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Heroines
Etain |
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Name: Etain Echraide 'Of the Horses'
Properties:
Goddess of Horses 
Healing
Fertility
Beauty
Races:
Celtic
Tuatha Dé Danann
Fathers:
Ailill of Ulster Étar fairyking of Echrad
Husbands:
Midhir
Eochaid Airem 'of the
Plough'
Daughters:
Etain Derbrenn
Grand-Daughter: Mess Buachalla
Niece: Medb of Connaught
Great-Grandson: Conaire Mór son of Mess Buachalla
Associated Deities: Aengus Óg
Associated
Sites: Brí Léith
Inber Cíchmaine
Associated
Herbs, Trees & Fungi: Elder
Flax
Etain is a quite unusual case in Celtic Mythology in that she has two incarnations.
In the first she is born to human parentage but is sought after by a king of a fairy mound known as Midir who sent his foster son Aengus Óg to ask her hand in marriage. This causes jealousy from Fuamnach the first wife of Midhir who turns Etain into a pool of water.
Etain then turns into a beautiful purple fly but is again wafted away by Fuamnach and she floats on the air for a thousand and twelve years until she lands in the cup of the wife of Étar and is swallowed. Étar's wife becomes pregnant and in due time gives birth to a baby girl whom they call Etain.
Thus in her second incarnation Etain is born into a fairy family. She is then sought after in marriage by Eochaid Airem a human when she is twenty years old. Midhir her first husband comes to steal her away from Eochaid. Eventually though she returns to Eochaid.
Stories, Myths & Legends associated with Etain
