closely, to have been far from large enough. For instance, the Irish couvade (p. 363) should last only four days and five nights, a space of time out of all proportion to the interval during which the heroes of Ulster lay hors de combat, leaving Cúchulainn alone to face the enemy; besides, who ever heard of a couvade that included all the adult males of a whole province at one and the same time? It did well enough, however, to indicate the radical difference of nature that was supposed to exist between Cúchulainn's and that of the nobles of Ulster. Cúchulainn had inherited it from his father, who similarly differed from them before him; and this chimes in exactly with the conclusion drawn in these lectures as to Gwydion, Woden and Indra, that they were in point of origin human, and not divine. It is true that Cúchulainn's father's importance is reduced to a minimum; but so far as any distinctive character is left him, it coincides well enough with that of Gwydion and Woden: he devotes his attention to his son, who is however too strong-willed to be ruled by him, so that in the long run the father becomes the son's attendant and messenger.
The result, as regards the Solar Hero, is to prove the identity, so far as identity can be approached in such matters, of Cúchulainn with Heracles. It would take too much time to pursue this idea into the general similarity between certain of the labours of Heracles and those of Cúchulainn, and I will only call attention to one or two other points of resemblance. Thus I may observe that as Heracles was persecuted by Here the stern consort of Zeus, so the Mórrigu, or Great Queen of the Goidelic war-god, is described offended with Cúchulainn, and taking an active part against him at a
