138 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



— Literary Traces of the Gods. 



It is a widespread commonplace in Ireland that our ancient literature 

 says nothing about the early gods. This arises from the acceptance of the 

 euhemerist statements, and, like them, is unfounded. 1 The pagan gods are 

 fully recognized as such till the late tenth or even mid eleventh century. 

 High clerics, like Cormac, felt as little hesitation to name them as St. Luke 

 felt when he named Zeus, Hermes, Ares, the Dioscuroi, and Artemis. 

 Evidently the new prejudice roused in the wars of the Norse and Danes 

 rendered it desirable to sweep away every trace of a pagan deity, though the 

 survival of so much ancient literature rendered the effort unsuccessful 



this decline from the frank statements of the early writers." 

 I aid written down in the early seventh century, and, 

 in its existing form, as old as the eighth-century glosses) was fragmentary 

 when fin ribed. It tells of tin.- direct intervention of Lug, Neman, 



innau mac Lir, the Bodbh, and i gu, daughter of Ernmas, and 



it n i Chulaind as the sun ami re-incarnation "I" the sun-god Lug 



himself. Phrae g of gods and ii"ii-gods" occur in the 



I. _ / lais has an appari- 



tion of thf war spirit plainly call- lAmchobar and 



ad Dechti l 1 Chulaind, is a god, 



Net, Elathan, tin 1>_ Cermait, Lir, and 



Ma I 11, the husbe : Ireland herself. A p.i^sage from the very early 



' JTellow Book of Slane speaks ol Cu Chuhund's holy mound, Sid Setanta, 



in nluirthemne.' Tirechan 1 :i- how St. Patrick and his com- 



.ur.- in •■ : L,84a,39. Seethi !-■ abhar Gab- 



halm, pp. Ill ...■.!• though il baa clerical colouring, such as their 



Dg with the Athenians against the Philistines ; also ibid., p. 166 : " Battle of 

 M igh 'lured " ( Brio, vm. pp. 17. .„d the late " Cath Pinntraga (ed. Meyer), 



p, IV 



• salient works are — " Tain bo Cualnge s. inas Chormaic" (c 



' ' ' ■ Flainn. Pot the latei phases— Cinacd L'a Articain <!»74) ; Cuan I I 

 Lochain i . . if M nasi i 1050 ■, .; , ■ iemhain (1U! 



"Tain! p. 90, 91, 160, 347 ; the Morrigu, p. 178 ; Lngh, 



Bsdbh, 27,29 1--. I'M lianannin, 190: some euhemerist interpolatee "The 



Tuatha I_>e conaidered their men of learning to be gods and their husbandmen non-gods." 



I-eab. Gabh., 14:;. "Badbh'a - is ;i pile of bodies; "Torchi 



B-idbh ' ' are weap- i 



'• Fled Dricrend - , n. pp. .",7. 1,). 117. :i: t) m a ninth-century recension. 



lolaind " « in. p. 17">, and MB. T.C.D., H 2-27) We hear of 



Cu Chulaind's - wh"in he worship; ■■ 



Leabar na hUidre, p. 101b, Book of Leinater, p. 123b. 



a Chulaind" (Atlantis. 1. p. :j:hi ; also "Heroic Romances of 

 Ireland.' A. EL Leahy, No. S !I «tel (Kev. Celt., mi, p. <■■ 



Published in •'Tripart. Life," vol. ii, p. 315. 



