[Irish, scion, hero, noble warrior]
One of the leaders of the Milesians in the pseudo-history Lebor Gabála [Book of Invasions]. To avenge the death of his son Ith, Bile joined another son, Míl Espáine, and forty others in the invasion of Ireland, but was drowned in the storm called down by a druid.
The 19th-century Celticists John Rhy̌s (1840–1915) and M. H. d'Arbois de Jubainville (1827–1910) asserted that Bile was a god of darkness and death from the underworld, an opinion not shared by more recent commentators; he does, however, bear some relationship to the Roman deity Dis Pater. See also BELI MAWR.
