is a goddess representing Sovereignty, or the land over which he is to be
sovereign. For example, the five sons of Eochaid Mugmedón go out into the
wild to hunt, make a meal, and find themselves in need of water. They go each
in turn to a well, which is guarded by a repulsive hag. She demands a kiss as
the price for water. Only the fifth brother, Niall, is willing to give her a proper
kiss, and he even lies down with her, whereupon she changes into a girl of
superlative beauty. She reveals that she is the Sovereignty of Tara, and Niall
and his descendants will have it for ever.^16 Such symbolic unions seem to have
had ritual status. The Annals of Loch Cé record that in 1310 Fedhlim the son
of Aedh ‘married the province of Connacht’. The idea that the king of Ireland
was wedded to Ireland, and local kings to their own territories, persisted for
centuries.^17
The mythical heroine Medb, who cohabited with nine kings of Ireland and
would not allow any king in Tara who did not have her to wife, was in origin
an ancient goddess whom the king had to marry.^18 Her name is derived
from mid (medhu) ‘mead’, Medhw-a ̄. She has a striking counterpart in the
princess Ma ̄dhavı ̄ of the Maha ̄bha ̄rata (5. 113–17), whose name is likewise a
derivative of medhu. Her impoverished father gave her in marriage to four
successive kings, receiving a handsome bride-price of two hundred horses
each time; she provided each husband with royal progeny before becoming a
virgin again for the next one.^19 The Mead-queen of these stories seems to
represent a ritual drink of mead with which the new king imbibed sover-
eignty. It is a drink (though only of water) that the Sovereignty-woman grants
to Niall and denies to his brothers in the legend cited above. In other Irish
texts too female symbols of sovereignty bestow a drink upon a man who is
to be king, or kings are said to drink the sovereignty.^20 The proffering of a
drink by a bride to her groom, and his acceptance of it, was a Celtic marriage
custom signifying the couple’s mutual consent to the union.^21
(^16) Echtra mac n-Echach Muigmedóin 9–17; W. Stokes, RC 24 (1903), 196–201; Koch–Carey
(2000), 205–7; cf. McCone (1990), 109.
(^17) See T. F. O’Rahilly, Ériu 14 (1946), 17–21.
(^18) T. Ó Máille, ZCP 17 (1928), 129–46; cf. P. Mac Cana, Études Celtiques 7 (1955/6), 76–114,
356–413; 8 (1958/9), 59–65; Campanile (1981), 28–34; (1990a), 266 f.; (1990b), 42–5.
(^19) Cf. Dumézil (1968–73), ii. 316–53; Puhvel (1987), 258–66; McCone (1990), 119 f.
Ma ̄dhavı ̄’s story recalls the Greek myth of Mestra, whose father Erysichthon, afflicted by
Demeter with an insatiable appetite and consequently bankrupt, married her to a succession of
suitors, receiving cattle, sheep, and goats as bride-price. After each marriage she would change
her shape, slip away, and return to her father (‘Hes.’ fr. 43). Mestra’s name (Μ στρη) does not
seem relatable to the ‘mead’ root, and her marriages do not appear to promote kingship.
(^20) Cf. T. F. O’Rahilly, Ériu 14 (1946), 14–17; McCone (1990), 109; B. Jaski (as n. 12), 67 f. We
may recall that Zeus swallowed his first wife Metis, ‘Resource’ (Hes. Th. 890. 899, fr. 343. 8–10).
(^21) T. F. O’Rahilly (as n. 20), 15.
416 11. King and Hero