Mythology
The Invasion Myths
because of Christianity, that Tuatha was irretrievably pagan, a new regime not much different from the old was called for, and a regime that was human ( for otherwise there was no point in promoting Christianity). The two Milesian brothers who had devided the land between them battled for control of all - Ireland, and one of them was killed. Eventually, the Milesians were overthrown by the subject peoples led by Cairbre Cinnchait ( "cat-head") in AD 90, though apparently thier rule was later restored. Thus the history of Ireland according to The Book of Invasions .
This book is complemented, sometimes contridicted, by other material of the time. Of the chronicles perhaps The Annals of Ulster which deals with the provence from the year 441AD is one of the most valuable and explicit, though there are such compilations as The Book of Rights and the lengthy epics such as Tain Bo Cualnge which have to be taken into account. Prior to the Tuatha De Danann it is not possible to find out with any certainty any facts at all: Partholon may be the leader of a group, or may represent a whole tribe. The references to Ireland being a desolate plain with no trees is utterly incomprehensible, unless Partholon is veiwed as a fertility god who caused the land to bloom. Beacause the real history of Ireland involves almost continual fighting, it was easy for the myth- makers to incorporate this in thier world picture.
Amongst the Firbolgs, who undoubtedly were a distinct race, their king Eochaid mac Eire seems to have been a benevolent father - figure, and in his time Ireland was briefly a land of happiness and content, perhaps as a result of his marriage with Tailtui, an Earth Goddess, a further fertility symbol. Only with the Tuatha De Danann do the gods and goddesses become specific.
The Dagda was the lord of all knowledge, father of all, and was pictured as gross and ugly, pot bellied and peasant - like, wearing a working-mans dress of tunic and hood, with rawhide sandles on his feet. Whatever his inadequacies in the matter of good looks he made up for elsewhere. He had a club so large that it would have needed eight men to carry it and it was therefore mounted on wheels. When hauled along the ground it left a ditch, and under his club " the bones of his enemies were like hailstones under horses' hooves". With one end of the club he could kill nine men at a time, and with the other end restore them to life. Besides the miraculous club he also possessed a cauldron which could never be emptied, and from which nobody went away unsatisfied. He was therefore a god of fertility, and the cauldron or its mythical equivelents feature strongly inmany ancient legends There is the cow which yeilds unlimited Quantities of milk. It is all to do with a bountiful source which cannot be emptied,
and can be seen a kind of wish fulfilment when there was not enough food in the pot or the cows had dried up. When the Tuatha were under the domination of the Femorians the Dagda showed his ability to build fortresses. On the first of november each year he was obliged to undergo a ritual - eating a huge meal of porridge from out of a hole in the ground, followed by, if he could make it no doubt, by sexual intercourse with one of the Femorian girls. Offerings in pits, whether in the form of porridge or whatever, was a characteristic feature in European myth, and the Dagda had his counterparts elsewhere.
Peasant he may seem and gross may be his appitites, but he has also a skilled harpist, able to evoke the seasons of the Celtic year, reinforcing his abilities as a fertility god of great potency. The God Lug, also know as Lamfhada ( of the long arm ) had many of the Dagda's functions When he arrived to join the Tuatha, Lug was asked by the guard at the gate of the royal palace of Tara what was his trade. He replied that he was a carpenter. On being told the Tuatha had a carpenter he said he was a smith, there was no vacancy for a smith, nor for any other trades that Lug pronounced himself skilled in - a warrior, a harpist, a poet, a hero, a magician and so on. But when the guard was asked if they had anyone skilled in all of them the guard had to confess they had not, so Lug was addmitted. Unlike the Dagda, with whom he may or may not have co-existed, Lug was handsome, armed with spear and sling with which he could hurl missiles at an amazing distance. With his sling he took out the single eye of Balor, the champion of the Femorians, and thus became a here. He was probably as important as any other god in Irish mythology, and his fame extended over the sea to france. He was definatly a sun god; the shining of his face and brow were as bright as the sun on a summer day, and when Bres wondered why the sun was rising in the west the druids explained that this was the splendour of Lug. The " red colour was on him from sunset to morning". The rising of the sun in the west and setting in the east was one of the great mysteries of the ancient world, and remained so until the age of Galileo and Copernicus.
Lug was also the god of lightening, and his spear was a symbol of this as was his secondary name, " of the long arm". Of his spear it was said that when battle was near it was drawn out, it roared and struggled against it's thongs and fire flashed from it.
Other gods are less easily catergorized. Nuada, part god, part king, is an indistinct figure who lost his hand in battle and had it replaced with a silver one. He had a sword which when unsheathed was so powerful no-one could escape it, a legend uncannily reminiscent of King Authur's sword Excalibur. Many authorities believe the King Authur legend originated in Ireland. Despite this sword Nuada was killed fighting the new super race, the Milesians. The symbol of Paganism being replaced with Christianity.