Macha

Irish otherworldly woman with three identities and multiple associations. She may have originally been a goddess of the land; see ANA. Her associations with war link her to Badb and Mórrígan; as a trio they are called Mórrígna. An association with horses suggests a derivation from Epona (or euhemerization from another, unnamed horse-goddess) as well as links to Rhiannon. Her high status in Ulster implies that she may have been a sovereignty goddess. While there are three Machas for purposes of story telling, they may all derive from a single persona; each is attributed the same mother, Ernmass. Georges Dumézil has argued that this provides a model for tripartite division (see TRIPLISM); see ‘Le Trio des Macha’, Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, 146 (1954), 5–17. T. F. O'Rahilly (1946) thought there was but one Macha with three attributed husbands. Cúchulainn's horse Liath Macha [grey of Macha] could, for example, be named for any of the three Machas. Emain Macha may be named for any of the three. All may also take the form of a crow. See also Françoise Le Roux and Christian-J. Guyonvarc'h, La Souveraineté guerrière de l'Irlande: Mórrígan, Bodb, Macha (Rennes, 1983).