Editing Dian Cecht

{{short description|Irish mythological god of healing}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox deity
| type       = Irish
| name       = Dian Cécht <br /><small>[[God of healing]]</small>
| image      = 
| caption    =
| member_of  = the [[Tuatha Dé Danann]]
| abodes     = 
| weapons    = 
| animals    = 
| symbols    =
| festivals  = 
| parents    = Esarg or the [[Dagda]]
| siblings   =
| consorts   = 
| children   = Cu, Cethen, [[Cian]], [[Miach]], [[Airmed]], Étan, Ochtriullach
}}

In [[Irish mythology]], '''Dian Cécht''' ({{IPA|sga|dʲiːən kʲeːxt}}; also known as ''Cainte'' or ''Canta'') was the [[god of healing]], the healer for the [[Tuatha Dé Danann]], and son of the [[Dagda]] according to the ''[[Dindsenchas]]''.

He was the father of Cu, Cethen and [[Cian]]. His other children were [[Miach]], [[Airmed]], [[Étaín|Étan]] the poet and Ochtriullach (Octriuil). Through Cian, he is also [[Lugh]]'s paternal grandfather.

== Etymology ==
The name Dian Cecht may be a combination of the [[Old Irish]] common words ''dían'' 'swift' and ''cécht'', glossed as 'power', hence the literal meaning may be literally "swift power".<ref name=mackillop-dict/><ref name=williams/><!--ref>Koch, J. T. (2006),''[https://books.google.com/books?id=vSIZAQAAIAAJ&q=Dian Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia]'', Vols. 1-4 - p. 586.</ref [not verified by preview]-->{{efn|See "[http://dil.ie/8433 2 cécht]", [[eDIL]], usage includes the instance from ''[[Cóir Anmann]]'', so [[Cormac's Glossary]] is not the sole attestation as {{harvp|Williams|2018|pp=113–114 note 126}} suggests.}} The {{illm|Cóir Anmann{{!}}''Cóir Anmann''|ga|Cóir Anmann}} refers to him as the "god of power", with ''cécht'' glossed as "power" ({{langx|sga|cumachtae}}).{{sfnp|Shaw|2006|p=167}}

In Old Irish, there is also the word ''cécht'' meaning 'plough-beam' (or less accurately 'ploughshare'),<ref>[http://dil.ie/8432 1 cécht]", [[eDIL]] "plough, plough-beam".</ref> but this makes "little sense in the light of his activities",{{sfnp|Shaw|2006|p=167}} and this lexical meaning is "presumably not relevant".<ref name=williams/>

[[Linguistics|Linguistic]] knowledge about regular [[sound change]]s in [[Celtic languages]] (McCone, 1996) and analysis of the [[University of Wales]]’ [[Proto-Celtic]] [[lexicon]] and of [[Julius Pokorny]]’s ''[[Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch]]'' permit ''*Deino-kwekwto-'' ‘swift concoction’ as a plausible [[Proto-Celtic]] reconstruction for this [[theonym]], hence the original name of the deity may have signified 'swift potion' or, by extrapolation even 'He-who-is-Swift-with-Healing-Remedies'.<ref name=williams/> However this suggestion is problematic since the root is not attested in Old Irish, but only in the [[Brittonic languages|Brythonic]] cousin languages.<ref name=williams/>

==Genealogy==
Dian Cécht is described as a son of the [[Dagda]] in the ''Dindsenchas''.<ref name=metrical-dinnshenchas-magcorainn/> His children varied according to source.

Dian Cécht had fours sons, Cu, Cethen, [[Cian]] (the father of Lugh), and [[Miach]] according to a [[Tract (literature)|tract]] in the ''Book of Invasions'' (''[[Lebor Gabála Érenn]]''), although the same tract states that the fourth son, Miach the physician, was often not reckoned.<ref name="macalister-sect314">''[[Lebor Gabála Érenn]]'', {{harvp|Macalister|1941}} ed. tr. ¶314 pp. 122–123</ref> Cu, Cethen and Cian were called the "three sons of Cainté" in the late modern narrative ''[[Brian (mythology)|Aided Chlainne Tuirenn]]''.<ref name=fate-cainte/> Dian Cécht was grandfather to Lugh, since Cían son of Dían Cécht is the father of Lugh, by [[Ethniu|Ethne]] daughter of [[Balor]].<ref name="CMT055"/>

Dian Cécht had yet another son, Octriuil, who was also a physician: Dían Cécht's two sons Octriuil ({{langx|ga|Ochttríuil}}) and Míach, and his daughter [[Airmed]] chanted over the healing well named Sláine (cf. [[#Curative well|§&nbsp;Curative well]] below).<ref name="CMT123"/>

Dian Cécht's daughters were Airmed the [[Medieval medicine of Western Europe|she-leech]] (female physician) and [[Étaín|Étan]] the poet according to the aforementioned ''Book of Invasions'' tract.<ref name="macalister-sect314"/>

==Curative well==
Dian Cécht ministered to the injured by soaking them in "Slainge's Well" ({{langx|sga|Tiprait Slainge}})<ref name=edinburgh-dinnshenchas-lusmag/>{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Also given as "the spring of Slange" in the metrical version.<ref name=metrical-dinnshenchas-lusmag/>}} or rather the "well of healing" ({{lang|ga|Tipra Sláíne}}){{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Translated as "a well named Slaíne" by Gray or "well named Slane" by Stokes in the ''Cath Maige Tuired'', but Gray appends "Tipra Sláíne" in glossary.}}<ref name=CMT123/><ref>Glossary {{harvp|Gray|1982|p=141}}</ref><ref>[http://dil.ie/37820 sláine]", eDIL. "soundness, completeness, wholesomeness; health; salvation".</ref> when the Second Battle of Magh Tuireadh (''[[Cath Maige Tuired]]'') was fought.<ref name=CMT123/><ref name=metrical-dinnshenchas-lusmag/><ref name=edinburgh-dinnshenchas-lusmag/>

The well was located at Achad Abla ('Field of the Apple Tree'), northwest of [[Magh Tuireadh]] (Moytura).<ref name=edinburgh-dinnshenchas-lusmag/><ref name=metrical-dinnshenchas-lusmag/> He also ground medicinal herbs nearby on Lusmag "Herb-plain",<ref name=metrical-dinnshenchas-lusmag/><ref name=edinburgh-dinnshenchas-lusmag/> or else, he chanted spells over the well together with his two sons Miach and Octriuil and daughter Airmed.<ref name=CMT123/>

Dian Cécht, when questioned on his ability, boasted to be able mend anyone but those who have been [[decapitation|decapitated]] (or whose brain or [[spinal cord]] have been severely damaged);<ref name=CMT099>''Cath Maige Tuired'' §98–99, {{harvp|Stokes|1891|pp=88, 89}}; {{harvp|Gray|1982|p=51}}</ref> this he presumably accomplished using the Tipra Sláíne.{{efn|{{harvp|Mackillop|2006}} glosses this as "spring of life". See also {{section link|#Genealogy}}.}}<ref>{{citation|last=Mackillop |first=James |author-link=<!--James Mackillop--> |title=Myths and Legends of the Celts |publisher=Penguin UK |orig-year=2005 |year=2006 |page=211 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HI5yXNhbebYC&pg=PT602 |isbn=0-14-194139-1}}</ref>

==Boiling of the River Barrow==
It was Dian Cecht who once saved Ireland, and was indirectly the cause of the name of the [[River Barrow]].{{sfnp|Shaw|2006|pp=161–164}}<ref name="squire">{{cite book|last=Squire |first=Charles |author-link=Charles Squire |title=Celtic Myth and Legend: The Gaelic Gods |chapter=V. The Gods of the Gaels |url=https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/cml/cml09.htm}}</ref> The [[Morrigan|Morrígú]], the Dagda's fierce wife, had borne a son of such terrible aspect that the physician of the gods, foreseeing danger, counselled that he should be destroyed in his infancy.<ref name="squire"/>

When this was done, Dian Cecht opened the infant's heart, and found within it three serpents, capable, when they grew to full size, of depopulating Ireland.<ref name="squire"/> He lost no time in destroying these serpents also, and burning them into ashes, to avoid the evil which even their dead bodies might do.<ref name="squire"/> More than this, he flung the ashes into the nearest river, for he feared that there might be danger even in them. So venomous were they that the river boiled up and slew every living creature in it, and therefore it has been called the River Barrow, the ‘Boiling’ ever since.<ref name="squire"/>

According to the Metrical [[Dindsenchas]]:
<blockquote><poem>
No motion it made
The ashes of Meichi the strongly smitten:
The stream made sodden and silent past recovery
The fell filth of the old serpent.

Three turns the serpent made;
It sought the soldier to consume him;
It would have wasted by its doing the kine;
The fell filth of the old serpent.

Therefore Diancecht slew it;
There rude reason for clean destroying it,
For preventing it from wasting
Worse than any wolf pack, from consuming utterly.

Known to me is the grave where he cast it,
A tomb without walls or roof-tree;
Its ashes, evil without loveliness or innocence
Found silent burial in noble Barrow.{{sfnp|Shaw|2006|pp=162–163}}
</poem></blockquote>

This tale in the [[Dindsenchas]] indicates that the being slain by Diancecht was a serpent named Meichi. Elsewhere the figure named as the slayer of Meichi is [[Mac Cecht]].{{sfnp|Shaw|2006|pp=162, 164}}

==Dian Cecht’s Envy==
Dian Cecht made King [[Nuada]] a silver arm which could move and function as a normal arm. Later his son, [[Miach]], replaced the silver arm with an arm of flesh and blood, and Dian Cecht killed him out of professional envy.

Miach's sister, [[Airmed]], mourned over her brother's grave. As her tears fell, all the healing herbs of the world grew from the grave. Airmed arranged and catalogued the herbs, but then Dian Cécht again reacted with anger and jealousy and scattered the herbs, destroying his daughter's work as well as his son's. For this reason, it is said that no human now knows the healing properties of all the herbs.<ref name=CMT033>''Cath Maige Tuired'' §33–35, {{harvp|Stokes|1891|pp=66–69}}; {{harvp|Gray|1982|pp=32, 33}}</ref>

== Additional appearances ==
In [[Tochmarc Étaíne]], Dian Cecht healed [[Mider]] after the latter lost an eye when struck with a twig of hazel.<ref>''[[Tochmarc Étaíne]].''</ref>

In the St. Gall incantations, there is a spell that mentions Dian Cécht:
<blockquote>
I save the dead-alive. Against eructation, against spear-thong (amentum), against sudden tumour, against bleeding caused by iron, against... which fire burns, against.... which a dog eats, ...that withers: three nuts that... three sinews that weave (?). I strike its disease, I vanquish blood...: let it not be a chronic tumour. Whole be that whereon it (Diancecht's salve) goes. I put my trust in the salve which Diancecht left with his family that whole may be that whereon it goes.<br />

This is laid always in thy palm full of water when washing, and thou puttest it into thy mouth, and thou insertest the two fingers that are next the little-finger into thy mouth, each of them apart.<ref>{{citation|editor-last1=Stokes |editor-first1=Whitley |editor-link1=Whitley Stokes (Celtic scholar) |editor-last2=Strachan |editor-first2=John |editor-link2=John Strachan |title=The St. Gall Incantations |work=Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus |publisher=University Press |year=1903  |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h_k3AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA248 |pages=248–249}} {{Via|pre= |text=Full text [https://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/incantations_gall.html here]|Celtic Literature Collective}}<!--Mary Jones@--></ref>

</blockquote>
Dian Cécht's harper and poet was named [[Corann|Corand]].<ref name=metrical-dinnshenchas-ceis-choraind/> According to the Dindsenchas, Corand is implied to be the son of Dian Cecht and summoned a swine called Caelcheis from the Dagda's harp, which the champions of Connacht chased to Magh Coraind.<ref>{{cite web |last1=ed. Stokes |first1=Whitley |title=The Edinburgh Dinnshenchas |url=https://www.ucd.ie/tlh/trans/ws.fl.4.001.t.text.html |website=The Edinburgh Dinnshenchas: An electronic edition |publisher=Thesaurus Linguae Hibernicae, University College Dublin |access-date=15 June 2021}}</ref>

An [[early Irish legal]] text on the law of illegal injury,  ''[[Bretha Déin Chécht]]'' ("Judgements of Dian Cécht"), is attributed to Dian Cécht.<ref>{{cite book |last=McLeod |first=Neil |date=2000 |chapter=The Not-So-Exotic Law Of Dian Cecht |editor1-first=G. |editor1-last=Evans |editor2-first=B. |editor2-last=Martin |editor3-first=J. |editor3-last=Wooding |title=Origins and Revivals: Proceedings of the First Australian Conference of Celtic Studies |location=Sydney |publisher=Centre for Celtic Studies University of Sydney |pages=381–399 }}</ref>{{rp|381}} A late-historical preface to the ''[[Senchas Már]]'' details the codification and Christianization of Irish law by [[Saint Patrick]] and his commissioners. Dian Cecht is explicitly listed as among the pre-Christian authors whose judgements were accepted because they did not contradict Christian teaching.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Binchy |first=D. A. |title=Bretha Déin Chécht |journal=Ériu |volume=20 |date=1966 |pages=1–66 |jstor=30008048 }}</ref>{{rp|2}}

== See also ==
* [[Borvo]]
* [[Healing]]
* [[List of health deities]]

==Explanatory notes==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
===Citations===
{{Reflist|30em|refs=
<ref name=CMT055>''Cath Maige Tuired'' §55, {{harvp|Stokes|1891|pp=74, 75}}; {{harvp|Gray|1982|pp=38, 39}}</ref>
<ref name=CMT123>''Cath Maige Tuired'' §123, {{harvp|Stokes|1891|pp=94, 95, 306}}; {{harvp|Gray|1982|pp=54, 55}}</ref>

<ref name=edinburgh-dinnshenchas-lusmag>"§71 Lusmag", {{citation|editor-last=Stokes |editor-first=Whitley |title=The Edinburgh Dinnshenchas |journal=Folk-lore |volume=4 |year=1893 |publisher=Folk-lore Society (Great Britain) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4oMZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA489 |pages=489–490}}</ref>

<ref name=fate-cainte>{{Citation |editor-last=O'Curry |editor-first=Eugene |editor-link=Eugene O'Curry |title=The Fate of the Children of Tuireann ([A]oidhe Chloinne Tuireann) |journal=Atlantis |volume=IV |year=1863 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z5JEAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA160 |pages=168-171, n161, n165<!--159-240-->}}</ref>

<ref name=mackillop-dict>{{citation|last=Mackillop |first=James |author-link=<!--James Mackillop--> |title=Dian Cécht |work=Dictionary of Celtic Mythology |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1998 |page=138 |isbn=0-19-280120-1 |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198609674.001.0001/acref-9780198609674-e-1465}}</ref>

<ref name=metrical-dinnshenchas-ceis-choraind>"Ceis Choraind (Poem 82)", {{citation|editor-last=Gwynn |editor-first=Edward |editor-link=Edward Gwynn |title=The metrical Dindshenchas I. |year=1903|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7rQiAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA438 |pages=438–439 |series=Todd Lecture Series 8}}, {{Via|pre= |text=Full text [https://celt.ucc.ie//published/T106500C/index.html here]|CELT}}</ref>

<ref name=metrical-dinnshenchas-lusmag>"Lusmag (Poem 43)", {{citation|editor-last=Gwynn |editor-first=Edward |editor-link=Edward Gwynn |title=The metrical Dindshenchas |volume=4 |publisher=School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies |year=1991|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lCdXAAAAYAAJ |pages=183–185|isbn=9781855001473 }}, {{Via|pre= |text=Full text [https://celt.ucc.ie//published/T106500D/index.html here]|CELT}}</ref>

<ref name=metrical-dinnshenchas-magcorainn>"Mag Corainn (Poem 96)" {{citation|editor-last=Gwynn |editor-first=Edward |editor-link=Edward Gwynn |title=The metrical Dindshenchas |volume=4 |publisher=School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies |year=1991|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lCdXAAAAYAAJ |page=293|isbn=9781855001473 }}, {{Via|pre= |text=Full text [https://celt.ucc.ie//published/T106500D/index.html here]|CELT}}</ref>

<ref name=williams>{{citation|last=Williams |first=Mark |author-link=<!--Mark Andrew Williams (1980–)-->|title=Ireland's Immortals: A History of the Gods of Irish Myth |publisher=Princeton University Press |orig-year=2016 |year=2018|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-1arBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA211 |pages=113–114 note 126<!--–--> |isbn=978-0-69-118304-6}}</ref>

}}

===Sources===
{{refbegin}}
* {{citation|editor-last=Stokes |editor-first=Whitley |editor-link=Whitley Stokes (Celtic scholar) |title=The Second Battle of Moytura |journal=Revue celtique |volume=12 |year=1891 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WjVKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA52 |pages=52–130; 306–308}}
* {{cite book|editor-last=Gray |editor-first=Elizabeth A. |editor-link=<!--Elizabeth A. Gray--> |title=Cath Maige Tuired: The Second battle of Mag Tuired |publisher=Drucker |year=1982 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BjzYAAAAMAAJ }} {{Via|pre= |text=Full text [https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T300010//index.html here]|CELT}} {{Via|pre= |text=Full text [http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/cmt/cmteng.htm here]|sacred-texts}}
* {{citation|editor-last=Macalister |editor-first=R.A.S. |editor-link=R.A.S. Macalister |title=Section VII: Invasion of the Tuatha De Danann |work=Lebor gabála Érenn, Part IV |series=<!--Irish Texts Society vol. XLI--> |year=1941 |url=https://archive.org/details/leborgablare04macauoft/page/134 }} ¶304–¶377 pp.&nbsp;106–211; Verses LIII–LXVI pp.&nbsp;212–291; Notes pp.&nbsp;292–
* McCone, Kim (1996). ''Towards a Relative Chronology of Ancient and Medieval Celtic Sound Change.'' Maynooth: Department of Old and Middle Irish, St. Patrick's College. {{ISBN|0-901519-40-5}}.
* {{citation|last=Shaw |first=John |author-link=<!--John Shaw--> |title=Indo-European Dragon-Slayers and Healers, and the Irish Account of Dian Cécht and Méiche |journal=Journal of Indo-European Studies |volume=34 |number=1 & 2 |year=<!--Spring/Summer-->2006  |url=https://www.academia.edu/10246879 |pages=153–181}}

{{refend}}

{{Celtic mythology (Mythological)}}

[[Category:Tuatha Dé Danann]]
[[Category:Irish gods]]
[[Category:Health gods]]