St.Athracht, AKA "Attracta", is our third Mórrígan-Saint so far. She's a dragon-slayer, and a sponsor of allied armies. She shows water-mastery, survives a meeting with Patrick, and has some familiar familial relationships.

Athracht was a saint that I knew I wanted to research, so I committed to this issue even though I'm quite busy. Consequently, it's quite late. I had heard a few tidbits that sounded exciting - including a few things I haven't since been able to find again or substantiate. For example, I recall reading that local folklore had Athract retreating into the lake, to come out again every X years: I have not been able to source this since! It might have been chatbot slop, for all I know.

Anyway, the parts I could find were interesting enough. It became clear quickly enough that I was dealing with another view on the Mórrígan complex of goddesses. Again: does this mean that she was understood to be a Mórrígan by the indigenous religion, or viewed as distinct in her own right? Hard to say. Let's have a quick tour of Saint Athracht, and identify the details that show her affinity to the Mórrígan.

Unclear Parentage, a Runaway Betrothee

Right from the start, we have ambiguity. Is her father's name Talán, son of Cathbadh (according to the Tripartite Life of Patrick) (1)? Is it Tighearnach (seemingly another name of Lughaid)? The difference mightn't be so severe, as explored in footnote (1).

We get a little account then of how Athracht is meant to be married to a wealthy lord, but desires a life as a nun, so she escapes with two servants (Mitain (f) and Mochain (m)). This part so far resembles Íta, another Mórrígan saint. Curiously, Íta's father is named Ceannfhealad, "Wolf-Head", and in Athracht's life it states that the king at this time has that name - though this baffles Hagiographers as no king of that name appears on regnal lists for this time-period.

Fleeing marriage, or being tragically parted from a husband, are in my view probable mythemes of the Mórrígan's, as I explored in the previous Mórrígan issue for "Saint" Cróbh Dearg. In that issue I posited that Aoife, Deirdre (Íta's birth name), and Crédhe might be epic forms of the Mórrígan, expressing the indignant rejection of a husband, or the tragic loss of one.

Part of this affinity might echo a cosmogonic mytheme of escaping the Creative Act - if Mórrígan and Eithne form parts of the Cosmic Waters, as I believe they do, then it's possible this Creative Union was a violent or unstable one. Many world mythologies seem to show the Male:Female primordial union as having some measure of violence, after all. Observe how Neasa (an Eithne, in my view) is effectively forced into a marriage by Cathbadh in the Ulster Cycle, for example; at the Creative Scene, it's likely that the Mórrígan and Eithne goddesses are one and the same.

In Irish Epic material, we might consider the possible Mórrígan-incarnation Medb of Connaught, and her own initial marriage to Conchobhar mac Nessa (Neasa & Cathbadh's son) as his first wife. Medb escapes this union, as she will not submit to his rule - resembling the motivation of Adam's first wife Lilith in leaving Adam. Medb's father, Eochaidh Feidhleach, has a name in common with An Dagda, suggesting a Sky-God nature - perhaps he's even a duplicate of Conchobhar himself, and in a prior form of the myth Medb is escaping her own Father, as the Sky God's daughters sometimes must.

Sister to the Wilds

In previous issues, we've seen how the Mórrígan and her international parallels seem to have an emphasised sister-consort relationship to the God of the Ways, Wanderers, and Wild Marches (In Irish material: Cían; Caomh(án); Comhghán/Comhdán; sometimes Caol/Cael). And, how this relationship seems to peek through in some of the stories of the Mórrígan's likely mythological hypostases, and her Saintly forms.

Clídna has a consort relationship to Ciabham of the Curling Locks ("Ciabh" ≅ "Caomh"), whose handsomeness makes him irresistable to women and the subject of other men's ire. This makes him the equal of Cían's Ossetian parallel (2), Haemyts/Khaemyts, as explored in the issue for Coemgen/Cían. Clídna has another mythic consort, "Ó'Keefe": so, also Caoimh.

Íta, meanwhile, has a curiously taboo-seeming interaction with a dying saint also named Caomhán, but also has a son named Mochaomhóg ("My Little Caomh") - as if he dies and is reborn through her.

Athracht is given a brother: in Patrick's Tripartite Life, he's "Caemhan of Airdne-Caemhain". Athracht's location is also closely tied to a "Comhghán". They don't seem to interact, but the relationship is there, mimicking Íta's curious relationship to Caomhs.

For the sake of my research into Athracht, I had already "called it" that Athracht was another Mórrígan before noting this relationship - so it was a nice extra detail. Of course, Cían is also a consort to Eithne - the Mórrígan's mirror - but I don't think Athracht is an Eithne: I'll explore why, below.

Patrick's Seal of Approval

Evading marriage and accompanied by two servants, Athracht goes directly to Patrick, in several versions - there, he ordains her as a nun. O'Hanlon's interpretation of the Latin Life (which I haven't found transcribed or translated) suggests that Mitain may have had some hand in guiding Athracht to the place where they met Patrick.

But then, something curious happens while they swear vows: either a veil, or a cassock, falls down to Patrick from heaven - he then offers it to Athracht, who denies it and says he should have it.

Things get murky here. In the case of the veil, he insists that she take it, and she does. In the case of the Cassock, the story doesn't go any further than Athracht suggesting that Patrick ought to keep it. It doesn't say that he does, and it doesn't mimic the account of the "veil" in having him insist that it should be hers.

A veil is an appropriately subordinate garment for a woman in a Christian framework. It's symbolic of a nun's "proper" role as a symbolically married woman, but without the social obligations of marriage. A cassock, on the other hand, is a garment worn by celebrants of mass, or bishops: leadership roles that were off-limits to women in medieval Christianity.

We have form for this: some versions of Brigit's life have her "mistakenly" ordained as a Bishop, while others have her staying subordinate. Athracht's life and cameos seem to suggest a similar tension on the part of the redactors, to try and elevate their protagonist goddess to sort of an exceptional case in the new Christian rubric. It hints, I think, that the Goddess would have been equal to her male contemporaries.

Anyway, Patrick subsequently either grants her a place he'd founded (in his story), or she goes and founds one herself (in her own story). In Athracht's life, it's her male servant Mochain who is sent to find a place where seven roads meet, and there she sets up her site - explicitly so that it can be a meeting of roads and a place of hospitality.

The Roads and the Waters

The symbol of the crossroads appears for a few saints, but also a few legendary kings. It seems to have a symbolic meaning. In particular, this mytheme of a splitting-of-ways can be seen among the Lugaids and their hypostases.

As Taliesin's Map pointed out, when arguing that Delbáeth and Lugaidh were names of the Cosmic Person (or "Purusha Type"), there are two traditions for the name of Loch Lughborta (a lake near Uisneach, probably the centre of the world and site of creation). In one, it is named for Lugh Lámhfhada, who is killed there by the sons of Cermait. In another, it's named for Lugaid mac Táil AKA Delbáeth, who lights an enchanted fire (from which he earns the name Delbáeth) that spreads in five streams outwards. He sends his sons to follow the five streams.

Lugh is what Taliesin's Map terms a "Culminating Sovereign", who draws-together the traits of other gods into heroic "Savior" figure. I've noted how he shares many traits with what I call the "Summer King", but seems to switch archetypes to become an in-universe Cosmic Person. In the first story of Loch Lugborta, this culminating or "condensing" king, Lugh, dies at the shore of the lake at Uisneach - the Sacred Centre - ending his epoch.. and then later another "Cosmic Person" named Lugaid (AKA Delbáeth) lights a magic fire here, sending five offshoots of his (his sons) outwards.

This condensing and re-expansion appears in other Lugaids: Lugaid Sriabh nDerg is literally a composite of his three fathers. Lugaid Loíghde is one of five sons named Lugaid, of Dáire Doimthech - he becomes King of Munster after a sort of contest. The others earn epithets - marking them as aspects, perhaps.

For a variety of reasons, I consider Conn Cétchathach to be a Kingly version of Lugaid. I'll omit explaining why just now, for brevity. But given that, an interesting mytheme of Conn's is that five roads appear at his birth, leading outwards from Tara. There's that Lugaid number: five. These roads resemble Delbáeth's fire, except they're removed from Uisneach to its spiritual double, Tara: the seat of the High King.

Coming back to Athracht, what might it mean that her site is set up where seven roads meet? Maybe nothing. It could be a callback to the Creation Scene, or perhaps the Apocalyptic Scene. If Gaelic Cosmology saw the world following a cyclical course (3), perhaps she was expected to appear at both.

But, her seven-roaded site doesn't resemble either of these - there's no obvious link to Fire or Water, save that she herself becomes associated with the nearby lake. And nothing extreme happens there, either. If it's echoing the Creation-Scene, then that's all it appears to be: an echo.

A Place for Guesting

Her reason for building there, though, is that she wants her site to be a place of great hospitality. Medb, putative Mórrígan-incarnation that she is, is noteworthy for her hospitality, taking in all kinds of oddments and giving them marvellous hosting. Generosity is one of her key requirements of a husband - it's one of her core traits.

So, rather than writing off Athracht's focus on hospitality as merely a Christian addition, it may indeed be a core trait of the Goddess Athracht. Perhaps her seven-roaded preoccupation is, therefore, exactly as the Saintly version explains it: a desire to become a hub of hospitality.

If so, it's still interesting to consider the number "7". It appears Gaelic cosmology considered 5 terrestrial "directions": the centre, and the 4 cardinals. What of the other two? Perhaps the celestial/cthonic realms, as Medb's court near Cruachan is notably always close to otherworld? Though, 7 comes up in another way, for Medb; she has 7 sons, all named Maine, who each take an epithet, like Lugaid Loíghde's brothers..

Master of Waters

In one colourful myth, Athracht is appealed to by the King of Lughna, whose men are encircled by their enemies at the lake-side. He goes to her and she then physically comes to the men of Lughna - their passage through encircling forces is unaccounted for. On her arrival, she parts the waters of the lake, to make a tunnel or path for the Lughna army to escape.

O'Hanlon only half-relates another pair of events connecting Athracht to the lake: in these paired myths, she decides to build a crossing or bridge from one part of the lake to another, but some profane reaction from people nearby causes her to stop, leaving the bridge unfinished. This explains why there are two apparent partially-built fords that extend into the water from two locations.

This mytheme, of the god or saint who begins a construction task, but who is halted by the profane action of a bystander (usually a cailleach - a "hag"), is commonplace, and used to explain everything from fields of loose rocks, gravel beds, sand bars, or glacial erratics. Near-Cosmogonic myths.

The Slayer of Dragons, a Closeted Dragon

Speaking of Monsters.. Few Gaelic myths concern Dragons. Fewer, certainly, than the Brythonic legendarium. We do have our Ollphéists - our "great wyrms" of lakes, rivers, and coasts - and they're probably cognate with Dragons and Hydras as found elsewhere.

Athracht, however, gets to defeat explicitly-a-dragon, who's been harassing a town near her. The King sends for her and asks her to do it, and she just walks out the town gates and uses her crosier (usually a mythic substitute for a weapon) to insta-kill it just outside the walls of the town. Hurrah!

This is a slightly ironic myth, when you consider how the Ambivalent Cosmic Waters Goddess is herself often represented in some form as a Dragon or Wyrm. The most stark example of this is Tiamat, but we also have the putative identification of the Mórrígan and the tentacled monster that An Dagda defeats, discussed in the issue for Saint Déaglán/Declan.

However, the Cosmic Mother deity is also sometimes a slayer of monsters, notably in the case of Durga. Note also the association of Durga with "Yogamaya", the personification of the Illusury nature of the universe, an association I also previously suggested for the Mórrígan in the issue for St. Íta.

Land Disputes and Games of Telephone

Athracht decides to try setting up a convent nearer to a (half?) brother of hers: Conall Droma, of Drumconnel. He doesn't want her to set up too near him, and dispatches "Dachonna (Conainne) of Eas-Dachonna" to negotiate his sister away.

Dachonna manages to talk to Athracht about Conall's concerns, and Athracht agrees not to set up near to Conall. But, she curses the bejeesus out of Conall's religious establishment and sends Dachonna away red-eared with angry words about Conall (so, this Saint's Life fails the Bechdel Test).

Could She Be Eithne? Brighid?

Athracht shows some traits that we could compare to two other "big" Goddesses: Brighid and Eithne.

As noted, St.Brigit also notably avoids marriage, but her means of doing so is distinct from the other Mórrígna we've covered; she doesn't flee, she uses a display of magical power to reject a suitor. As to why they both have myths of this sort, I think inasmuch as Brighid might have been a Goddess of Love, that would also make her the Goddess of its antithesis: the rejection of wooers. And in the same way, the Mórrígan as a Goddess of Marriage would also make her the Goddess of Divorce and Bereavement; the Parting of Marriage.

Brigit also has close female companions who she shares a lot of time with, such as her probable lover Darlughdach. But, Darlughdach appears sort of like a remanifestation of Brighid, even being celebrated on the same day as her. Athracht's female servant serves an indistinct role in connecting her to Patrick, and then fades away entirely. We also don't see any solar or fiery mythemes for Athracht, which we see plenty of for Brighid and her Saints. Athracht, instead, is pretty watery.

So, if she's watery, could she be Eithne? I believe that at a certain early stage, these goddesses are the same, but then quickly distinguish themselves. For starters, both are maternal archetypes, so that's not usefully distinguishing - but Athracht lacks a maternal aspect anyway. Eithnes don't seem to escape marriages or suffer as much parting from their lovers, as Mórrígna seem to.

Furthermore, Eithnes have a tendency to die upon meeting Lugaids and their parallels, such as Patrick/Labhraidh/Tighearnach. Athracht, meanwhile, suffers nothing for her interaction with Patrick.

Eithnes also seem to generally lack martial characteristics (except Neasa!), whereas we find Mórrígna running towards battle all the time; and Athracht certainly gets personally involved in a few conflicts in her stories.

So, despite their similarities, I think it's fair to say that Athracht overall seems to be more of a Mórrígan.

But Why Isn't She An Earth Goddess?

It's August, and in Irish that means Lúghnasa, formerly one of our greatest festivals of the year. This celebrated the beginning of the harvest season, and it may have commemorated the victory of Lugh over the Fomhoire and Bres, likely tied into a "Winning of the Harvest" motif. Note, for example, how Lugh spares Bres in exchange for knowledge of agriculture.

In her masterwork "The Festival of Lughnasa", Máire Mac Neill points out the parallels to Patrick and his conflict with Crom Dubh (pps.415-416), the latter of whom is also ultimately spared by the former for his provision of food or harvest.

The Tailteann Games, effectively the Irish form of the Olympic Games, were legendarily established by Lugh also at this time of the year, and named for his foster-mother Earth-goddess, Tailtiú.

So, shouldn't this time of year be replete with Earth Goddess saints like Tailtiú or Ériú, rather than more Mórrígna?

Well, there are a bunch of harvest-goddesses (rendered as saints) celebrated at this time. Take St.Sidwell, who's beheaded by reapers and associated with the scythe and her well, or St.Aled, who's also beheaded and whose worship was performed with ritualised actions of planting and reaping. Both are worshipped August 1st. A grain goddess being beheaded is de rigeur, if you think about it - that's how the harvest happens.

Indeed, from now until early November (the end of the Harvest season), there are plenty of female saints who reject marriage, flee their betrothed, but are later caught and beheaded. Many resemble Mórrígna, others less so. Maybe this closes the "Killed by Lugh/Patrick" gap between Eithnes and Mórrígna - and note that "Eithne" literally means "Kernel". Perhaps her death by the victorious harvest-winner was always an allegory for that same harvest, and we only see it clearly for Mórrígna in Autumn?

So there are some brazenly Earth-Goddess "Saints" who get "reaped" like the corn, and then there are some more complicated and often water-aspected characters with mythemes of the Mórrígan, who have more allegorical stories that often involve beheading (e.g., St.Winifred).

My thinking on this, for the time being, is that the Earth and Celestial-Water Goddesses are a little bit conflated in all the P.I.E. religions, from what I can see.. but maybe especially so in the Celtic branches. It seems as if the Earth Goddesses, broadly speaking, were subordinated to and conflated with their Watery counterparts.

This aligns with the prominent hydrolatry (water worship) of Vernacular Celtic Christianity, as well as the prominent water-worship observable in archeological sites of ancient Britain and Gaul. Plausibly, a people obsessed with water might attribute all that's good about the Earth to its subterranean water.

Though, again; this isn't just a Celtic thing. The constellation Virgo (watery, rejects marriage..) oversees the beginning of the harvest, and it's associated with Persephone (a cthonic grain-and-death goddess, closest to our Étaín) as well as with various celestial figures in Greece.

In Hinduism, the same constellation, named Kanya, is associated with Prithvi (a/the Hindu Earth Goddess) as well as Aditi (a Celestial Mother-Goddess who's also curiously Earthbound).

The Welsh name for the Constellation is Morwyn, a name close to that of some possibly Mórrígan-themed characters including Morwenna of Morwenstow and even the Arthurian character Morgana... and indeed a "Merewenna" is celebrated the day after Athracht.

The Earth Goddesses are tied all across the P.I.E. world to their Cthonic, Hydrological, and Celestial counterparts. As Crops grow up from the deep earth, are watered from above, and fed with sunshine, perhaps the Earth Goddesses may naturally have been seen as "Unity Goddesses"? And as "Mothers", their death is the sacrifice that gives their children (us) life, perhaps explaining the taboo nature sometimes found in the food they taste or share?

Speaking of Grain..

So, Étaín. I'm talking about Grain Goddesses and even name-checked Persephone - I can't avoid addressing Étaín. She has a name that even sounds like "Little Íta", and by now I'm fairly confident that Íta is indeed an old name for this goddess, seemingly matching Edi and Etha British saints, and perhaps a few goddesses further afield, too.

Étaín "dies" and is reborn, and seems to yield many copies of herself, that prove indistinguishable. These are traits that resemble a grain goddess. Her consort, the Moon God, was probably associated with the vitality of vegetation and crops.

If Étaín (consort of the Moon/Immortality God) matches Persephone, then what of the consort of the Irish Death-God figure, Diarmuid (4)? Her name is "Gráinne", which could mean "Grain". Her partner may have been the lord of the Underworld, from where the vitality of the crop rises up. She seems, then, to be another possible Persephone-alike, albeit one with more agency than Persephone or Étaín, and one who flees an unwanted marriage..like the Mórrígan-saints.

Curiously, Étaín's handmaiden Crochen is gifted the Síd where Midir first brings them to stay, and it is renamed for her to Rathcroghan - the seat of Medb's royal court. In fact, Crochen is said to be Medb's mother.

Of course, "Eithne" also means "kernel" or "seed".. And "Íta" or "Étaín" could be variations on a common root with "Eithne", perhaps. This Water-goddess was already understood to be a Cow, an animal providing nutrition.

Is Étaín "Little Mórrígan"? "Little Eithne"? Still unclear. There's certainly a connection - perhaps just as there is for Persephone and Demeter, the latter of whom certainly shares a lot with the Mórrígan.

So, Anything New?

I've written about the hinted hydrological associations of the Mórrígna before; at first, speculating that she might be Brine to Eithne's Fresh-Water. That theory didn't, erm, hold water. I'm considering now whether Eithne/Mórrígan might have a subtly Night/Day Celestial-Waters thing going on. In any case, Athracht is our first very clear Hydrological Mórrígan. She parts waters, and she fords lakes.

Her ordination as a Nun by Patrick (Lugh) could resemble a sacred marriage. But what would it mean if she fled a cosmogonic union, only to seek out another Lugaid/Lugh for a possible marriage?

Rather than a marriage, it may also have been simply a subordination to the victorious Lugh, whose struggle with the Fomhoire and Bres was probably come/coming to a close by Lughnasa (August). This would only make sense if Athracht were not understood to be the Mórrígan, who was already on the Tuatha Dé's side.

As a final possibility, if Lúghnasa celebrated the cementing of Lugh's sovereignty over Ireland, then perhaps Athracht's recommendation that he keep the garment during her ordination-myth was a sort of "Goddess of Sovereignty" exchange.

Closing

The name "Athracht" by now is better known as "Attracta", a name that seems quite Latin. I always thought it was a latin saints' name, but apparently not! As to its meaning, I think that's obscure. It sounds tantalisingly like modern "Arracht" - Monster..

Location-wise, Athracht's water-association, Lough Gara (formerly Techet), is fed by the river Abhainn na Loinge or "Lung", at which Lughnasa festivities were held - appropriately for our Saint's calendrical position. Situated on the border of Sligo/Roscommon, her lake is in Medb's heartlands.

Footnotes

1. Who's the most famous son of a Cathbadh? Conchobhar - a character probably expressing a Sky-themed lower emanation of the Creator-God - making this "Son of Cathbadh" compatible with the higher-creator-god Lugaidh, AKA Tighearnach..
2. Khaemyts is father to Lugh's parallel, Batraz. His consort, Bytsenon, is like a funhouse-mirror of the Mórrígan-cluster; like Athena/Íta, she's associated with weaving/fibrecraft, and she's aquatic insofar as she's a frog half the time. Khaemyts' death because of sexual indiscretion triggers a blood-fued for Batraz, just as Cian's death does for Lugh.
3. As in Hinduism, and potentially in Norse/Germanic myth, where it appears Ragnorok is not the end of things.
4. Recall that I don't consider the Moon/Immortality Gods to be entirely distinct form the Death/Underworld Gods. In fact, they also share the same subtle identity with the Fionn-type and even Nuada-types, from what I'm seeing.

Bibliography

• O'Hanlon, John (1875) "Lives of the Irish Saints" No.8. Avaialable on Archive.org (Opens on Athracht)

Coming Up

• 23rd Aug: Éoghan, who might be Bonus Dagda, or who might be akin to the Divine Twin.
• 12th Sep: Ailbe of Emly, perhaps an early pre-cosmic Divine Twin, akin to Vishnu