The daughter of Diancecht, the God of medicine and sister to Miach.

To catch the attention of ex-King Nuada, they approached his porter who was missing an eye from battle by taking one of the eyes from his cat putting it in the hollow where the man's eye had been. He came to discover that it retained it's cat's nature, and, when the man wished to sleep at night the cat's eye was always looking out for mice, while it could hardly be kept awake during the day. However, he was pleased at the time and and told Nuada all about it.

When Nuada invited the two physicians in to see him, Miach dug up the bones of the old hand and uttering an incantation over the hand and stump (we assume he must have removed the silver hand to do this) caused the hand to renew itself and fix itself to the arm in three days and nights so that Nuada was whole again.

When their father Diancecht discovered that Miach had surpassed him in medicine he killed him. Upon Miach's grave there grew three hundred and sixty five blades of grass. Each one a cure for any illness of the three hundred and sixty five nerves in the body.

Airmid, carefully plucked each of these very carefully and arranged them on her mantle according to their properties. But, her jealous father overturned the mantle and scattered them all about. If not for Diancecht's act of jealousy, men would know how to cure every illness, and would so be immortal.

Back Home