The Mythology of the British Islands: An Introduction to Celtic Myth, Legend, Poetry, and RomanceSquire, Charles
General
The Mythology of the British Islands: An Introduction to Celtic Myth, Legend, Poetry, and Romance
Squire, Charles
Celts -- Folklore; Mythology, Celtic
This marvellous hound, as well as the marvellous spear, and the
indestructible pigs of Manannán were obtained for Lugh by the sons of
Tuirenn as part of the blood-fine he exacted from them for the murder of
his father Cian.[92] A hardly less curious story is that which tells how
Lugh got his name of the _Ioldanach_, or the “Master of All Arts”.[93]
These are, of course, only the greater deities of the Gaelic Pantheon,
their divinities which answered to such Hellenic figures as Demeter,
Zeus, Herê, Cronos, Athena, Eros, Hades, Hermes, Hephaestus,
Aesculapius, and Apollo. All of them had many descendants, some of whom
play prominent parts in the heroic cycles of the “Red Branch of Ulster”
and of the “Fenians”. In addition to these, there must have been a
multitude of lesser gods who stood in much the same relation to the
great gods as the rank and file of tribesmen did to their chiefs. Most
of these were probably local deities of the various clans—the gods their
heroes swore by. But it is also possible that some may have been
divinities of the aboriginal race. Professor Rhys thinks that he can
still trace a few of such Iberian gods by name, as Nêt, Ri or Roi, Corb,
and Beth.[94] But they play no recognizable part in the stories of the
Gaelic gods.
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Footnote 56:
Pronounced _Tooăha dae donnann_.
Footnote 57:
Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, 1886. Lecture VI—“Gods, Demons, and Heroes”.
Footnote 58:
_Ibid._
Footnote 59:
De Jubainville: _Le Cycle Mythologique Irlandais_, chap. V.
Footnote 60:
De Jubainville: _Cycle Mythologique Irlandais_, chap. IX.
Footnote 61:
From the fifteenth-century Harleian MS. in the British Museum,
numbered 5280, and called the _Second Battle of Moytura_.
Footnote 62:
Harleian MS. 5280.
Footnote 63:
“In Munster was worshipped the goddess of prosperity, whose name was
Ana, and from her are named the Two Paps of Ana over Luachair Degad.”
From _Coir Anmann_, the _Choice of Names_, a sixteenth-century tract,
published by Dr. Whitley Stokes in _Irische Texte_.
Footnote 64:
Attributed to Cormac, King-Bishop of Cashel.
Footnote 65:
Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, 1886—“The Zeus of the Insular Celts”.
Footnote 66:
Rhys: _Hibbert Lectures_, 1886—“The Gaulish Pantheon”.
Footnote 67:
_Pharsalia_, Book I, l. 444, &c.:
“Et quibus immitis placatur sanguine diro
Teutates, horrensque feris altaribus Hesus;
Et Taranis Scythicae non mitior ara Dianae”.
Footnote 68:
_Iliad_, Book V.
Footnote 69:
_Op. cit._, Book XIV.
Footnote 70:
It commemorates the battle of Magh Rath.
Footnote 71:
The word is approximately pronounced _Bive_ or _Bibe_.
Footnote 72:
For a full account of these beings see a paper by Mr. W. M. Hennessey
in Vol. I of the _Revue Celtique_, entitled “The Ancient Irish Goddess
of War”.
Footnote 73:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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