IRISH MYTHS
SIMILAR TO DAVID and GOLIATH
BALOR and LUGH - CET and CONCUBAR - FINN and THE WIZARD
by F. Graham Millar
Halifax Centre, RASC (Royal Astronomical Society of Canada)
Website use with permission of the late copyright-holding author and based on the author's significant pioneer article which appeared in the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Vol. 89, No. 4, Aug. 1995, pp.141-154.

BALOR and LUGH - CET and CONCUBAR - FINN and THE WIZARD

In Irish legend Balor was a famous warrior who had one eye in the middle of his forehead. Another, his baleful eye, was in the back of his skull. With it he could strike people dead by looking at them, but he kept it covered except when he wanted to petrify his enemies.

Lugh, the divine here, was youthful, athletic and handsome. When he saw Balor open his eye against him, Lugh cast one of his father Aed's thunderbolts at him with a slingshot, driving the thunderbolt through the back of Balor's head and killing him (Mac Cana 1970).

In another version the cattle raider Cet put the brain of Mes Gegra in his sling and hit the crown of Concubar's head. Then Fingen, Concubar's physician, stitched his head closed (Smith 1988).

Still another variant is that of how Finn got his Name. He received it only when the One-Eyed, Red-Haired Wizard called it out. Finn blinded the wizard by pinning him through the eye to the ground with a fish fork.

The Wizard, seeking to kill Finn, stumbled after him and threw his magic ring over Finn's finger. The ring called out where Finn was, but Finn cut off the finger with the ring on it and threw it over a cliff. The Wizard leapt after it and was killed (O'Conaill 1981).

These versions of "David and Goliath", having been collected from traditional story tellers, may preserve motifs of the underlying star myth.

As demonstrated here, other cultures also maintained the myth, with variations. The main protagonists can be associated with known constellations, as argued here. The following table provides a summary to help the reader keep the names in order:



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