Serpents, Cows, and Ladies: Contrasting Symbolism in Irish and Indo-European Cattle-Raiding

Myths
Author(s): Walter L. Brenneman, Jr.
Source: History of Religions, Vol. 28, No. 4 (May, 1989), pp. 340-354
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1062706
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 Walter L. Brenneman, Jr. SERPENTS, COWS, AND
LADIES: CONTRASTING
SYMBOLISM IN IRISH
AND INDO-EUROPEAN
CATTLE-RAIDING MYTHS

RECENT RESEARCH
Recent scholarship in the history of religions has once again returned
to a study of the Indo-European cattle-raiding myth. This interest
retains earlier hermeneutic roots in the work of Georges Dumezil and
his stress on the three functions within Indo-European society-
sovereign, warrior, and farmer-and reflects concern for the detri-
mental treatment of women among the Indo-Europeans.
Bruce Lincoln, writing in 1976, suggests, primarily by means of a
philological interpretation, that the cattle-raiding myth provides a
paradigm for the social class of the warrior. He builds, in this article,
upon Dumezil and his own earlier work in which he presents a
paradigmatic myth for the sovereign class.1 What is of particular
concern to us is his inclusion into the Indo-European category of
Celtic cattle-raiding myths, specifically the Tain Bo Cuailnge.
Another more recent and very interesting piece on the cattle-raiding
myth and its relationship to bride-stealing myths was published in

I Bruce Lincoln, "The Indo-European Myth of Creation," History of Religions 15,

no. 2 (November 1975): 121-45. Here Lincoln distinguishes between sovereigns and
warriors, despite his own admittance that Dumezil hesitates on this distinction, some-
times identifying kings and warriors.

?1989 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.

0018-2710/89/2804-0003$01.00
History of Religions 341

1984 by Ruth Katz Arabagian.2 The central concern here is the role
of the goddess and women in the male-dominated Indo-European
culture.3 The masculine orientation of the Indo-European is associ-
ated by Arabagian with pastoral nomadism and its attending warrior
ideology4 and is to be found wherever these cultural forms prevail.
Thus Arabagian is suggesting a hermeneutical tool in which it is
assumed that cultural technologies are responses to the ecological
situation of a people.5 Attending these technologies will be particular
symbols and values, and these symbols and values will be essentially
similar wherever the particular technology is found.
Using such a tool, it is possible to compare fruitfully cultures with
common technologies separated by both time and space. By compar-
ing a number of cultures having the same environment and technology
one can establish religious structures and symbol systems that, al-
though essentially common among the cultures involved, evidence
variations that when compared enhance our understanding of the
nature of the religious type under study.
Results of such studies have clarified not only that differing en-
vironments and their technological responses produce radically differ-
ing religious intentionalities but that the same symbol used in different
cultural strata will engender quite different symbolic meanings. For
example, the symbolism of the serpent in pastoral nomadic cultures
will be generally interpreted as negative and life destroying, while in
subsistence-level cereal grain cultures it will have a generally positive
and life-giving quality.6 I propose in this study to make use of this
tool of cultural stratification; however, I will place greater stress upon
the symbols involved within the ecological contexts rather than lin-
guistic continuity among the peoples under study.
2 Ruth Katz Arabagian, "Cattle
Raiding and Bride Stealing," Religion 14 (1984):
107-42.
3 Ibid., p. 107.
4 Ibid., pp. 125, 126.
5 This same methodological tool is cited
by Bruce Lincoln in his Priests, Warriors
and Cattle (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981), pp. 9-10. However he
makes almost no use of it, and his interpretation relies primarily upon etymological
research. According to Lincoln, Ake Hultkrantz is responsible for this "daring new
means of attack on the problem of comparing ieligions rooted in similar cultures"
(Lincoln, p. 9). It should be noted, however, that Mircea Eliade makes implicit use of
the same principle in his Cosmos and History (New York: Harper & Row, 1954), and
Patterns in Comparative Religion (Cleveland: Meridian, 1958). In these works he sets
forth two religious patterns, one termed "historical" religions, based upon various
forms of animal cultures-e.g., pastoral nomadic and hunters-and the other termed
"cosmic" religions, based upon forms of plant cultures-e.g., root crop and cereal grain
cultivators. It is in the spirit of Eliade's work with its emphasis upon symbolism that I
shall make use of this interpretive tool.
6 See Eliade, Patterns in
Comparative Religion, pp. 167-69, for serpent symbolism
and its relationship to growth, women, and the moon.
342 Serpents, Cows, and Ladies

Although both Lincoln and Arabagian make some use of the

ecological tool, their concerns are different. Whereas Lincoln seeks to
identify a warrior paradigm myth, Arabagian wishes to understand
the cultural roots of masculine domination over women among the
Indo-Europeans. Like Lincoln, however, she includes the Celts within
the Indo-European grouping despite their differing ecological, techno-
logical, and mythological context. Arabagian even notices that there
is a positive attitude toward the goddess and women among the Irish
Celts which is at opposite poles to the Indo-Europeans,7 but she fails
to connect this with their earth-centered technology and their mytho-
logical focus upon the goddess.
Despite this failure to accept the implications of her own research,
Arabagian arrives at some extremely important interpretive conclu-
sions involving the symbolism of the components of the cattle-raid
myth (e.g., serpents, cows, water, fathers, etc.) as well as the symbolic
connection between the enactment of the myth and the attainment of
sovereignty in Ireland.

INTERPRETIVEREVISIONS
There is one major change of interpretation on the cattle-raid myth I
will propose here, amplifying much of what has been done on this
myth thus far but bringing to bear some further symbolic implications
that I feel have been overlooked. My suggestion is that it is a mistake
to identify, in terms of worldview and religious symbolism, the Indo-
Europeans and the Celts, particularly the Goidel Celts.8
Despite the common linguistic roots within the Indo-European
language group, the cultural heritage of the Celts from their earliest
beginnings differs from that of the Indo-Europeans who invaded
India, Greece, and Iran.9 This is due to the difference in ecological
contexts of the two peoples.
At the center of earliest Celtic culture was the cultivation of cereal
grains which can be identified in central Europe from as early as 6000
B.C.1? This cultural technology remained at a subsistence level, never
achieving the surpluses of Near Eastern agriculture which allowed for
specialization and the urbanization of the area. Rather, these early
peasant farmers lived in decentralized villages in which there is no

7 Arabagian, pp. 112, 120, 121-23.

8 The Goidel Celts were found in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of
Mann, as
contrasted to the Brythonic Celts of Wales and Cornwall.
9 See Nora Chadwick, The Celts (New York: Penguin, 1970), chap. 1, "The Origins
of the Celts: The Archaeological Evidence," for a thorough discussion of the agri-
cultural foundations of Celtic culture.
10Ibid., p. 19.
History of Religions 343

evidence of any cult centers or homes of chieftains." Later, this

agrarian modality was modified by the influence of two groups with
which it merged. The first was the Beaker Folk, thought to have
originated in the Iberian peninsula in the later part of the third
millennium B.C.;the other was the Stone Battle Ax people originating
in low steppe lands of southern Russia. Both groups were herdsmen
who valued horses, cattle, and war. Through the intermixture of these
groups there emerged the Celts somewhere around the fifth century
B.C."2 Due to this blending of peoples, there appeared as part of Celtic
culture a warrior aristocracy, with the predominance of agriculture
remaining.
When we say the predominance of agriculture, we mean that there
developed in Celtic culture many of the same cultural forms that
attach themselves to less modified pastoral nomadic societies such as
male leadership with an emphasis on war, aristocratic chieftainship,
and the power of animals, particularly cattle and horses. These forms,
however, were not sources of power which lay at the center of the
culture but, rather, were dependent upon another power source for
their existence. This power source was the earth which was imaged as
a goddess and which sanctioned and made possible all of the mascu-
line, pastoral nomadic structures mentioned above. Feminine power,
for the most part, lay in the background, or more precisely under-
ground in what was termed the Otherworld. It is clear, however, from
a terse survey of Irish myth that male leadership was dependent upon
the power of wisdom and regeneration known as sovereignty and was
possessed by various feminine deities or demadeities. I will provide
greater detail on this essential point shortly. What is important to
emphasize for the present is that the cultural blend that constituted
the Celts, especially in their Irish form, appears on the surface to be
identical with pastoral nomadic cultures to which they are linguis-
tically related, namely, the Indo-Europeans. However, when one takes
seriously the importance of what Hultkrantz calls the ecology of
religion and what we choose to term "cultural stratification," one
must conclude that, based upon the centrality in technology of culti-
vation and the dominance in mythology of earth goddesses over male

II Ibid., p. 20.
12There are various theories concerning the
origins of the Celts; cf. Jean Markale,
Celtic Civilization (Paris: Payot, 1976); T. G. E. Powell, The Celts (London: Thames &
Hudson, 1958); Stewart Piggott, Barbarian Europe (Edinburgh, 1965); Gerhard Herm,
The Celts (New York: St. Martin's, 1975); etc. However, J. X. W. P. Corcoran writing
in Chadwick's The Celts ("The Origins of the Celts: The Archaeological Evidence")
seems to have the most compelling theory because it takes into consideration the
ecological context as derived from archaeology and because it is corroborated by myth.
344 Serpents, Cows, and Ladies

divinities (note also the relative absence of a sky god), the "pastoral
nomadic" structures must be interpreted through the eyes of the earth
goddess and not the supreme god who dwells in the above. Just as the
serpent must be interpreted differently in pastoral nomadic and cereal
grain cultures, so too must the cattle raid be interpreted differently in
Celtic culture and in the Indo-European or Indo-Aryan context.
Finally, the connection of the Celts with Indo-European language
and culture is primarily due to the influence of the Stone Battle Ax
people. 13
What I wish to emphasize from this brief sketch of Celtic origins is
the overriding importance of agriculture to the Celts, which was
combined with a love for cattle and horses. The religious constellation
that developed from this amalgam centered upon the sacrality of the
earth as witnessed by consistent evidence of subterranean burial sites
and later by the predominance of the goddess figure in the myths and
sagas of the Celts. Further, what we know of ritual lends credence to
the suggestion of a cosmic religious orientation.
For example, one of the central rituals of pre-Christian Ireland was
the inauguration of a chief (which occurred usually in the late autumn
at a festival known as Samain). This rite involved the mating of the
prospective chieftain with the land which was understood to be a
goddess.14 The survival of the people was dependent on the sover-
eignty of the chief, which was bestowed by the goddess, the land.
Thus it becomes clear that survival was dependent upon the success
of agriculture, not upon cattle raiding and hunting. These latter
activities are made possible only by the bounty of the goddess, the
land, and her fecundity. Because it was the goddess who bestowed
sovereignty, we must conclude that we are dealing with a culture
empowered by the feminine rather than a patriarchal culture such as
found among the Indo-Europeans of India, Greece, and Iran.
Based upon this distinction, that is, the distinction between the
symbol systems that attend pastoral nomadic and agrarian cultures,
we must make corresponding distinctions of interpretation between
kingship, sovereignty, and the roles of the masculine and the feminine
in the respective cultures. Kingship in both cases is dependent upon

13See Chadwick, pp. 22-26, for evidence of this influence. Corcoran takes into
consideration ecological context, archaeology, and language in his discussion.
14 See Alwyn Rees and
Brinley Rees, Celtic Heritage (London: Thames & Hudson,
1961), pp. 74, 75, for amplification of this point; see also Georges Dumezil, The
Destiny of a King (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973), chap. 5, for a discus-
sion connecting the goddess with the land and with the sovereignty of the chief or king;
also Proinsias MacCana, "Aspects of the Theme of King and Goddess in Irish Litera-
ture, Parts 1-3," Etudes Celtiques 7 (1955): 76-114, 356-413; 8 (1956): 59-65.
History of Religions 345

the possession of sovereignty. Sovereignty in both cases is derived

from a transcendent source, thus conferring upon the one who pos-
sesses it a certain degree of sacrality. What is important is that the
source of power differs within the two culture types, though the
structure for its attainment, that is, the ritual of the winning of
kingship, remains the same. In the Indo-European situation kingship
is derived from the sovereignty of the male sky god, himself the king
of the gods whether it be Agni, Varuna, Indra, or Zeus. This god is
perceived as world creator and thus all-father, and through him
sovereignty is conveyed to a male king on earth. As the sky god is the
source of creation, the earth is dependent upon him. On the human
level, the female is dependent upon the male, the subjects upon the
5
king.

THE CULTURAL STRATUM OF THE CELTSAND SOME

INTERPRETIVEIMPLICATIONS
Even from my brief description, it is clear that the situation among
the Celts, using the Irish example, is quite different from the Indo-
European. To be sure, there are many structural similarities; the king
is male and it is he who possesses sovereignty which he must in some
sense win through a test. He is also granted this sovereignty from a
divine figure. However, there occurs a cosmological reversal in the
source of the power. Now it is derived from the earth rather than the
sky, from the female rather than from the male. It is the goddess who
is identical with the earth and all of Ireland who is the source, and
thus, ontologically, the king is dependent upon the mother rather
than the father, though a mating between the two is necessary to
bring about her revitalization.
This mating must be understood as a sacrifice. He gives up his life,
his seed, for her sake, so that she might live again (thus allowing his
own life to continue). The pattern is cyclical, based upon the lunar
theme of death and rebirth. In pastoral, nomadic, or historical cultures
it is the earth herself who is sacrificed for the sake of the establishment
upon her face of history, the divine kingdom of the sky god, the
Rama Raj. Further, the sky god gives the king a mandate to extend
the kingdom to the ends of the earth; thus his goal as sovereign is to
be Chakravartin or universal ruler. In the Irish case, kingship is
married or tied to a place; the king cannot move from there due to his
vow of marriage. Both the scale and the attitude are different. In the

15See Eliade, Patterns in Comparative

Religion, chap. 2, for a thorough discussion
of the sky god and his relationship to sovereignty.
346 Serpents, Cows, and Ladies

Indo-European situation kingship and its power are explosive, moving

outward from a center. In the Celtic Irish example the power of the
king is implosive; it moves in upon itself. The former results in a
centralized, urbanized culture, the latter in a decentralized village
culture such as was present in Ireland until the coming of the Vikings
in the ninth century A.D.
These reflections require a rethinking of the notion of sovereignty
common structurally to both cultures. We can retain our ordinary
understanding of sovereignty when thinking of the Indo-European
case, that is, sovereignty as dominion in an absolute sense over all.
However, in the Irish meaning of the word, sovereignty, because she
is a woman, carries a sense of "being with" rather than "being above"
or distant from its object. It also conveys a sense of containment
present in being in a place surrounded by its power. Finally, the
power of sovereignty bestows upon its holder the gift of wisdom and
vision, in actuality an ability to dream dreams. One of the personifi-
cations of the goddess of sovereignty to whom the king is wed is
Flaith. The Irish word flaith translates as sovereignty but also has
associations in myth with strong drink or intoxication. Dumezil notes
this association but seeks to circumvent its symbolic implications.'6
When one chooses not to avoid the symbolic, what remains is an
identity between woman/goddess, beer/intoxication, and wisdom/
vision.l7 This identity is further supported by the alternate translation
of Medb, another personification of the goddess of the land, as
intoxication. Finally, the word medb has cognates in Welsh (meddw,
drunk) and English (mead).18
One final amplification of the agrarian/feminine foundations of
Irish Celtic culture should be made before moving on. I wish now to
draw upon myth as a source of interpretation. The myth of Niall and
his four half-brothers seems to tie together the themes I have empha-
sized. In this myth Niall and his half-brothers are given weapons by a
smith and go to a wood in order to hunt. There they get lost and rest,
building a fire to cook the game taken for repast. One of the brothers
is sent for water. He comes to a spring or well which is guarded by a
black hag who demands a kiss in return for the water. Fergus, the
brother of Niall, refuses. The four other brothers follow, all refusing,
though Fiachra grazes her cheek. Niall, however, does not refuse, and

16Dumezil, pp. 92-93.

17 The Rees brothers do accept the givenness of this symbolism and suggest that the
quality of the wisdom is that of a visionary or intuitive type. They go on to state that
"sovereignty is a bride, the server of a powerful drink, and the drink itself" (Rees and
Rees, p. 76).
18 Ibid.
History of Religions 347

when he opens his eyes after the embrace, he beholds "the most
beautiful woman in the world."'9 This woman reveals herself as
sovereignty (Flaith), gives him the drink, then states that he will be
king and his descendants will follow him. The water given from the
well is likened to ale-"smooth shall be thy draught from the royal
horn, 'twill be mead, 'twill be honey, 'twill be strong ale."20
The structure of the myth reflects the agrarian cycle of the waning
of the season of fecundity and its rebirth in springtime. The woman at
the well is not only sovereignty but also the land Ireland. It is she
who chooses the king by his willingness to mate with her, and in
return she intoxicates him with her wisdom through their union. She
is the source of power, a power that can only be gained through a
union with death in the form of the hag. This union is the sacrifice
necessary for the rebirth of the land and the inauguration of a new
king. Thus the king is the archfecundator and sovereignty is the
intoxicating power of his union with the goddess. He, too, will grow
old and will be replaced by a younger, more virile man, but the
goddess, like the moon, merely waxes and wanes.21
When examined carefully through the eyes of agrarian rather than
pastoral nomadic interpretive structures, the cattle-raid myth reveals
itself as a further reflex or amplification of the themes set forth in
the myth of the hag at the well. As Lincoln points out, embedded in
the cattle raid is a cycle in which the cattle move from the hero to the

19Ibid., p. 73.
20 Ibid., p. 75. This tale is also summarized by Dumezil, p. 89, along with the tale of
King Daire and his son Lugaid Laigde, who sleeps with the hag who again is trans-
formed into a beautiful woman. A similar tale is described by Marie-Louise Sjoestedt
(Gods and Heroes of the Celts [Berkeley: Turtle Island Foundation, 1982], pp. 41-42),
in which kingship is assumed by a woman, the goddess Macha, who, in the guise of a
leper, sleeps with the five sons of King Dithorba. It is important to note the number of
sons is five in these cases. Lincoln points out the importance of the "third" or three
sons in Indo-European heroic myth (Priests, Warriors, Cattle, p. 113). The conclusion,
once again, is that the five sons reflect the five provinces of the land, Ireland. Thus a
spatial rather than hierarchal motif is in play, feminine rather than masculine. To be
sure, the number three is important-e.g., the three virtues demanded by the prospec-
tive king and husband of Queen Medb (Dumezil, pp. 88-93). Note also that Queen
Medb takes five husbands, again reflecting the totality of Ireland. Where threeness is
important in Irish tradition we suggest that it symbolizes not the levels of the cosmos
or three social classes, but the three phases of the triple goddess, in this case all
contained in Medb (Dumezil, p. 92) and reflected in her husbands through her mating
with them. The three virtues are lack of jealousy (youthful maiden), lack of niggardli-
ness (matron), and lack of fear (hag of death). Sjoestedt (p. 47) confirms this when she
associates tripleness with goddesses and singleness with gods: "By their triple na-
ture... the Irish goddesses... reveal a mentality more archaic than that which finds
expression in the persons of the male gods who are clearly anthropomorphic and
simple."
21
Sjoestedt, p. 61, notes the different rhythm of gods and goddesses with respect to
sea divinities: "While goddesses survive, the sea gods succeed each other."
348 Serpents, Cows, and Ladies

foreigners and back again to the hero.22 Thus there is a common

structure to both the cattle-raid and hag myths, that of cyclical
movement. In both myths there is a death and a rebirth which is in
relationship to the mating or separation of the masculine and the femi-
nine or the king and queen. In other words, the hag and cattle-raid
myths reflect the seasonal cycle of death and rebirth of the land and
of the tuath, the Irish political unit identified with the land or place in
which they dwell. When the chief mates with the hag, spring comes
and the tribe gains new life. In the case of the cattle raid, king and
queen are represented by the hero and his cattle. In some myths the
cows are the possession of a lady; thus a symbolic equation is estab-
lished between cattle, queen, and cow lady. The lady and the cows are
one.23 When the cows are stolen, symbolic death of the land ensues.
When they are recovered, rebirth occurs.
One might now reflect that the Indo-European cattle raid follows
the same structural cycle. Does it also, then, present us with the
symbolism of agrarian death and rebirth? To answer this question it
is fruitful to consider the differing cultural ecologies of Indo-Euro-
peans and Celts. Because of the early influence of Indo-European
peoples on the formation of Celtic culture the importance of the
cattle raid was maintained. But it was given a different interpretation
in the Celtic situation due to the dominance of agriculture. Thus in
the Indo-European case we have the quest of the hunter/pastoral
nomad for booty and treasure which, in keeping with pastoral no-
madic or historical cultures, expands the power of the king and his
people. As Lincoln suggests, the raid is a model for world creation or
expansion. It has cosmogonic implications.
The Irish case also contains cosmogonic implications, in that it is
through the death and rebirth or sacrifice of the prospective chieftain
to the hag, often expressed through the giving up of his life through

22 Lincoln, "The Indo-European Myth of Creation" (n. 1 above), pp. 33-35, 69.
23
Arabagian points out that bride-stealing and cattle-raiding myths have a common
structure and that the booty in both is the feminine, i.e., cattle and women. Thus there
is a structural and symbolic identity between the two. Arabagian states, "A woman can
take the place of a cow without changing the basic story" (Arabagian [n. 2 above],
p. 110). Lincoln makes the same identification between cow and woman in his Priests,
Warriors, Cattle, pp. 108-9. It follows from the identification of cow and woman that
cow and goddess are one. This identity is played out in various myths of storm gods
symbolized as bulls mating with the Earth Mother, symbolized as a cow; see Eliade,
Patterns in Comparative Religion, p. 83. Arabagian also draws this conclusion: "Both
cow (with bull as her consort) and bride are goddesses" (p. 118). Finally, certain tales
of the Morrigan and CuChulainn in the Tain (Thomas Kinsella, The Tain [Dublin:
Oxford University Press, 1972], pp. 132-37) make clear the symbolic identity of cow
and goddess.
History of Religions 349

his seed, his mating with the goddess, or his immolation,24 that the
land is reborn in both a political and a natural sense. This cosmogonic
theme is transposed into the cattle raid as suggested above. The
cosmogonic process, however, is a cyclical one of death and rebirth
rather than the theme of infinite expansion contained in pastoral
nomadic creative acts and reflected in the drive to gain more and
more cattle.
The clearest evidence of the contextual differentiation that exists
between the Indo-Europeans and the Celts as expressed in the cattle-
raid myth lies in the source of life which is equally the source of
cattle. It is the source of life that determines or gives evidence of the
type of religious ecology and cultural strata of the people involved. In
all cases of the Indo-European cattle-raid myths the cattle are given
by the celestial sovereign or sky god.25 This is also true among other
pastoral nomadic peoples such as the Masai, the Dinka, and the
Nuer.26 Central to the religious symbol system of pastoral nomads
and nomadic hunters is the sky god,27 a sovereign deity who is world
creator and giver of all life. It is the particular symbolic dynamic of
this sovereign creator god that determines the nature of all creative
events that occur in the world of men and the gods.28 Creation in this
mode is schematized as linear and when highly developed becomes
historical, that is, events occur once and for all.29
In the Irish situation it is the goddess, identified with the earth and
playing the triple role of lover, mother, and warrior, that is the giver
of all life and thus of cattle, with whom she is identified.30In Ireland

24 See William
Sayers, "Fergus and the Cosmogonic Sword," History of Religions
25, no. 1 (August 1985): 30 ff., for a provocative identification of this theme.
25 Lincoln, Priests, Warriors, Cattle, pp. 59, 68-69.
26 Ibid., pp. 19, 20.
27 See Eliade, Patterns in
Comparative Religion (n. 5 above), pp. 38-46. All of the
tribes mentioned in this section are either pastoral nomads or nomadic hunters.
Common to symbolism of the sky deity is the importance of animals, e.g., sheep, goats,
cattle, or hunted wild animals. In my thinking there are several reasons why the sky is
central symbolically to herders and nomadic hunters. Primary among them is the
resemblance of the open range or hunting ground to the vastness and openness of the
sky. Earth, the world of the nomad, becomes a reflection and thus a symbol of the sky
to which it points and in which it participates. Second, the sky is the primary
transcendent reality in the lives of nomads because of its ever-presence, due to the
openness of the land on which they dwell.
28 See ibid.,
pp. 410-23, for a discussion of the paradigmatic function of cosmogonic
myths and their creator gods.
29 The clearest
example of this phenomenon is found in the hierophany of the sky
god Yahweh and the development of the sacred history that is the Bible.
30 Sjoestedt (n. 20 above),
p. 30, makes clear the identification of Celtic goddesses
with the earth, fertility, and life; see also T. F. O'Rahilly, Eriu 14: 14 ff. for evidence of
350 Serpents, Cows, and Ladies

there is no single or clearly defined cosmogonic myth. In order to

discern the cosmogonic process, one must look in many myths and
through an abstracting of cosmogonic themes arrive at a general and
hypothetical notion of the essence and structure of cosmogony. Let us
examine some of these themes: Ireland was not created from nothing
but always existed in primal form. Creation was a process of amplify-
ing, adorning, or furnishing the givenness of the land who is a
woman. We see this in the Lebhar Gabhala Erin or the Book of the
Taking of Ireland. Here a series of invasions people Ireland and with
them various significant configurations of the land are created, such
as plains and lakes that exist today. This same creative theme is used
in the Tain, in which fords, mountains, and plains are created by the
events which occur there and to which their names are given. Finally,
The Metrical Dindsenchus, a portion of the twelfth-century Lebhar
Laignech or Book of Leinster, carries on this cosmogonic theme
through a mythic history of place names which unveils their meaning
and thus their creation.
A second important cosmogonic motif is that of flooding. Water in
Irish myth is symbolic of the goddess and of her life-giving power.
Thus the primary goddess with whom the chieftain mates is often a
goddess of a river or well.31 There is a tale in the Lebhar na Huidre
which tells of the rape of a woman who guards a magic spring in
Ulster.32The spring overflows, flooding the land and drowning King
Ecca. His daughter, Libane, escapes and lives for a year at the bottom
of Lough Neagh where she is transformed into a salmon. Three
hundred years later she emerges as the Goddess Morrigan. Here the
flood is a creative event, bringing about the renewal of the world.
Jean Markale puts it succinctly: "The overflowing spring is obviously
a sexual symbol of fertility. The woman guarding it is identified with
the spring, just as the vagina is symbolized by the well. The fact that
once raped she becomes fertile is sufficient an argument to suggest
that the myth of the flood is not always a myth of punishment and
destruction."33 Further, Markale goes on to contrast the symbols of
drought and flood, both central to new birth and cosmogony. Drought,

the goddess of the land and her mating with the prospective king. For symbolic identity
between cow and goddess, see Kinsella, pp. 132-37.
31The Dagda, paradigmatic chieftain god of the Irish, is united on two occasions
with the river goddess during Samain, the festival of the new year, November 1. This
festival marks the beginning of a new cycle and recapitulates the primordial beginnings
of the world. The two river goddesses are Morrigan, here associated with the river
Unius, and Boann, goddess of the sacred river Boyne.
32 Standish O'Grady, Silva Gadelica (London: Williams & Norgate, 1892) 1: 233-37;
2: 255-59.
33 Markale (n. 12 above), p. 24.
History of Religions 351

however, is important cosmogonically among pastoral peoples living

in arid or semi-arid environments, while flood is important to the
Celts and thus to agrarian people in need of its fertilizing powers.34
In Celtic Ireland, then, it is the goddess identified with the earth
and most essentially with water, who is the source of all life, all
abundance, including cattle. This fact contrasts strongly with the
evidence of cattle being derived from the sky god in Indo-European
cultures. Due to this difference in the source of creation, the sym-
bolism that arises in the respective cultures is as different as the sky
god is from the Earth Mother. The former is a warrior shepherd
associated with the creativity of drought and fire, the latter a Great
Mother associated with the creativity of moisture and flood. There
follows from this the contrasting symbolism of sobriety and intoxica-
tion, virginity and sexual promiscuity, each related to their respective
cultural stratum. Many more amplifications could be made. Suffice it
to say that when there appears a structure such as the cattle raid that
is common to two differing cultural strata, it must be interpreted
through the eyes of the appropriate cultural and symbolic motifs. In
the case of the Celts, these motifs are primarily agrarian.

SOMECONCLUSIONS REGARDING INDO-EUROPEAN AND

CELTIC CULTURAL STRATA
Let us return now to the suggestions concerning the cattle-raid myth
presented at the outset of this study by Lincoln and Arabagian and
see how they may be modified or amplified by the research contained
above. Lincoln's primary thesis is that the Indo-European cattle-raid
myth presents us with the mythic model for the warrior class of Indo-
European society. Included among examples of the Indo-European
cattle-raiding myth is the Tain Bo Cuailnge originating in Ireland.
Arabagian's primary concern is to show that the theme of cattle
raiding and bride stealing display the subjugation of the earlier great
goddess to a male heroic figure. As does Lincoln, she includes Irish
examples along with Indian and Iranian myths of Indo-European
origin, indicating her equation of Celtic and Indo-European cultures.
Arabagian, however, does notice that there seems to be an exception
in Irish myth to the Indian subjugation of women and the goddess to
the male figures. She accounts for this by suggesting that this tendency
was not originally part of Indo-European heritage but resulted from
the defeat of chthonic cultures by Indo-European ones. Both authors

34 Markale writes, "The Hebraic tradition, in which woman's status was diminished
and god became a solitary male warrior or shepherd, and the Islamic religion which it
inspired, were both conceived by nomads used to the dryness of the desert" (p. 33).
352 Serpents, Cows, and Ladies

support and appeal to the methodological tool of cultural ecology as

established by Julian Steward and later amplified by Ake Hultkrantz
as ecology of religion. Arabagian encapsulates her view regarding this
interpretative tool in the following: "But I would like to suggest that
the trends outlined here are not limited to the geographical areas
focused upon in this paper; rather, they are universally human and
might be discovered in all regions through which pastoralists and
warrior ideologies have moved-and that means world wide. It
appears to be a question of similar ecological conditions creating simi-
larly patterned societies and mythologies."35 At the end of this state-
ment she footnotes Lincoln's reference to Hultkrantz's work.
I agree heartily with the importance placed upon cultural ecology
and ecology of religion by both authors; however, I feel that they did
not use the tool where it was needed. Had Arabagian been aware of
the primary nature of agriculture in the life of the Celts, the apparent
anomaly of Ireland could have been resolved.
Because of the difference in the cultural cores of the Indo-European
pastoralists and the Celtic agriculturalists there results a differing
religious ecology in both traditions. Thus the power of women and
the feminine will be at opposite poles even though there remain, due
to earlier common influences cited above, mythic structures such as
cattle raiding and bride stealing present in both traditions.
Given these differing religious ecologies, religious structures, though
common to both cultures, must be interpreted in the light of the
religious ecology that attaches itself to the tradition in question. Thus
Indo-European material must be understood through the view of the
male-oriented pastoralist and Celtic material through the view of the
female-oriented agrarian.
Fundamental to the differences between these two culture types is
the source of power within the ecological stratum. We equate power
with life in its broadest sense, and so the source of power is also the
source of creation or cosmogony. It is this source that provides the
creative model for all other cultural acts and which establishes
the ethos or quality of cultural colorings. If the locus of power is the
same between two cultures, then the cultural and religious ecology
will be essentially the same, despite structural overlays that may lead
one to think otherwise. If the source of power is different in its locus,
then the essential perspective, ethos, or worldview will be different
between two cultures, despite any structural similarities that may
exist for various reasons.

35 Ibid., p. 125.
History of Religions 353

In the case of Celtic and Indo-European culture types we find two

very different sources of power and thus of life and cosmogony. In
the Indo-European situation the source of power resides in the sky or
heavens and is imaged in the form of sky gods of various types. These
gods are male and are the models for all creative acts. It is they who
provide the essential male and celestial orientation to Indo-European
cultures. These myths do function, as Lincoln suggests, as models for
creative activity which have to do in a general sense with subjugating
the earth/goddess/cow and transforming her into the law of heaven.
In the case of the Celts, I suggested that the source of power resides
in the earth which is imaged as a great goddess or series of goddesses.
It is these goddesses who are the source of creation and all creative
acts. Therefore, despite the common social structure and mythic
themes in Indo-European and Celtic cultures, within the Celtic world,
things are viewed from a feminine perspective. In the Celtic cattle-
raiding myths it is the Lady who either aids the lover directly against
her father, as in the case of Findabar and Fraich, or who complies
with or abets his efforts to steal her and her cattle, as in the case of
Flidais and the seven daughters of Regamon. Power, aid, and sover-
eignty always come from the earth as goddess, fairy lover, or cow.
The cattle-raiding myth structure, then, must be interpreted differ-
ently in Celtic and Indo-European cultures, and for interpretative
purposes concerning symbols, Celtic and Indo-European cultures must
not be equated, despite common linguistic roots.
Finally, the cattle-raiding myths in Celtic cultures, as well as in the
Indo-European situation, function as a reflex of the cosmogony. In
the Celtic myth, which is the primary concern of this article, we see
that the ontology of the myth intends the revivification of the earth
and her consort through a sacrifice and integrative union. This inten-
tionality is demonstrated not only by the story line of the myth but
also by movement of characters within the myth. For example, there
is a circular movement of cattle from son figure to Lady and back to
son accompanied by Lady. This movement recapitulates the creative
function of the great round. Further, there is a centering and inte-
grating movement within the myth. The son or puer moves to the
Lady and her father, then to the center where an initiatory battle
integrates Lady and son, redeeming the father. The son and father are
united, as are the hag and Lady. The ultimate union occurs between
the son and Lady and is echoed through the symbolic homogeniza-
tion of cow and serpent. Thus the world is recreated each year
through the death and rebirth of the hag/earth Lady and her consort,
the son/father.
354 Serpents, Cows, and Ladies

Both Lincoln and Arabagian brought to light important dimen-

sions of the cattle-raiding myth, namely, the paradigmatic and creative
function of the myth and the balance of masculine and feminine
power as expressed through the myth. In addition, they established
the use of the ecology of religion as a tool for refining comparative
studies and linking phenomenological interpretation once again with
experience and situation. It is hoped that I have amplified their work
through the carrying on of these methods.

University of Vermont