‘huge, monstrous’ (Il. 3. 166, 229, al.), and this adjective is sometimes applied
to other heroes too, including Hector and Achilles. In Herodotus’ story of the
discovery of the bones of Orestes in Tegea (1. 67 f.), the coffin is seven cubits
long and the skeleton fills it. The Irish had a similar notion of the colossal
stature of the old heroes. At the beginning of Acallam na Senórach Patrick’s
priests, ‘seeing Caílte and his men approaching, were seized with fear and
horror at the sight of these enormous men, the warriors of an earlier age’.
Later in the work the cairn of Garb Daire is dug up and his body and weapons
found. His weapons and head are brought up, ‘and the largest man of that
host could find room to sit down on the bottom of the head’.^52 When Sigurd
strode through a ripe cornfield the end of his scabbard only reached the tops
of the ears; a hair from his horse’s tail was seven yards long.^53
The ancient heroes’ size is matched by their terrific strength. More note-
worthy than the fact itself are the means by which it is conveyed in traditional
narratives. Diomedes, Hector, and Aeneas heft with ease rocks that two
men could not carry, ‘such as mortals are now’ (Il. 5. 302, 12. 445, 20. 286).
Similarly Cú Chulainn ‘lifted Conchobar out of the ditch then. Six of our
strong men in Ulster could not have lifted him out more courageously’ (Táin
(I) 508). Achilles’ cabin has a door-bolt that takes three men to open and
close, though Achilles can do it by himself (Il. 24. 453–6). Again an Irish saga
supplies a parallel, with a door that takes nine men to close.^54
Another measure of heroic strength links Irish with Iranian and Armenian
tradition. The young Cú Chulainn goes to Conchobar to ask for arms. He
tries out all of Conchobar’sfifteen spare sets of weapons and breaks them all.
Finally he is given Conchobar’s own set, and they withstand his demands. It
is the same with chariots: Conchobar gave him a chariot. Cú Chulainn put
his hand between the two shafts and the chariot broke. In the same way he
smashed twelve chariots. So finally Conchobar’s chariot was given to him and
it withstood the test. In the Sha ̄h-na ̄ma Rostam selects a horse for himself by
pressing down on their spines till he finds one that does not buckle. And
similarly in the Armenian epic Mher ‘slapped the back of every horse; and
every one of the horses dropped its belly to the ground’, until at lasts he finds
one that stands up to him.^55
In some legends there appear individuals endowed with a single extra-
ordinary faculty. For example, both in Greek and in Welsh myth we find
a man so light of foot that he can run across the tops of reeds or standing
(^52) Dooley–Roe (1999), 5, 64, cf. 166–9.
(^53) Vo ̨lsunga saga 23; Nornagests saga 8; cf. Grimm (1883–8), 387, 1394.
(^54) Orgain Dind Ríg 26, ed. W. Stokes, ZCP 3 (1901), 8/13.
(^55) Táin (I) 616–52; Levy (1967), 50 f.; Sassountsy David 117 f. Cf. C. Monette, JIES 32 (2004),
- The Armenian example may be derivative from the Persian.
426 11. King and Hero