Re: Ingui

Christopher

Thank you for the clarification and please excuse my abject
ignorance. My knowledge of this subject is far from comprehensive.
You
must admit, however that this is not as clear a subject as one could
hope for. My statements were made with the understanding that the
first recordation of Gael pre-Christian tradition and religion was
written hundreds of years after mass conversions, and by that time
it had been thoroughly sanitized. I assumed that this is generally
excepted, and that what has been recorded, is only a pail shadow of
the former pre-Christian tradition. In this respect Oenghus/Angus was
recorded not as a god, but rather a heroic and magical figure. Yet,
today we assume by his qualities that before the advent of
Christianity, he was considered a deity. Would that be a fair
appraisal?

As for my statement about Oenghus as a foreigner; admittedly perhaps
a very poor word of choice. If I may explain, I meant foreign in
several ways. First, by-way-of an associated with the Tuatha De
Danann (people of Danu), Oenghus was connected to the Danu goddess,
thus he belongs to an older parathion. As you know this parathion
included only Tuatha De gods (this issue is far too long a discussion
for here and now). Second, the mythic Tuatha De were actually no more
native to Erin than were the Milesians, they merely represent a last
group of exiles. Erin is seen as the inheritance of the Milesians and
thereby they are the rightful native people. Third, the Tuatha De's
exile, however it's interpreted, affectivity made them foreigners.
Either as exiles that were not native to Erin, or as temporary
natives that became refugees.

As far as my statement about Oenghus being a god of the dead, again
maybe a poor choice of words. There are two sets of traditions
concerning the exile of the Tuatha De and their gods. The better
known tradition focuses on the tumulus mounds (which are burial
mounds and I'm sure the prehistoric inhabitance of Ireland understood
that), while the other insists that the Tuatha De were exiled to the
Hebrides. There are many local Hebridian traditions, particularly
from Mull, that are associated with Tuatha De mythology. You may
agree, that if one reads a mythic group along with their gods are
exiled to burial mounds to reside and rule, an assumption of some
connection with the under-other world or land of the dead could be
made?

I hope this explains some of the unsatisfactorily words I used in
earlier posts. And thank you for correcting my errors and omissions.

Joseph