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Mugain

 
 

1. Sometimes Mugain Mór [Irish, great]. Territorial goddess of the south of Ireland who is reputed to have given birth to a trout. She appears to be identical with the better-known Mór Muman.

2. Strumpet wife of Conchobar mac Nessa, king of Ulster, daughter of Eochaid Feidlech, sister of Medb. In an often repeated episode, she and her maidens strip naked before Cúchulainn as he is returning from battle on his way to Emain Macha; though this is done ostensibly to stifle his battle fever, he is so consumed with passion upon seeing the women that it takes three vats of icy water to cool him down. Later she is caught in adultery with Áed (9), a court poet. Conchobar sentences Áed to death by drowning, but he has the power to dry up any lake with a spell, all except Lough Laíg, near the house of Lóegaire Búadach. In coming to Áed's help, Lóegaire himself is killed. In earlier Ulster stories Conchobar's wife is Eithne Aittencháithrech. See EITHNE (5).

3. Adulterous wife of Diarmait mac Cerbaill. Her co-respondent, Flann mac Díma, suffers more for their sin. Flann's house is burned and he is later drowned. This in turn brings about Diarmait's death. She is the mother of Áed Sláine, ancestor of the people of Brega.

4. Mother of St Cuimmíne, who begot him in incest. Her name appears in the quatrain, ‘This Mugain was his mother, he to her was a brother.’

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Wikipedia: Mugain
 

Mugain, daughter of Eochaid Feidlech, is the wife of Conchobar mac Nessa, king of Ulster, in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. Her epithet, Aitinchairchech, means "having gorse-like body hair".

When Cúchulainn returned to Emain Macha after his first foray, his fury was so great the Ulstermen feared he would destroy them. Mugain led her maidens out, and they bared their breasts in front of him. Cúchulainn averted his eyes, and the Ulstermen were able to wrestle him into a barrel of cold water, which exploded from the heat of his body. They put him in a second barrel, and the water boiled; and finally a third barrel, which merely warmed up to a pleasant temperature.

Her affair with Áed, Conchobar's poet, led to the death of Lóegaire Búadach.


 
 
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Copyrights:

Celtic Mythology. A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Copyright © James MacKillop 1998, 2004. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Mugain" Read more