300 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Tea is called daughter of Lugaid mac Itha. This Lugaid was said to be 

 cousin of the tribal ancestor Mfl, Tth being the brother of his (Mil's) father. 

 Scota, according to one of the stories about her, was wife of Mil, and mother 

 of his numerous family of sons, chief though not eldest of whom was Eretndn, 

 who according bo one of fche traditions married Tea. Tea thus works out as 



.hter-in-law of Scota, and second cousin of Eremon. 



The details of importance in this genealogy are the heroine's descent from 

 Ith, -coin." and her marriage to Eremon, the "ploughman." Tea thus is an 

 impersonation of the spirit of vegetation. We shall see abundant evidence 

 that the rites which centred in the ridge of Temair were associated with 

 agricultural festivals; and that the corn-spirit should have been regarded as 

 the cause of the foundation of the worship of the site is thus all the more 

 probable. 



When in the li^'ht of this identification we look back at the scanty and 

 confused record of the Btory of Tea and Tephi, we begin to wonder whether 

 their roles have not somehow become reversed. For the story of the abduc- 

 tion of Tephi by Camsdu has one very peculiar feature in it. This is the 

 pron /■ t or ■'■• id. Such promises are 



not usually made under such circumstances in folk-tales — except in one group, 

 namely that of which the deathless story of Demeter and Kore is the crown 

 and type. 1 1 have a rape with a promise of a return. The winter- 



time gives place to the spring, and Pluto gives back Persephone, the eorn- 

 spint. In the very fragmentary condition of the Irish legend, it is impossible 

 to develop the ai suggested in detail. But it is clear that if Tea 



be t spirit, and Tephi the tribal am the story of t he abduction 



would lio more likely to have the former for heroine than the latter. I suspect 

 that in I . n this was.-.; and perhaps that Tephi (Scota) the 



mother not motfaer-in-law) of Tea played the part of Demeter. But the talc 

 has become confused in th<- telling, and has not been improved 1 »y the dry-as- 

 duats who were inl in it only as a source for an etymology. In the poem 



■ 'ii Temair Luachra in Kerry Pea is again 



mentioned, but no additional facts are recorded of her except that she came 

 from Tii to Tlnnnn, that is. from Elysium in one of its many manifestations. 



ivi). In all the welter of confused traditions and etymologies with which 

 we have been bitl ed in the present section, one fact of very great 



importance stands out prominently ; the indication that Temair was believed 



we it« origin to a woman. Had this been an isolated case it would have 

 been injudici ittach much importance to it ; but we know that it was 



actually the ride. All the important <«nuch and palace sites in Ireland are 

 alleged to have been founded by women, who gave their names to the places 



