Celtic Mythology and Religion

THE GAELIC GODS IN HISTORY. 115
of kindred Aryan races. " The King of the Feru-
Bolg," says Mr. Fitzgerald, " Eothaile—whom we
shall find reason to suspect to be a fire-giant—fled
from the field when the day was lost, ' in search of
water to allay his burning thirst,'
and by the water
of the sea he fell on Traigh-Eothaile, ' Eothaile's
Strand,' in Sligo. His great cairn, still standing,
on this strand was one of the wonders of Ireland,
and though not apparently elevated, the water could
never cover it." If we turn to the Fomorians, we
shall find quite as easy an explanation. The meaning
of the word is " Sea-rover ;
" it has always been
derived from the words " fo," under, and " muir,"
sea, and the meaning usually attached to the combination
has been ' ' those that rove on the sea. ' ' The
Fomorians are, therefore, sea-powers : the rough,
chaotic power of the Atlantic Ocean. They meet
the Tuatha-de-Dannan in the extreme West of
Ireland, on the last day of summer, that is, November
eve : the fierce ocean powers meet the orderly
heaven and air gods on the Atlantic borders when
winter is coming on, and the latter do not allow the
former to overwhelm the country. Balor of the
Evil Eye, whose glance can turn his opponents
into
stone, and who, in some forms of the legend, is
represented as having only one eye, is very suggestive
of Polyphemus, the giant son of the Grecian ocean
god. To this we may compare the Gaelic tale of
the Muireartach, where the Atlantic Sea is represented
as a " toothy carlin," with an eye in the middle