whose sails and oars the wish, of those they bore [Note: Cf. The
barks of the Phoenicians in the Odyssey.]; there hounds like that
one of Ioroway, and spears like fiery flying serpents. These are
the Tuatha De Danan [Note: A mystery still hangs over this
three-formed name. The full expression, Tuatha De Danan, is that
generally employed, less frequently Tuatha De, and sometimes, but
not often, Tuatha. Tuatha also means people. In mediaeval times the
name lost its sublime meaning, and came to mean merely "fairy," no
greater significance, indeed, attaching to the invisible people of
the island after Christianity had destroyed their godhood.], fairy
princes, Tuatha; gods, De; of Dana, Danan, otherwise Ana and the
Moreega, or great queen; mater [Note: Cormac's Glossary] deorum
Hibernensium--"well she used to cherish [Note: Scholiast noting
same Glossary.] the gods." Limitless, this divine population,
dwelling in all the seas and estuaries, river and lakes, mountains
and fairy dells, in that enchanted Erin which was theirs.

But they have not started into existence suddenly, like the gods of
Rome, nor is their genealogy confined to a single generation like
those of Greece. Behind them extends a long line of ancestors, and
a history reaching into the remotest depths of the past. As the
Greek gods dethroned the Titans, so the Irish gods drove out or
subjected the giants of the Fir-bolgs; but in the Irish mythology,
we find both gods and giants descended from other ancient races of
deities, called the Clanna Nemedh and the Fomoroh, and these a
branch of a divine cycle; yet more ancient the race of Partholan,
while Partholan himself is not the eldest.

The history of the Italian gods is completely lost. For all that
the early Roman literature tells us of their origin, they may have