-Revival motif elsewhere yet.

#IrishMythology

In one version of this #myth it seems to be explicit that the first child will be born at dusk, the other at dawn, and the timing of their birth will indicate their nature/fate. So that really sounds like a Lunar/Solar birth combo, right?

So in the version I'm reading, that's less explicit. But anyway: the noble woman gives birth first, to a still-born son. Then at Dawn, our shiny sun-goddess pops out, wows everyone, and then *revives the boy*.

Omigods the #mythology symbolism.
#IrishMythology

In several versions of the Christianised birth #myth of Brigid, she is born to a slave-woman who was taken as a slave-wife by a nobleman. The man's noble wife is jealous (this Hera-like goddess-of-marriage-and-fidelity motif is not common in Irish myth, needs research..) and is also pregnant.

The story of where the birth happens is a bit variable. But a sage decrees that two babies will be born, one at night and the other at dawn, and the latter will be the greater.
#IrishMythology

Today's #IrishMythology find, I believe, is the Christianised form of Midir's birth #myth!

Background: going from J.Dolan's observations of Dionysus and Chyavana, the Lunar-Immortality god often has a traumatic childbirth scene, which may even feature a double-birth motif.

We also know that Midir is brother to Brigid and Aonghus, but we know he has no connection to Aonghus' birth myth. A simultaneous Lunisolar birth myth though would make sense.

So let's talk Saint Brigid!
#Mythology

For those new to this branch of comparative mythology, the usual association of Aonghus Mac Óg in Hindu tradition would be the Asvins, and Aonghus' key myths match them perfectly.

I'm not saying "Aonghus is Vishnu, not Asvins", I'm saying there's enough overlap to make me feel vindicated in noticing the Cúchulainn overlap.

I think they are the two sides of the same axial god: one beloved and peaceful, the other so violent and glory-hungry that he must be bound for safety!
#IrishMythology