Identifier: mythologyofallra03gray (find matches)
Title: The Mythology of all races ..
Year: 1918 (1910s)
Authors: Gray, Louis H. (Louis Herbert), 1875-1955 Moore, George Foot, 1851-1931 MacCulloch, J. A. (John Arnott), 1868-1950
Subjects: Mythology
Publisher: Boston, Marshall Jones Company
Contributing Library: Wellesley College Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Wellesley College Library

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Fachtna Fathach, King of Ulster.- Thusthree origins are ascribed to Conchobar — son of Cathbad,or of Fachtna, or of a river personalized or of a river-god whotook the form of the worms. A similar origin is ascribed toConall. His mother Findchoem, Cathbads daughter, beingbidden by a Druid to wash in and drink from a well over whichhe sang spells, swallowed a worm and became enceinte, theworm lying in the childs hand in her womb.^ Cuchulainn was son of the god Lug,^ and though he wasalso called son of Sualtam, Dechtires husband, yet even here PLATE XVIII Menhir of Kernuz The monument shows figures of Mercury (cf.pp. 9, 158) and a child, and of a god with a club(cf. Plates IV-V). Mercury and the child havebeen equated with Lug and his son, Cuchulainn(see pp. 64-65, 82-84, 158-59; for Lug see alsopp. 25, 28-33, 40> 122, and for Cuchulainn pp. 36,69-71, 86-88, 128, 134, 139-59, 209, 212). Thelatter has also been identified with Esus, but withscant plausibility (see Plates XX, A, XXI).
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THE HEROIC MYTHS 141 his origin is semi-divine. Sualtams motlier was of the sid~folk; he was called Sualtam sidech (of the fairy haunts)and possessed the magic might of an elf. The super-natural aspect of some of the personages is seen in Cuchulainnsfeats or his distortion; or in Fergus, who had the strengthof seven hundred men, ate seven hogs and kine at a meal,and wielded a sword as long as a rainbow, while a seventhpart of him surpassed the whole of any ordinary man.* Inone passage Conchobar is called dia talmaide (a terrestrialgod), while Dechtire is termed a goddess.^ Yet Cuchulainnwas not necessarily a sun-god or sun-hero; for if he was, whydoes the Tain, in which he plays so great a part, take placein winter, while his greatest activity is from Samhain (Novem-ber) until the beginning of spring.^ Nor is every mistress ofhis a dawn-goddess, nor every foe a power of darkness. The boyish deeds of Cuchulainn were described to Medbduring the Tain by Fergus and others. Before his fift

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