The Dagda is portrayed as possessing both super-human strength and appetite. He posesses a cauldron with an inexhaustible supply of food, a magical harp with which he summons the seasons, and an enormous club which is carried on wheels, with one end he can kill nine men, and with the other restore them to life. He also possessed two marvellous swine---one always roasting, the other always growing---and ever-laden fruit trees.
On the eve of the Second Battle of Magh Tuireadh, the Dagda visited the camp of the Fomorii, where he was forced to eat enough porridge of milk, flour, fat, pigs and goats for fifty men. This test temporarily turned him into a fat old man, but it did not prevent hm from making love to a Formorii girl, who promised to use her magic against her people.
One of his epithets is Eochaid Ollathair, which means "Father of All." He is identified with the Welsh Gwydion and the Gallic Sucellos.
Also known as: DAGHDA, DAGDE, and DAGODEVAS.
__________
DAMARA: A British feritility goddess, associated with the month of May.
__________
DANU: Also called the Red Mother of All, Danu is the major Irish mother goddess, mother of the gods and patroness of wizards, rivers, water, wells, prosperity and plenty, magic and wisdom. She has given her name to the Tuatha Dé Danann, which means the ‘Tribe of Dana,’ or the ‘Children of Danu.’
She most likely existed in an earlier form as Anu, Universal Mother Goddess. She was the mother of the DAGDA along with BILE.
She is associated with the rivers Danube, Don, and Dnieper.
Also known as: ANU, DAN, DANA, DANN, and DON.
__________
DEVA: A river goddess of the river Dee.
__________
DEWI: An old Welsh god. The official emblem of Wales, a red dragon, is derived from the Great Red Serpent that once represented the god Dewi.
__________
DIA GRIENE: The daughter of the sun in ancient Scotland. She appears in a folktale in which, held captive in the Land of the Big Women, she is freed by the Cailleach, disguised as a fox, and a helpful young bumbler named Brian.
__________
DIAN: Son of CARMAN who with his brothers DUB and DOTHER ravaged Ireland until stopped by the TUATHA DÉ DANANN.
Also known as: OLC.
__________
DIAN CECHT: The great god of healing and physician of the Tuatha Dé Danann. He made the silver hand for his brother, King Nuada, to replace the one lost in battle. Dian Cecht had blessed the well Slane by placing within it one of every good herb in Ireland, and in this well the wounded Tuatha Dé Danann bathed. It healed all their wounds so they could resume their fighting. The well Slane was then watched over by Airmed, Dian Cecht’s daughter. He had a son, Miach, whom he slew out of professional jealousy. Miach had replaced the silver hand Dian Cecht had made for Nuada with Nuada's own hand. Some claimed it was jealousy, while Dian Cecht said is was the disrespectful manner in which the replacement was done. He had another son, Cian, who was the father of Lugh. He also had a daughter, ETAIN(3), a goddess of healing, who was the wife of Ogma.
__________
DICTYNNA: Lawgiving goddess of Mount Dicte.
__________
DIWRNACH: The possessor of the magic cauldron which would not boil the food of a coward. He is variously described as the steward of the King of Ireland and also as a giant. The finding of this cauldron is the subject of the early Welsh poem Preiddu Annwn and is also described in Culhwch and Olwen.
Also known as DYRNWCH.
__________
DOMNU: Irish goddess of the Fomors.
__________
DON: The Welsh mother-goddess, and the daughter of Mathonwy, sister of Math ap Mathonwy. She is the wife of Beli the Welsh god of death, and mother of Amaethon, Arianrhod, The Dagda, Govannon, Gwydion, Gilvaethwy, Lugh, Nudd, and Ogma. Lugh, The Dagda, and Ogma sometimes are refered to as the Three Gods of Danann.
Her Irish counterpart is Danu.
__________
DONN: The Dark One, Lord of The Dead. DONN was the god of the dead in Ireland. In this capacity, his house, Tech Duinn (the House of DONN) is on an island south-west of the Irish coast. This served as the temporary resting place for the dead, before they made the crossing into the Otherworld.
Some sources claim that he was one of the Milesians, and therefore part of the group of mythological beings who overcame the Tuathe De Danann and thereby became the new rulers of Ireland.
According to legend, when DONN and the Milesians arrived on the shore of Ireland, they were greeted by the lovely goddess ERIU. She inquired of Donn whether she might have the honor of lending her name to the island that the Milesians planned to conquer. But Donn dismissed her and her request, scorning the goddess. This was a mistake, and Donn was made to pay for it. The god of the sea, Manannan Mac Lir, caused a storm to engulf the Milesians drowning Donn off the coast of Ireland. This area became his final resting place, and it is where Tech Duinn is said to exist.
__________
DOTHER: Son of Carman who with his brothers Dub and Dian ravaged Ireland until stopped by the Tuatha De Danann.
Also known as: CALMA.
__________
DRUANTIA: In British mythology, she was the druid goddess of birth, death, wisdom, and metempsychosis. She was the mother of the Irish tree-calendar alphabet.
__________
DUB: Son of Carman who with his brothers Dother and Dian ravaged Ireland until stopped by the Tuatha De Danann.
Also known as: DUBH.
__________
DWYN: A god of love.
Also known as: DWYNWEN
__________
DWYVACH: The goddess which is also the first woman; this is the goddess of beginnings.
__________
DWYVAN: The god of primal beginnings.
__________
DYLAN: Dylan ("sea"), a son of the virgin Arianrhod and her brother Gwydion. He was a sea-creature, and returned to the waves. Much later, he came back upon land and was killed by his own uncle Govannon, who did not know who he was. The sea forevermore wept for him in the form of vaves crashing on the shore. His brother was Llew Llaw Gyffes.
__________
