The Sheela na gigs, Sexuality, and the goddess in Ancient Ireland

Miriam Robbins Dexter and Starr Goode

Introduction
In both human social structure and divine pantheons, the ancient Irish exhibited a legacy
of powerful female figures. These female figures appear in both their iconography – as Sheela na
gigs – and in their literature. Neither oral traditions nor texts accompany the Sheela na gig
figures to tell us who or what they are meant to represent. Only the Sheelas themselves exist, as
images of supernatural women that are usually set into the architecture of churches and castles.
Their meaning has been examined by scholars for 150 years. We believe that the Sheela na gigs
reflect ancient Irish goddesses and heroines, although their form is even more ancient, dating to
the Upper Palaeolithic and Neolithic eras. In this paper, we connect Irish female figures found in
Old Irish texts with the Irish Sheela na gig carvings. We analyze the underlying functions and
characteristics of these iconographic and textual female figures. (1)
The Irish female figures – and by extension the Sheelas – are multivalent. In both the
iconography and the texts, they represent all possibilities of the Life Continuum: birth, death, and
rebirth. These female figures are not old or young but old AND young. They are not beneficent
or terrifying but beneficent AND terrifying. This is the paradox of those who occupy the realm
of the numinous: they represent a continuity of possibilities. Polarities need not apply to those in
the realm of the sacred.

The Sheelas: Overview and Antecedents

The Irish Sheela na gig – who has been called whore, devil, witch, and goddess – boldly
displays her supernatural genitals. Her compelling presence once caused a museum curator to
comment, “Sheela na gigs hinted at feelings and emotions not normally evoked by academic
study” (Roberts 1993, 2). Although the figure is conceptual, what is she a concept of? The
debate about the origins and meaning of the Sheela na gig, which continues to this day,
began in the nineteenth century when Irish antiquarians began cataloguing these mysterious
female images carved in stone on their medieval buildings.
The first recorded reference to a Sheela was by John O'Donovan in his Ordnance Survey
Letters of 1840.(2) Possible translations of her name are “old hag of the breasts” or “old hag on
her hunkers” (Kelly 1996, 5). Sile means ‘hag’ or ‘spiritual woman’; the term also relates to the
words ‘fairy’ or ‘sprite’ (Roberts 1993, 8). Gig can be interpreted as Irish gCioch or Giob,
‘breasts’ or ‘buttocks’. The earliest form of the name dates to 1781. Oddly enough, there was a
British Navy ship called Sile na Guig, translated as “Irish Female Sprite” (O'Connor 1991, 15;
for a different etymology see Freitag 1998: 65-68).
Several conflicting theories prevail as to the origins and functions of the Sheela na gig.
Does she embody the power of the Irish goddesses, first conjured on indigenous Irish soil? Or
did she originate on the European continent as a decorative figure on Romanesque churches,
depicting the sin of lust? It is generally agreed that most Sheelas were created between the
twelfth and sixteenth centuries as architectural motifs. Sheela-like exhibitionist figures are found
in western France, northern Spain, the British Isles, and Ireland. It is impossible to say how
many Sheelas once existed or were destroyed by a later, more puritanical age in Ireland; a fair
estimate
would be approximately 100; in the British Isles, there were approximately thirty-five. In France
and Spain, where the exhibitionist figures are smaller and hidden among other church carvings,
the numbers are even more difficult to ascertain. Contemporary scholars conducting intensive
research have counted over seventy female exhibitionist figures in France and some forty in
Spain

1
(Weir and Jerman 1993, 122).
Sheela na gigs come in different shapes and sizes, roughly ranging in height from one to
two feet. All are carved from stone, whether it be red sandstone, limestone, or gray granite. A
Sheela na gig may have the breasts of a hag, shrunken and flat, or on rare occasions, full,
pendulous breasts that hang from the sides of her body or are neatly tucked under her arms. Her
hand gestures are numerous and notorious. In the classic Sheela posture, both hands pull open
her private parts. Looking at some of the figures, one almost winces--so fierce and vigorous is
the gesture, the flesh would seemingly tear. And of course, the hands pull from different angles,
passing under the thighs to spread open the vulva or reaching down over the abdomen to execute
the display. A Sheela na gig nearly always squats on her hunkers, the better to frame her most
important feature. Whether a Sheela has full breasts or is a fierce hag with bony ribs and teeth;
whether she has a gleeful smile or a pregnant-looking belly; whether she has plaited hair or is
bald; whether she has one, two, or no hands, there is only one quality that makes a Sheela a
Sheela: she is, in no uncertain terms, exposing her exaggerated genitals, her sacred sexuality.(3)
All Sheelas have the power of display--the assertion of the power of the female sex!

The Romanesque Precursor and the Catholic Church Fathers

The Irish Sheela na gig has two precursors: a continental Romanesque architectural motif
and the sculptures of pagan Celtic Ireland. The continental roots of the Sheela manifested in
medieval Europe.(4) In the eleventh century, the first truly European style of architecture was
born: the Romanesque. As the name implies, the style derived from certain classical elements of
Roman architecture. The Romanesque churches were part of the rampant construction that
sprang up along what were known as the pilgrim routes, along which travelers journeyed to visit
holy shrines and relics. On a given day, for example, the city of Santiago in northern Spain could
expect 1,000 pilgrims to pass through. A tremendous amount of travel between the European
continent and the British Isles made the transmigration of art forms rapid and easy.(5) With
phenomenal vigor, the Romanesque school of architecture spread to England and Ireland.
Romanesque churches, although based on a classical model, emerged with a set of unique
qualities in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. This was seen in particular in their decorative
stone carvings. Whereas classical art celebrated a cool, symmetrical balance, Romanesque
sculpture was wild and passionate (Weir and Jerman 1993, 32). To separate it from its
predecessors, this art is characterized by words such as bizarre, grotesque, dynamic, and
haunting. The first dated Sheela-like figures appear among these fantastical stone carvings on
twelfth-century Romanesque churches in France and Spain, on the corbels, minor components in
the architectural scheme of things but critical in the history of the Sheelas. Corbels are brackets
which support roofs or cornices, forming part of the decorative façade of buildings; often each
corbel was adorned by a carved figure, which might be distorted because of its burden of weight.
Corbels were not so important as to be under the careful scrutiny of the monks supervising the
construction of a church, and the stone carvers could let their imaginations run unrestrained,
creating a strange subworld of Romanesque art (Andersen 1977, 47-48). The female
exhibitionist figures fit in well with their misshapen neighbors: acrobats, entertainers, mermaids,
and male exhibitionists.
The earliest recorded Sheela or Sheela-like figure in England is in Kilpeck. The Kilpeck
exhibitionist displays her great pudendum with a smile. She stands out among some eighty
corbel carvings on the Church of St. Mary and St. David. Records show that church construction
began around 1140 and also that the builder had just made a pilgrimage to France, where he was
undoubtedly influenced by Romanesque designs. Some of the carvings on the church reveal the
exact pattern of a French church which the builder visited on his pilgrimage: a clutching couple,
a musician, an acrobat. Itinerant masons traveled with their pattern books to various construction
sites of churches.
The earliest dated exhibitionist figure in Ireland is on the Nun's Church at Clonmacnoise,

2
an Irish center of learning in the Middle Ages. The Nun's Church, a gem of Irish Romanesque
architecture, was completed in 1167. Carved on the chancel arch, the figure is part of a series of
motifs. Her peanut head displays a huge grin and her legs are so spread apart that her heels rise
above her ears. She seems utterly merry in the bold display of herself (fig. 1).
The function of the female exhibitionist figures on these Romanesque churches is not
known. One commonly held view is that they are “images of lust,” created by Christian stone
carvers to embody the evils of the flesh. What better way to represent evil than through the
female sex? After all, in the words of St. Jerome, “Woman is the gate of the devil, the path of
wickedness, the sting of the serpent, in a word a perilous object” (Andersen 1977, 61). Thus, this
particular grotesque image of the female was said to serve as a warning against the dangers of
sexuality by showing the female sex in a supposedly disgusting light--a sermon in stone as it
were. The exhibitionist motif is thought to have originated as part of the folk art of the Middle
Age – an art which, granted, drew its visual inspiration from eclectic sources, including classical
and heathen, but whose morals were thoroughly Christian.(6)
The Christian religion was not a tabula rasa springing up pristine in the medieval period;
in fact, it took the Catholic Church centuries of concentrated warfare to conquer the traditions of
pagan Europe. Taking the longest view, Christianity is a veneer, the last coat of varnish on the
surface of a religious history which began in the Palaeolithic period. The mystery of the
medieval Sheela na gig is not that she exists, but that she was created at the very time when the
last vestiges of the Old Religion were being stamped out (Roberts 1993, 5). And not only did the
Sheela burst forth in the midst of the misogyny of Catholic Europe but she did so in a startling,
bold form. As far removed from the gentle, submissive ideal of the Virgin Mary as can be
imagined, the Sheela is aggressive and sexual. What was in the minds of those who carved her?
The artistic soil of Europe was pagan first. Classical Rome conquered Europe, which, as
the archaeological record shows, had a much earlier, pervasive worship of many goddesses,
including perhaps a “great”- goddess. In France and Spain, perhaps the Sheela-like figures did
serve as a warning against the flesh. But on the corbel table – the decorative ledges where the
Sheela prototype was not-so-humbly born – she often appears as a merry acrobat, smiling
through the "U" of her upturned legs. Her earthiness and humor do not make a very convincing
portrayal of Hell.

The Sheela's Celtic Precursor in Pagan Ireland

The Celtic precursor of the Sheela na gig is rooted in pagan Ireland. Never occupied by
the Romans, the Irish were able to keep their tribal Celtic culture alive well into the Christian era,
when pagan beliefs were Christianized rather than condemned. In Ireland, pre-Christian and
early
Christian carvings survive; these possibly were harbingers of the medieval Sheela na gig. These
prototypes color the character of the later Irish Sheelas, making them wilder, with a menacing
strength. The Irish Sheelas show features such as lean ribs, tattooing, a certain grotesqueness,
agonized looks, and headgear.
Some examples of these early Celtic and Celtic-Christian sculptures are found in the
environs of Lough Erne in Northern Ireland. An early Christian stone carving called the Bishop's
Stone has thick lips (as has the later Irish Sheela from Cavan), and one cheek is marked (a mark
echoed in the Kiltinan Sheela). The sculpture has the big head and abbreviated body of Celtic
tradition, the very proportions of many Irish Sheela na gigs (fig. 2). Pagan worship of the
powerful head was a long-lasting tradition (Andersen 1977, 73, 75).(7)
Two similar stone carvings, known as the gods of Boa Island, are located in a remote,
atmospheric Victorian graveyard on Boa island in Lough Erne. They are pre-Christian figures
thought to have been carved by Iron Age Celts (Henry 1965, 2). Tattooing appears on the face of
the bearded figure, a double-faced Janus; similar tattooing is found on the later Irish Sheelas.
The other sculpture, known as the Lustymore Idol, was transplanted from a nearby island. Often

3
described as a male figure, in situ one can see an faint inverted v that could be interpreted as a
vulva. Undeniable however is the posture of her arms: in the characteristic Sheela gesture, they
reach down towards the abdomen/genital area. Here we have one of the strongest examples of
the Celtic influence that shaped the later Sheelas.
On White Island in Lough Erne, a Sheela-like figure is inserted sideways near the door of
a Romanesque church. Irish Sheelas were sometimes placed sideways on the walls of the
buildings they adorned. The figure was carved in the tenth century and later placed in the church,
which was built in the twelfth century (Andersen 1977, 81). She is one of the best examples of a
transitional figure: arms resting on thighs, cross-legged, in a squatting position in the tradition of
Celtic gods and many Sheela na gigs. This figure is unlike a Sheela in that it is dressed in a short
tunic or cloak, and there is no clear indication of its sex.
The Lustymore Idol (fig. 3), though carved in stone, is reminiscent of a much earlier
female figure dating ca. 725-525 B.C.E., rendered in wood: the Ballachulish Statue. This figure
gestures in a Sheelalike manner, placing both hands on her abdomen; she also has a pronounced,
swollen pubic area. She was discovered in western Scotland, a Celtic region where later three
Sheelas were found. (8) The earliest Celtic prototype of the Irish Sheela na gig was discovered in
an impressive Celtic grave dating to the fourth century B.C.E. in Reinheim, Germany (Rynne
1987,190). Carved on the terminal of a gold armlet, the female figure displays her genitalia in a
fashion characteristic of the Sheela na gig, with her hands pulling open her labia. These images
reveal a Celtic tradition of nude female figures, some of which predate the Romanesque carvings
by millennia.

The Irish Sheela na gig

The Irish suffered their first invasion by England in 1169. The English Pope Adrian IV,
wanting to break the independent spirit of the Celtic Irish Church and consolidate papal
dominion, granted to King Henry II “the hereditary possession of Ireland (Roche 1995: 80). The
Irish Church was less repressive than that on the Continent. For example, it still permitted the
old Celtic custom of divorce and remarriage and did not share medieval Europe's fear of woman's
sexuality (Kelly 1996, 7, 45). After the twelfth-century colonization of Ireland by the
Anglo-Norman lords, the Romanesque architecture, a transitional style, faded, and in time, the
English Gothic style of the invaders evolved into Irish Gothic. On the walls of medieval
buildings, from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries, the Irish Sheela na gigs emerged (Kelly
1994, 49). The indigenous Irish sculptural tradition transformed the Romanesque motif. Sheela
na gigs are most concentrated in the center of the country on churches and castles built by
Anglo-Norman lords who used Gaelic masons (Kelly 1994, 12).
The Sheela na gig certainly excited the imaginations of those Irish artists who combined
the medieval female exhibitionist motif with lingering pagan themes (Andersen 1977, 77). In her
they saw the duality of their goddesses who had powers of both creation and destruction, which
was conceptualized by the display of the gigantic vulva – an image of creativity and regeneration.
In Ireland, the Sheela became a figure of great importance. She was not one of a hundred figures
on a corbel table but often the only figure on the building. With all of the rich images of Norman
corbel motifs to choose from, the Irish had an affinity for the exhibitionist female. It is she they
transformed into the Sheela na gig, selecting an image of aggressive female display to adorn
the architecture throughout their country.
Although mainly set on the walls of churches and castles, the Irish Sheela na gig is also
carved on towers, holy wells, menhirs (standing stones), and even the funerary monument of a
bishop. She is conspicuously placed by entrances – doors and windows – so that her great power
can give protection and bring good luck. The Irish Sheela na gig is a guardian of liminality, a
protectress of the portals. One Sheela na gig guards the main entrance to the Killinaboy Church
(fig. 4).

4
The Reformation
For four centuries, the Sheelas were a prominent architectural motif on churches and
secular buildings, becoming increasingly powerful until the seventeenth century, when the image
lost its official sanction due to the rising tide of Puritanism and the Counter Reformation of the
Catholic Church. Throughout the seventeenth century the clergy, acting under “provincial
statutes,” hid and also destroyed Sheelas (Weir and Jerman, 14). Although less than a hundred
still survive, it is impossible to know how many once adorned sacred architecture. Or how many
have yet to be uncovered from their hiding places where centuries ago some were hidden also by
those who probably wished to protect them from burning and burial. The invasion of Ireland by
English troops under Elizabeth I and Cromwell in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
marked the end of Gaelic Ireland.

Ancient Irish Goddesses and Heroines

Many of the Irish female figures cited in early texts show surprising parallels to the
Sheelas. In epic and myth, the heroines and goddesses were multifunctional, and, in terms of
their powers, many could be described as “great”- goddesses. The Irish, as an Indo-European
culture, had a ‘tripartite’ social and religious system: (9) its representatives fulfilled the
Dumézilian
first function as prophetesses, priests, purveyors of wisdom, and enablers of sovereignty (all
functions associated with the spiritual realm and magic); the second function as the bestowers of
warrior energy; and the third function as nurturers (craftspeople, farmers, and animal
domesticators; this function includes fertility and sexuality as well). The Irish female figures
often
fulfilled all of these functions. For example, the heroine Macha had a triple history. The first
Macha was a seeress; the second, Macha Mongruad, “red-maned Macha” was a warrior in her
own right; and the third Macha, wife of Cruinn, was both nurturer and pregnant horse-substitute.
(10) Macha participated in another sort of tripartism: she was one of three sisters, daughters of
Ernmas (herself daughter of Etarlam) and Dilbaeth; the others were Badb and the Morrígan.(11)
In fact, Macha is called badb, which as a common noun indicates a scald crow, a royston crow
(Quin 1953-75, fascicle B, 5) (12) or a vulture (Dineen 1927, 68).
Queen Medb, described in the Irish epic, the Táin Bó Cúalnge (TBC), was goddess of
sovereignty.(13) Not only did she bestow sovereignty upon the Irish kings, but she was a queen
in her own right. She was also a general, leading her troops in the Cattle Raid of Cooley, and a
warrior.(14) And she was a third-function figure as well, a fount of sexuality, offering not only
her own ‘thighs’ to encourage her warriors but also promising her daughter Finnabair in marriage
to every Connacht warrior who would fight Cú Chulainn in single combat.(15) Although not
very young, Medb was beautiful and sensuous (see Dexter 1997). She is described in the TBC as
a tall, beautiful woman with flowing blond hair. (TBC 3677-3678) We will discuss Medb in
relation to the Sheelas shortly, along with other Irish goddesses who fulfilled distinct functions,
particularly those of sovereignty and the warrior-craft. First, we will review some of the Sheelas
to provide iconographic context for our discussion.

The Sheelas: Iconographic Evidence

The Irish Sheela na gigs are fascinating visual images of extraordinary or supernatural
women. With great power emanating from their vulvas, in addition to their resonance with earlier
Celtic goddesses and heroines, the Irish Sheelas embody an ancient iconography. One of the
most geographically accessible Sheelas in situ is the Killinaboy Sheela na gig, the sole figure
carved on a medieval church in County Clare. (16) As impossible to miss in the present day as
she must have been nearly 800 years ago, one can imagine the monks and nuns passing under her

5
on their way to mass. There is a bit of folklore told about the Sheela.(17) A laborer working on
the road inquired, “Have you seen our Sheela na gig up on the church there? The Christians put
her up to bring in the pagans.” Locally, this Sheela is known as Bhaoith, after St. Bhaoith, the
founder and first abbess of the church (Andersen 1977, 149). She guards this sacred site, which
once included a round tower and a monastery. The graveyard surrounding the church is still in
use. The Sheela is bald; her knees are slightly bent, her legs splayed out, and she squats, the
better to frame her display. The mouth is a fierce grimace, and although one could count the ribs
on her emaciated body, her left hand pulls at the thick, exaggerated labia. That is, she represents
both old age and death and, on the other hand, lush sexuality. A figure of duality, she tilts her
hips forward in a sensual thrust – an open invitation – and yet her whole body emanates menace.
Placed above the door on the south wall, she commands a grand view of the countryside; her
sacred purpose is to protect the entrance and the land she surveys.
An unusual Sheela na gig, carved above the south window of a medieval church in
Kilsarkin, County Kerry, has no body. She has only a head, a pair of legs curving around the
spandrels of the window, and, most importantly, a much-rubbed vulva. One can reach up and
touch her genitals as many, clearly, have already done; the rubbing continues to this day. The
stone dust from her vulva is thought to have magical properties that bring good luck and promote
fertility (Andersen 1977, 22, 26). (fig. 5). A folk tradition has been recorded about another
Sheela, the Oxford Sheela na gig: brides were told to look at the Sheela before entering the
church as a blessing for fertility (Andersen 1977, 142-43; Lippard 1983, 218).
The Ballyvourney Sheela na gig of County Cork is an unremarkable carving except for its
association with the rich myth and tradition surrounding the figure of the Catholic St. Gobnait.
The Ballyvourney Sheela, also called St. Gobnait (Guest 1937, 374), can be found in the lintel in
the ruins of the abbey of St. Gobnait. She suffered a mutilation of the lower half of her body at
the hands of zealots, an unfortunate fate that sometimes befalls Sheela na gigs.(18) To this day,
on February 11, the saint's feast day, pilgrims come to worship and make their rounds from holy
well to Sheela na gig. The priests have banned earlier parts of the ritual, but pilgrims continue to
touch the Sheela na gig, although only with hands covered by handkerchiefs. Is this an act of
respect, an acknowledgment of divine powers that no human may touch directly? In earlier
customs, recorded in the seventeenth century, a wooden statue of St. Gobnait was carried around,
and paganlike dancing revels took place under a beam of flowers, apples, and cakes; the statue
was also carried “round to sick people, and so it is said, to assist in childbirth” (Guest 1937, 378,
379). Even earlier tradition has St. Gobnait in her original role of sovereignty, one of a trio of
local goddesses guarding the well (Ross 1973, 159). Outside the remains of the church is a statue
of St. Gobnait, known for her healing powers. In addition to being an herbalist, St. Gobnait used
the fertilizing power of bees; hence, bees are carved at the base of her statue. Next to the saint is
her holy well, whose sacred waters also promise a cure. Holy wells are found near the sites of
many Sheelas.(19)
Ballinderry Castle in County Galway, built around 1540 and known as “the last of the
Clare Castles,” displays a Sheela na gig in the keystone of the arch over the door (Andersen
1977, 144). Her placement at this strategic point emphasizes her ability to lend strength to the
structure. Such a placement above the only entrance to the castle suggests, again, the apotropaic
function of the Sheela na gig. This particular Sheela na gig displays intricate Celtic
ornamentation. Her plaits show knotwork, and three circles have patterns of three, six, and eight,
respectively, the triskele, the marigold, and the rosette.(20) Perched on the rosette is a small bird,
a significant depiction in connection with the warrior-goddess. The pattern of three is as ancient
in Ireland as the triple spiral carved on the prehistoric temple of Newgrange. All this
sixteenth-century design was part of the Celtic revival of the period, fostered by the
Anglo-Norman lords, who in a “cultural assimilation” became “more Irish than the Irish” (Kelly
1994, 49). The mason who carved the Ballinderry Sheela was drawing upon the art of the Celtic
past. The Gundestrup Cauldron, which was probably manufactured between the fourth and third
centuries B.C.E., has a female figure whose hair is arranged in braids and who is surrounded on

6
either side by wheels or rosettes, motifs which the Ballinderry Sheela echoes (fig. 6).
In the town of Moate in County Westmeath behind the castle, a wall was rebuilt in 1649
(Andersen 1977, 150). A Sheela na gig stands above the green door, guarding the entrance.
Singularly grotesque in appearance and monstrous in expression, thick lipped, with teeth, an
asymmetrical body, and tattooing across her forehead, the Moate Sheela is altogether menacing.
Most Sheelas squat, which is the ancient bearing-down position of giving birth. In this one, a
swollen, pregnant-looking belly can be seen above her display. Although her face seems
monstrous, this Sheela is young enough to be fertile. Two other Sheelas depicted with bulging or
sagging bellies are the Sheela on the Dowth Old Church and the weathered Sheela on the Nun's
Church on the Island of Iona. Both show a “sagging, rounded belly combined with spread out
small legs, a posture strongly reminiscent of pregnancy in its last heavy stage before birth”
(Andersen 1977, 103; fig. 7).
Two Sheelas are on display at the National Museum in Dublin. The Clonmel has a face
like a death mask; the tattoos on her cheek are similar to those of the pagan Janus figure. Her
breasts are also deformed by striations or vertical tattoos. In her duality, the goddess unites the
themes of death and eroticism, as we will explore further. Her vulva is marked with red, almost
pulsing with life. She is known as "the Idol of Blue Anchor Lane" after the spot where she
was discovered in 1944 near a Dominican priory (Kelly 1996, 33).
The Seir Kieran is the companion to the Clonmel Sheela in the National Museum. With
her stylized massive shoulders and ribs, shrunken hag breasts, and expressive face, she is a
formidable piece of sculpture. This Sheela na gig has curious holes drilled into her
abdomen/genital area as well as two holes on the top of her head, which possibly testify to a
ritual use of the Sheela. One can imagine this Sheela decorated with the horns of the Goddess,
with flowers, or with other offerings; perhaps the cup-like hole below her vulva was filled with
water with which worshipers blessed themselves. The area of Seir Kieran was once a pagan
sanctuary (Andersen 1977, 88).(21) The Sheela's mouth is pursed in an O of fright or ecstasy.
The dramatic Cavan Sheela na gig once adorned a church; her sexually swollen labia are
echoed in the lips on her face. Even her eyes seem like puffy lips, and she has a protruding
tongue, which is rare for a Sheela. Her facial expression is intense and disturbing. Her ribs are
carved like chevrons, and she wears unusual headgear, but central to her being is the large vulva
reaching to her knees.
The Kiltinan Church, in Fethard in County Tipperary, dates to the fourteenth century
(Guest 1937, 384). There, a Sheela na gig was placed sideways on the quoin, or corner wall.
Such a placement was believed to impart physical as well as spiritual strength to the building
(Andersen 1977, 107). The figure is remarkably angular. Her right shoulder is raised to a point,
as is her left elbow; her head is triangular, and her left breast has two nipples. She stands on one
foot with her left hand lifted to her face. The stare of her round eyes and her open mouth, as if in
speech, make a fierce countenance. Her left hand is raised to her ear; her left cheek is marked in
the same manner as the Bishop's Stone, carved some 600 years earlier. This particular Sheela na
gig is imbued with history. O'Donovan's Ordnance Survey of 1840 records his encounter with
the Sheela na gig, revealing how his Victorian sensibilities were quite undone by her. He
describes a female carving “whose attitude and expression conspire to impress the grossest idea
of immorality and licentiousness” (O'Donovan 1840, 150). O'Donovan traveled around Ireland
for thirteen years in his duties as a surveyor; he allotted more words to this Sheela na gig than to
any other single artifact (O'Connor 1991, 5, 7)! Repelled though he claimed to be, he was
certainly mesmerized. Sadly, the Kiltinan Sheela is also famous because it was stolen from the
church in January 1990. In Fethard, the people's connection to the Sheela is such that she was
missing for only a few hours before her loss was discovered. James O'Connor tells a boyhood
story of being afraid of the dark one night when he had to direct a tractor to his family's wheat
field directly across from the Kiltinan Church. His legs, “with a mind of their own,” carried him
over to the Sheela, and he sat beneath her feeling safe and protected the rest of the night
(O'Connor 1991, 8).

7
 A Sheela just down the road from Kiltinan, known as the “witch on the wall,” is difficult
to distinguish from the stones of the remains of a fourteenth-century medieval town wall
(Andersen 1977, 85). She faces south, as many Sheela na gigs do. She overlooks an old bridge
on the Clashawley River, gazing alertly, strategically guarding the southern entrance to the town,
the very road from which Cromwell's forces invaded Fethard in the seventeenth century. Her
hands reach under her thighs to open her vulva. On her left cheek, she has a tattooed pattern of
chevrons very similar to those marking the face of the pagan Janus figure, once again linking the
Sheelas to the earlier Irish sculptures. (fig. 8).
Finally, the most aesthetically rendered Sheela, the Ballylarkin Sheela na gig, is one of
the finest carvings of a Sheela. Her face radiates an archaic serenity, she emanates power and
grace, and her hand is delicately (and deliberately!) placed on a strategic spot on her vulva. This
Sheela is from the Kilkenny area known for its skilled Irish masons (Kelly 1996, 12). The
function of the Irish Sheela na gig is revealed in her conceptualized genital display. Her spiritual
essence is her supernatural femaleness and its transforming energy. The mystical powers of her
sacred vulva are employed on religious and secular architecture for protection, strength, healing,
and sovereignty as she surveys the land from her eminence.

EPICS AND MYTHS: The Textual Evidence

As we discussed earlier, Irish goddesses served several functions; they were seeresses and
bestowers of sovereignty as well as warrior prowess. In carrying out these functions, they
frequently acted in a sexual manner.

Seeresses
There were many Irish goddesses and heroines who foretold the future. The tutor of Cú
Chulainn, the great female warrior Scáthach, fulfilled the hero’s three wishes: to teach him the
warrior-craft, to have intercourse with him, and to prophesy his future to him. (see Ford 1988,
429; Dexter 1997) The Morrígan, about whom more later, was able to foretell the outcome of
battle. Macha, the triple goddess, could also foretell the future. The first Macha was the wife of
Nemed, “the sacred one,” and she foretold the distress suffered by the men of Ulster in the Táin
Bó Cúalnge. Macha also caused hardship to the Ulster folk, in the following way. The third
Macha was a magical woman who came to the door of the farmer, Cruinn, one day, and offered
to live with him. She married him and increased his material prosperity, and she became
pregnant. This Macha had a great gift: she could run faster than the fastest horses. Her husband,
not heeding her wishes, boasted of her ability to the Ulster King Conchobor, and the latter
insisted on an immediate race with his own horses, heedless of the fact that Macha was nine
months pregnant. So Macha raced the king’s horses on the green, and she won the race, giving
birth to twins on the finish line. (22) Exhausted, she died, (23) but not until she had cursed the
Ulstermen, that when they needed their military strength the most, each man would have no more
strength than a woman in childbed. This would continue for several generations of Ulstermen.
For that reason, in the battle of the TBC, no man of the Ulster folk was able to engage in battle.
Only the fosterling, Cú Chulainn – Conchobor’s nephew, but not born of an Ulster mother – had
the strength to do battle against the men of Connacht.
Like Macha, Sheelas such as the Moate Sheela were sometimes depicted as pregnant
women.

Goddesses of Sovereignty
There were many Irish goddesses and heroines who foretold the future. The tutor of Cú
Chulainn, the great female warrior Scathach, fulfilled the hero's three wishes: to teach him the
warrior-craft, to have intercourse with him, and to prophesy his future. The Morrígan was able to

8
foretell the outcome of battle. Macha, the triple goddess, could also foretell the future. The first
Macha was the wife of Nemed, "the sacred one," who predicted the distress suffered by the men
of Ulster in the Táin Bó Cúalnge.
Several sovereignty figures exist in Irish myth and epic. In both her Leinster and
Connacht forms, Queen Medb was an epicized goddess of sovereignty.(24) The Leinster Medb,
Medb Lethderg (‘red-side’) was “the daughter of Conan of Cuala.”(25) It was said that “a man
will not be a king over Ireland/if the ale of Cuala does not come to him”(26). Thus, Medb is the
‘ale’ of Cuala, without whom a man cannot be king. And further, “Great indeed was the power
and the ability of that Medb over the men of Ireland, for she would not admit a king in Tara if she
herself were not a wife for him” (27). Medb could be ruler in her own right:

“Medb Lethderg of Leinster was with King Art,

and after Art's death, she bore the kingship.”(28)

Both the Leinster and the Connacht versions of Medb have a long list of husbands, each
of whom becomes king. The first husband of the Connacht Medb was the Ulster King
Conchobor, by whom she was violated (O'Maille 132-33, 141); that is, their sexual relationship
was nonconsensual; Medb subsequently left Conchobor. Medb's second and third husbands,
Eochaid Dala and Ailill, respectively, married her and were then appointed king of Ireland “with
the
consent of Medb” (29) A consensual relationship with the goddess was the accepted means by
which a man became king of Ireland.
Queen Medb was sexually active, both within and outside of her marriages, and she did
not tolerate jealousy from her husbands. Says Medb,

“I asked for a wonderful bridal gift, which no woman ever before had asked
of a man of the men of Ireland, that is, a husband
without stinginess, without jealousy, without fear.” (Táin Bó Cúalnge 27-28) (30)

In fact, Medb says,

“If the man with whom I should be were jealous, it would not be proper,
for I was never before without a man waiting close by,
in the shadow of another.” (36-37). (31)

Medb's husband Ailill is, she says, just such a man (38-39).

Whereas Medb represented sovereignty as an epicized female figure, the goddess Flaith
represented divine sovereignty. Flaith means ‘lordship, sovereignty, rule' and also ‘ale, beer' (see
Quin 1953-75, fascicle F, 160-61). A shape-changer, she could be a young woman or a crone. In
one Irish tale, Conn, a king of Tara, was traveling with his retinue. The men lost their way in a
mist; that is, they were probably crossing the veil into the ‘Otherworld’. They came to a dwelling
where they met a phantom who happened to be Lugh, god of the ancient magical folk, the Túatha
Dé Danann, the “people of the goddess Danu.” A young woman was with Lugh. We are told,

“The girl was the Sovereignty [Flaith] of Erin.”(32)

The young woman, Flaith, was seated on a chair; before her lay a silver vat, a golden
vessel, and a golden cup. Flaith served Conn with mead, and she asked him to whom the cup of
red ale--the dergflaith--should be given. This initiatory red ale was given to Conn and several
other future kings. In this way, Flaith – sovereignty – bestowed herself upon the kings-to-be of
Ireland.

9
 Although Flaith was young and lovely when she served Conn, she was a rather
unattractive old woman in other tales. In the story of Niall of the Nine Hostages, a young man,
Niall, went hunting with his four stepbrothers. Each went to search for drinking water, and each
came in turn to a well guarded by an ugly crone:

“There was an old woman, a seeress, seated on the edge of the well. /
She had a mouth in which there was room for a hound. /
She had a tooth-fence around her head. She was an ugly horror of Ireland.” (LL
4580-83.) (33)

The old woman told each young man that she would give him water only if he kissed her.
Each brother decided that thirst was preferable – until Niall came up to the well. He truly
embraced her, whereupon the crone became a beautiful young woman. She served him,
declaring,

“The drink for which you came ...

there will be glory to drink, from a mighty goblet.
It will be mead; it will be honey; it will be powerful ale.” (LL 4668-71) (34)

“Who are you?" Niall asked in astonishment. Flaith told him that she was the Sovereignty
of Ireland and, addressing Niall as king, she gave to him the kingship.

Da Derga's Hostel

A quite opposite phenomenon appears in the Irish tale of the Destruction of Da Derga's
Hostel. In this tale, there is a weak king, Conaire, whose realm is falling apart. A bad omen for
King Conaire appears at the hostel where he is staying: first a crude, ugly man and then

“a woman of huge mouth, big, dark, a trouble, ugly, came after him.
Thereafter, even if her snout were thrown upon a branch
it would remain sticking to it . Her lower lip [i.e., her labia] extended to her knee.”(35)

We can compare this textual figure with the Cavan Sheela, whose genitals extend to her
knees. In the story of Da Derga's Hostel, a scene with a woman who has huge labia is echoed
later in the text. Close to the time of King Conaire's death, a lone woman appears at the hostel
after sunset,

“asking to be admitted into the house. Each of her two shins was as long as a weaver’s
beam. They were as black as a beetle’s back. A dusky, very wooly cloak about her.
Her lower (pubic) hair extended to her knee. Her lips [were] upon the side of her head.”
(36)

The lone woman stands near the hostel door, just as the Sheelas stand, lie over, or are
adjacent to doors and windows of Irish edifices, in particular the sacred, liminal churches (Ford
1988, 431) (37) Sheelas such as the Kilsarkin sometimes have their legs spread to either side of
the pediment or spandrel of a window, “suggesting the length and breadth of the window that
stretches below her as the vaginal opening” (431).(38) This goddess is apotropaic, protecting the
sacred spot from enemies.(39) But in the case of Da Derga's Hostel, the goddess, the lone
woman, foreshadows King Conaire's death. She leans against the doorpost and recites all of her
names – including the names of Nemain and Badb, the warrior-goddesses. Then, from the door,
“upon one leg and holding up one hand,” (40) she utters prophecies to the inhabitants of the
hostel.

10
 We can compare this lone woman with the Kiltinan Sheela, who stands on one leg,
holding her hand up in the air (Roberts 1997, 1). This warrior-goddess, this death-goddess, is not
without a sense of the erotic.(41) Conaire asks her,

“What is your desire?” “That, therefore, which is a desire to you yourself,” says the
woman. “It is taboo for me,” says Conaire, “to receive a company [of] one woman
after the setting of the sun.”(42)

The young king thus sexually rejects the goddess. This situation is the exact opposite of
that experienced by the young hero such as Niall, who embraces the old woman and is made king
(Breathnach 1982). King Conaire will lose his kingdom and his life.

Goddesses of War
Several ancient Irish goddesses fulfilled the warrior function. The warrior goddesses
were often represented as black birds and associated with slaughter and death. We discussed
earlier the fact that badb as a common noun indicates a type of crow or vulture. Nemain, whose
name means ‘battle-fury, warlike frenzy’, or ‘strife’ (Quin 1953-75, fascicle N, 32), also was
represented as a bird. She brought confusion to the armies in the TBC (2133-34, et passim). The
Morrígan, whose name likely means ‘death queen’, (43) appears to the hero Cú Chulainn as an
old woman on the road; (44) the two argue, and she then turns into “a bird ... upon the branch
nearby” (Táin Bó Regamna 5, 2133-34). (45)
The Morrígan could also be young and beautiful.(46) She took other shapes as well: “a
white heifer with red ears” (TBC, 1993) (47), “a slippery eel” (1998) (48), and “a mangy,
greyish-red she-wolf” (2001) (49). The battle goddess, like the goddess of sovereignty, was a
shape-changer.
Badb, the battle-crow, is associated with the color red, often with the red of blood. In the
TBC, and elsewhere, she is called the “red-mouthed Badb” (3431),(50) for she devours the dead.
Badb prophesies death on the battlefield. In the battle of the TBC, “the Badb will shriek at the
ford” (2808). (51)
Similarly, the Túatha Dé Danann queen, Éire, changes shape when she is fighting the
enemy Milesians. At times, she is a beautiful queen; on other occasions she is a battle-crow.(52)
She then says, “Ériu is my name” (53). Thus, Éire was none other than the protective goddess of
the land, Ériu, for whom Ireland is named.
On an epic level, Queen Medb, too, was a warrior in her own right. In the TBC, she was
called “the best in battle and encounter and contention.”(54) Like the warrior-goddesses, the
epic Queen Medb is connected with birds. In the TBC, Cú Chulainn cast a stone at Medb; it hit
the pet bird that she used to carry on her shoulder, killing it (1273-75).

Sexuality
Through the transmission of sexual energy, the Irish goddesses bestowed both
sovereignty and prowess in battle upon the ancient Irish gods and male heroes. The act of sex,
among the ancient Irish, engendered energy in much the same way that the Indic Shaktis
energized their divine consorts, the Indic gods. Thus, the shakti, the goddess Devî/Kâlî, dances
upon Shiva’s body, in order to activate Shiva’s dormant male energy. These figures form part of
a tradition valuing the female and female sexuality – some of whose roots go back to a
prehistoric pro-erotic cultural layer.(55)
Medb, as bestower of sovereignty, sleeps with or marries all of the men who will become
king of Ireland. Likewise, Flaith, the old woman at the well, only granted sovereignty to the man
who would truly embrace her. One must totally embrace – that is, have sex with – the goddess of
sovereignty to be worthy of becoming the true king. Sovereignty must be highly sexual, highly

11
fertile, to guarantee the fertility of the land. The goddess of sovereignty guarantees the king's
right to a successful reign. If the land is barren, so is his kingship.(56)
The goddess of war also sleeps with those she deems worthy of being a victorious
warrior. In the Battle of Moytura,(57) the Morrígan helped the ancient Irish Túatha Dé Danann to
defeat their enemy, the Fomorians. Just before this great battle, around the time of Samain,(58)
the Celtic Halloween – when the veil between the world of mortals and immortals is the thinnest
– the Dagda, the great chieftain god of Danu's people, met the Morrígan in Glen Etin, near the
river Unius, and there the two made love. Afterward, the Morrígan prophesied to the Dagda,
telling him of the battle to come and how she would help him to win it. She was present on the
battlefield, heartening the Túatha Dé, who were, of course, victorious, and subsequently, the
Morrígan proclaimed that battle and its victory throughout Ireland. In sleeping with the Dagda,
the Morrígan imbued him with her divine energy, and he was enabled to lead the Túatha Dé to
victory.
Just as the Morrígan sleeps with the Dagda, so, in the TBC, Queen Medb sleeps with the
hero Fergus mac Roich, “Warrior Hero, son of Great Horse,” who has a penis “seven
fist-lengths” (59). Medb's husband Ailill comes upon the two on the hillside in Connacht. He
takes Fergus's sword and replaces it with a wooden one, intending to give it back at the time of
the great battle. In the TBC, there is no mention of any self-righteous anger on the part of Ailill
(2487-91).(60) The Irish goddess/queen of sovereignty has sexual autonomy. Medb and Ailill
also promise their daughter Finnabair – perhaps as a younger representative of her mother – to
any man who will go against the Ulster hero Cú Chulainn in single combat. Medb and Ailill
offer each warrior (61) plenty of liquor, in addition to Finnabair, who pours out their drink for
them, serves them, and kisses them,(62) and several of the drunken, lusty heroes agree to do
battle with Cú Chulainn. As it turns out, Finnabair does not have to marry any of the warriors,
because each dies in turn as he meets Cú Chulainn in battle.(63) Medb's sexual adventures are
characterized differently from the Morrígan's, because the Battle of Moytura was a myth about a
goddess, and the TBC was an epic about pagan mortals, probably written by the Irish Christian
literati (see Dexter 1997). In the latter work, Medb is treated as a caricature of queen and
goddess (and mother as well); whereas the Morrígan is an enabler for the Dagda, the epic Queen
Medb fails to give Fergus the power to be victorious. The Morrígan figures somewhat differently
in the TBC than she does in the Battle of Moytura. She stirred up “mutual strife” between the
men of Connacht and the men of Ulster, as a battle-goddess might be expected to do (TBC
4600-01).(64)

Conclusions

To the ancient Irish, there was great power in the nakedness of the female body.
According to the tales of Cú Chulainn's childhood deeds, the hero once went into a warrior rage.
To diffuse his martial temper, his uncle, King Conchobor, devised a plan to tame him:

“to send a company of women out toward

the boy, that is, three times fifty women, that is, ten women and seven times
twenty, utterly naked, all at the same time, and the leader of the women
before them, Scandlach, to expose their nakedness and their boldness to him.
The whole company of women came out, and they all exposed their nakedness and
their boldness to him. The boy lowered his gaze away from them and laid his
face against the chariot, so that he might not see the nakedness nor the
boldness of the women” (TBC 1186-92). (65)

This power of the naked female is perhaps seen most clearly, in Ireland, in the figures of
the Sheela na gigs. In popular belief and practice, the Irish have not lost their ancient awe at the
sight of displayed female genitals. According to folk traditions recorded in the nineteenth and

12
twentieth centuries, the Sheela na gig is not simply a monument on a wall. In 1843, Johann
Georg Kohl, a German traveling in Ireland, recorded the results of his investigations of the
Sheela na gigs. Fascinated by the stone carvings that were thought to avert the evil eye and bring
good luck, he discovered among the Irish, living Sheela na gigs! These women could heal a
person caught in the spell of the evil eye. The cure, of course, was the lifting of their skirts to
display their nakedness. “These women were called and still are called ‘Shila na Gigh’” (Kohl in
Andersen 1977, 23).(66) Kohl notes, “if such a thing ever existed in Ireland, so one can believe
that it is the same now” (67).
Interestingly, in the 17th century, the Kilmore diocesan synod refused to offer sacraments
to a category of women known as gieradors, who “might perhaps be described as ‘living sheela-
na-gigs’” (Weir and Jerman, 15). Might these powerful healers who so interested Kohl be the
descendents of those earlier gieradors banned from the church? Over a century later, in a letter
to the Irish Times, January 23, 1977, an elderly man, Walter Mahon-Smith, recalled an incident
from his youth: “In a townland near where I lived [Caherfinsker, Athenry, County Galway], a
deadly feud had continued for generations between the families of two small farmers. One day,
before the first World War, when the men of one of the families, armed with pitchforks and
heavy blackthorn sticks, attacked the home of the enemy, the woman of the house (bean-a'-tighe)
came to the door of her cottage, and in full sight of all (including my father and myself, who
happened to be passing by) lifted her skirt and underclothes high above her head, displaying her
naked genitals. The enemies of her family fled in terror.”
Dr. Edith Guest, in her Irish Sheela-na-Gigs in 1935 (the first taxonomy of the Sheelas),
indirectly affirms the ancient custom of females' displaying themselves to dispel evil and that
such females were called Sheela na gigs. In an appendix, she recalls using the term to a country
woman from the Macroom district. The woman “derived some puzzled amusement from it (the
word Sheela na gig), and wondering why I should desire to seek out old women of the type
which I may describe for brevity as ‘hag’” (Guest 1936, 127). It seems that the professional
Sheela na gigs were elderly women. Whether there are still-living Sheela na gigs practicing their
art in the countryside of Ireland, we cannot say, but the stone Sheelas continue their display to
this day, and contemporary rubbings on their genitals demonstrate that they continue to receive
the caresses of their admirers.

Thus, the iconographic figures of the Sheelas complement the texts describing Irish
goddesses and heroines. Through studying each, we better understand the other. The Sheela,
fiercely displaying her more-than-human sexuality, embodies the Irish goddess found in texts.
The Irish goddess represents the whole of the Life Continuum: Birth, Death, and
Regeneration. Her deathlike aspect may be seen in the skull-like head and old, emaciated body
of the Sheela na gig. Her birthing and regenerative aspect is evidenced by her supernaturally
swollen vulva; when mortal women are about to give birth, their vulvas swell; the vulva of the
regenerative goddess swells hugely, supernaturally. The vulva, in fact, is the central,
foundational image of creation. This goddess is a magical shape changer; in this, she is similar to
many powerful “great-” goddesses throughout the world. She can be young or old, ugly or
beautiful. She changes from hag to beautiful woman at will. At times, the Irish goddess will test
the quality of the potential “true king,” by appearing as a hag, as she does with Niall. She is the
bestower of sovereignty and the crow of the battlefield who ravages but also grants victory. A
protectress of the land, she bestows both sovereignty and victory by mating with the male whom
she energizes. (68)
Underlying the multiple functions of the Irish goddesses is one phenomenon: her super-
human sexuality. By having intercourse with the hero, the goddess of war/sovereignty transmits
to him, in an active manner, her energies of kingship and war. Far from being a negative
manifestation of lust, the Sheela – just as the Irish goddess – is sacred. She both energizes and
protects the people who occupy her land. In the bestowal of energies through her huge sexual
prowess, she manifests her complementarily huge sacrality.

13
NOTES
(1.) This article is an expansion of an earlier one published in ReVision 23 (1). The latter was
based upon a slide lecture given at the first international conference on archaeomythology in
honor of Marija Gimbutas, Madouri, Greece, August 1998, sponsored by Joan Marler and the
Institute of Archaeomythology.

(2.) The name recorded in 1840 is Sile Ni Ghig and Sheela Ny Gigg (O'Donovan 1840, 152,
154). The Irish behind the half-anglicized name is difficult to trace (Andersen 1977, 22).

(3.) Green (1986, 213) believes that exaggeration “is the transmutation from the mundane to the
sublime.”

(4.) The date 1000 C.E. was a milestone in the history of Western Europe. The millennium year
passed, the world was still intact, and the era of the Viking raids had ended. The Northmen, or
Normans, through the 911 Treaty of St.-Clair-sur-Epte, gained territory in northern France, soon
to be known as Normandy. Western Europe became calmer, Christianity spread, and a great
building boom began. Out of this building explosion, a new architectural style appeared: “It was
as if the world had shaken itself, and, casting off its old garments, had dressed itself again in
every part in a white robe of churches” (Brandenburg 1993, 13).

(5.) A complex cultural milieu of social and religious factors also contributed to the expansion of
the Romanesque school of architecture to the British isles and Ireland. The Catholic Church
tightened its political grip to make Rome the center of religious power. New monastic orders
were formed and dispersed throughout Europe to consolidate papal dominion and canonical
practices.

(6.) Romanesque motifs often adapted images of Classical divine figures such as Tellus Mater,
the Earth Mother; other “inspiration can be pointed to, such as the Greek cult associated with the
goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone” (Kelly 1994, 48). Weir and Jerman point out,
“Many classical hybrid monsters found their way into Romanesque iconography, among them a
fish-tailed human female” (1993, 49).

(7.) “A remarkable continuity is one of the most striking aspects of Irish art” (Henry 1965, 1).

(8.) See Battaglia (1997, 56, fig. 3) for an image and discussion of the Ballachulish figure, as an
antecedent of the Sheela na gigs.
(9.) Georges Dumézil researched the Indo-European tripartite social structure through a lifetime
of books and articles (Littleton 1982).

(10.) See Dumézil 1954: 5-17. For the functions of Macha, see Coe 1995, 46. See also Dexter
1990a, 90-91, 1990b, 285-307. Carey (1982-83, 263-75) does not believe that the Machas share
distinct Dumézilian functions; rather, he thinks that even the functions of prophecy and nurturing
belong to the Irish warrior-goddess: “We are dealing not with ‘soverainete magico-religieuse' but
with a specific element in the Irish mythology of war” (265). According to Carey, the first
Macha is “most probably the attenuated reflection of Macha, daughter of Ernmas [the second
Macha], envisioned as a divine prophetess of battle; Macha Mongruad is an example of the
terrible aspect of the sovereignty-goddess; and Macha wife of Cruinn [the third Macha] displays
traits borne by the war-goddess on those occasions when she [that is, the war-goddess] appears
benevolent, or promotes birth” (268). The goddess is distinguished, instead, by the antitheses of

14
“warfare and the land, horror and beauty, fertility and death” (275). On Macha as pregnant
horse-substitute, in her race against the horses of Conchobor, see Dexter 1998, 97-98. For a
gendered analysis of the race of Macha see Condren, 1989: 30-36.

(11.) See Macalister 1941: 188, Section 368: Delbaith...a tri hingena i.i Bodb 7 Macha 7
Morigu...Ernmas, ingen Eadarlaim mathar na tri mban sin. Unless otherwise indicated, all
translations given in this paper are by Miriam Robbins Dexter. The Morrígan is also called
"Danann" (Macalister 1941, 188, sec. 368). Danann is also spelled Anann, Ana, or Anu; it is she
for whom the mountains, the Paps of Anu (Da-Cich-Anann) are named. See Hennessy (1870-72,
37), who notes that near this mountain is a fort called “the fort of Badb,”Lis-Babha (Hennessey,
n. 1). Vielle (1994, 218) thinks that the Morrígan was in origin a goddess distinct from Bodb
(i.e., Badb)/Nemain.

(12.) According to Hennessy (1870-72, 34), Badb is the “distinctive title of the mythological
beings supposed to rule over battle and carnage.” He identifies badb (often spelled bodb) as a
scarecrow, scald crow, or roysten crow, and not a raven (33). The scald crow is “an agent in the
fulfillment of what ... is decreed for a person, while the raven is simply regarded as a bird of
prey, that follows the warrior merely for the sake of enjoying its gory feast” (53). Lottner
(1870-72, 55-57) discusses Scandinavian correlates of the Irish warrior goddesses, particularly
the Valkyries (see also Dexter 1990a, 104-05, 155-56). On Macha as royston crow, see Stokes
1868: Article 813: machae i.i badb, “Macha, that is, a royston crow.”

(13.) Mac Cana (1955, 88) believes that Medb represents the earth as well, calling her “the
outstanding figure of the territorial goddess in Irish literature.”

(14.) In TBC 4725, Medb takes up arms (O'Rahilly 1967 1984).

(15.) Bowen (1975, 14-34) compares Medb's prodigious bladder to her great sexuality; the scene
is from TBC 4820-31. See also Dexter 1997 and 1998 for discussions of the power and
autonomy of Queen Medb.

(16.) According to Mary Condren, this Sheela is an image of the Goddess and Saint, Brigit (1989,
65).

(17.) Remark made to Starr Goode, County Clare, Ireland, fall 1989.

(18.) In 1676, a diocesan regulation ordered Sheela na gigs “to be burned,” as did Bishop Brehan
of Waterford (Weir and Jerman 1993, 15).
(19.) This is true of the Sheelas of Castlemagner, Killinaboy, Rahara, Dowth, Sier Kieran (Guest
1937, 382). See also Brenneman and Brenneman 1995.

(20.) The rosette is associated with the Celtic Epona (Coe 1995, 191) and many other ancient
female figures as well. In Mesopotamia, from the third millennium B.C.E., the symbol was
associated with the morning and evening star (i.e., the Venus-star) and the goddess Inanna/Ishtar.

(21.) Book of Leinster 14547 ff:: co mbert emun .i. mac , ingen. “She bore twins, that is, a son
and a daughter.

(22.) Metrical Dindshenchas, “Ard Macha” 93 ff:: andsin robomarb in ben don galur garb
roglinned.“ Then the woman died of that difficult illness, it was certain.”

15
(23.) Andersen speculates that “certainly, at some stage, there must have been people who
believed in the power emanating from that image, some ritual must have centered on it, some rite
have been addressed to it” (1977, 31).

(24.) Medb's name refers to a ritual of kingship involving drunkenness due to an intoxicating
honey drink. Medb is the “intoxicating one (see O'Maille 1927, 143-44). As an adjective, medb
indicates ‘strong, intoxicating’ (see Quin, ed. 1953-75, fascicle M, 78). For discussion, see
Puhvel 1970: 167; Polomé 1997: 225.

(25.) Book of Leinster 6416: Medb Lethderg ingen Chonáin Cualand. In this article, the Old
Irish text for the Book of Leinster is from Best, Bergin, and O'Brien 1954-83.

(26.) Scéla Cano Meic Gartnáin 452-453: niba rí aran Érind mani toro coirm Chualand.

(27.) O’Maille 1927: 137: Roba mor tra nert 7 cumachta Meidhbhe insin for firu Erenn air isi na
leigedh ri a Temair gan a beth fein aigi na mnái.

(28.) “Esnada Tige Buchet,” 'The Songs of Buchet's House,” (LL 35383-35384): i fail Airt ro boí
in Medb Lethderg do Laignib. 7 arrobertside in rige iar n-ecaib Airt.

(29.) Thus Eochaid Dala: “Cath Boinde Andso” 182 (Book of Lecan 351b-353a): do deoin
Meadba. On Ailill, who succeeds Eochaid Dala, see O’Maille 1927: 135.

(30.) Táin Bó Cúalnge 27-28: Dáig is mé ra chunnig in coibchi n-ingnaid nára chunnig ben
ríam remom ar fer d’feraib Hérend, .i. cen neóit, cen ét, cen omon.

(31.) Táin Bó Cúalnge 36-37: Dámbad étaid in fer ‘cá mbeind, níbad chomdas béus, dáig
níraba-sa ríam can fer ar scáth araile ocum.

(32.) The text here is the “Baile in Scail.” 8. See Thurneysen, ed. 1936: 220. ba sii ind
ingen...flaith Herenn.

(33.) The text is the “Echtra Mac Echdach Mugmedóin” 35. See Joynt, ed. 1908: 92-111. The
tale is taken from the Book of Leinster 4580-4583: Eces senmna [fo]ra brú./ bel aicce i tallfad
cú/ clethchur fiacal imma cend./ grannu anathu Her[end]. Coomaraswamy 1945: 392 refers to
the woman at the well as the ‘Loathly Bride’ or ‘Dragon-Woman’. She is the goddess of
sovereignty. The transformation from old woman to young is akin to that which occurs when
the snake sloughs its skin and grows another. (Ibid: 398, note 2) Coomaraswamy compares
other sovereignty figures, such as the Indic Œrî Laks;mî. (Ibid: 393) As râja-laks;mî, Laks;mî was
the personification of kingly fortune, and Indic kings were said to be married to her. If she
abandoned a ruler, he would lose his realm. See Dexter 1990a: 146. On the Indic rites of
kingship see Disterheft (1997: 112-113); she compares Queen Medb in the TBC and the Indic
king in the râjasûya; both undergo royal consecration ceremonies which involve rulers re-
claiming their dominion over their subjects by means of a ritual cattle drive.

(34.) LL 4668-4671: In lind ara tánac cend.../ bid buaid do dig a dind chuirn./ bid mid bid mil
bid morchuirm.

(35.) “The Destruction of Da Derga’s Hostel” (“Togail Bruidne Da Derga”) Text is from Knott
1963. Also see Stokes 1901-02, Section 38, lines 354-356: ...ben bélmar már dub duabais
dochraid ina diaid. Cía fo-certa didiu a ssrúb ar gésce fo-lilsad. Tacmaicead a bél íchtarach
co a glún.

16
(36.) “The Destruction of Da Derga’s Hostel”. Knott 1963, 61, lines 537-541: oc cuindchid a
lléicthi isa thech [sic]. Sithir cloideb ngarmnai ceachtar a dá lurcan. Batir dubithir dethaich
[Stokes: druim ndáil]. Brat ríabach rolómar impi. Tacmaicead a fés in t-íchtarach co rrici a
glúin. A beóil for leith a cind.

(37.) In comparing the lone woman to the Sheelas, Ford states: “The Celtic woman was
ravishingly beautiful, horrifyingly ugly, a symbol of well-being and irrevocable doom, and
aggressively sexual” (1988, 418).

(38.) Ford believes that the horseshoe "replaced the mare's vagina as a symbol of good fortune"
(Ford, 432).

(39.) Ross (1973, 148) discusses both the fertility and the apotropaic functions of the Sheelas.
Similarly, images of the Greek Medusa, who is both horrifying and apotropaic, were placed
above doorways by the Romans and the Greeks. See also Knott 61, lines 537-41.

(40.) Stokes 1901-02, Section 62: for óen choiss 7 óenláim. See otherwise Knott 1963: Section
62, line 562: For énchois 7 oenanáil

(41.) For another association of the threatening and the erotic, see Coe (1995, 90), who describes
coins depicting nude female riders as “both threatening and sexually provocative.” This
description may apply equally well to many of the Sheela figures.

(42.) Stokes 1901, Section 63, lines 564-567: Cid as áil dait? ol Conaire. A n-as áil daitsiu
didiu, ol sisi. Is ges damsa, ol Conaire, dám óenmná do airitin íar fuin ngréne.

(43.) The most likely etymology for Morrígan is not “great queen” – (Old Irish môr, ‘great’ +
rigain, ‘queen’) but “queen of death,” from *moro ( PIE *mor-o-s, ‘death, nightmare’; cf. Skt.
mâras, ‘death’). See Quin, ed.1953-75, Fascicle M, 173.

(44.) Táin Bó Regamna 5 (translation of the Old Irish text is taken from Stokes and Windisch
1887).

(45.) Táin Bó Regamna 5: hen-si dub forsin craib ina farrad. Cú Chulainn is associated in
another way with birds. At the beginning of one of the versions of Cú Chulainn’s birth story, his
mother, Dechtire first comes to the plain before Emain Macha, accompanied by fifty young
women, all
“in the form of a bird.” (Compert Cú Chulainn 4: hi rict enlaithe; Van Hamel edition) That
Dechtire may be a goddess rather than just an epic heroine may be evidenced in a line from the
Book of Leinster cited by Coe 1995: 109: Cú Chulainn is meic dea Dechtiri, “son of the goddess
Dechtire.”

(46.) See Hennessy 1870-72, 45-46, citing the “Dialogue of the Morrígan with Cuchullain.” The
Morrígan appears as a young woman dressed in clothing of many colors.

(47.) Táin Bó Cúalnge 1993: samhaisci finne óderge.

(48.) Táin Bó Cúalnge 1998: escuinge slemne.

(49.) Táin Bó Cúalnge 2001: saidhi gairbi glasrúaidhi.

(50.) Táin Bó Cúalnge 3431: Baidbi bélderi. To Badb, compare the Indic “Great”-goddess

17
Devî; when she joined in battle, she was described as ‘red-toothed’ from devouring her enemies,
in Devîmâhâtmyam XI.44-45 (text is from Jagadiswarananda 1953); trans. M. R. Dexter:

“After I shall consume the mighty and great Asuras...

my teeth shall become reddened [like] the uppermost blossoms of the pomegranate tree.

After that, the gods in heaven and mortals on earth, extolling me,
shall forever speak of [me as] the red-toothed. [raktadantikâm].”

Bhaks;ayantyâœca tânugrân...mahâsurân raktâ dantâ bhavis;yanti dâd;imîkusumopamâh;

tato mâm devatâh; svarge martyaloke ca mânavâh; stuvanto vyâharis;yanti satatam
ÿ
raktadantikâm.

(51.) Táin Bó Cúalnge 2808: áth fors nÿgéra in Badb.

(52.) Hennessy 1870-72: 48-49, cited from Ms. H. 4. 22. p. 120. Anne Ross too associates
Ériu with the warrior-goddesses: “At one moment they see her as a beautiful woman; at another,
she has assumed the shape of a sinister, beaked, pale grey crow, this linking her with the trio of
war-goddesses.” (Ross 1973: 140)

(53.) Hennessy 1870-72 48: Ériu mainmse.

(54.) Táin Bó Cúalnge 16: ferr im chath 7 comrac 7 comlund.

(55) These erotic female figures appear as the Greek Baubo (see Lubell 1994), found in both
iconography and text, and the Indic Lajjâ Gaurîs, found not in text but carved, as symbols of
good fortune, on temples. Lajjâ Gaurîs, dating from the second through the twelfth centuries of
this era, expose their genitals by raising their legs; frequently, the genitals have been deepened,
worn, as they have been touched by devotees – similarly to those of the Sheela na gigs. The Indic
figures serve both apotropaic and blessing functions. Further, we may compare the Sheela,
sitting in the cornerstone of entries to churches, to Medusa, carved over Greek doorways. The
two are truly liminal figures, who both protect and bless.
On the Lajjâ Gaurî see Carol R. Bolon, 1992, Forms of the goddess Lajjâ Gaurî in Indian
Art. Pennsylvania State: College Art Association. Monographs on the Fine Arts v. 49. See also
Robert L. Brown, 1990, “A Lajjâ Gaurî in a Buddhist Context at Aurangabad.” The Journal of
the International Association of Buddhist Studies 13 (2): 1-18; Thomas Donaldson, 1975,
“Propitious-Apotropaic Eroticism in the Art of Orissa.” Artibus Asiae 37: 75-100; V.H.
Sonawane, 1988, “Some Remarkable Sculptures of Lajjâ Gaurî from Gujarat”. Lalit Kalâ 23:
27-34. Just as there were living Sheela na gigs, there were living women similar to the Lajjâ
Gaurî. Miranda Shaw, in her 1994 book, Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric
Buddhism. (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press), discusses the women celebrated
in Tibetan and Sanskrit text who taught Tantric sexual practices. The sacred and the sexual were
inextricably connected in these practices.

(56.) An association between fertility and war in Irish myth, epic, and iconography has been
recognized for some time (Green 1986, 90, 101).

(57.) See Stokes 1891.

(58.) Other great battles take place during the magical time of Samain. We are told that Cú
Chulainn defended the Ulster folk, from the Monday before Samain until the following spring
(Táin Bó Cúalnge 2158-2163).

18
(59.) Secht n-artim na luirg; see Stokes 1908-1910: 26.

(60.) Táin Bó Cúalnge 2487-2491. Although Ailill kills Fergus out of jealousy and, later, Medb
has Ailill killed, out of jealousy, the theme of jealousy may have been taken on as an excuse of
the deaths of the two. See Breathnach 1982, fn. 55-56, citing Kuno Meyer (ed.), The Death Tales
of the Ulster Heroes, Dublin, 1906: 32ff.; and Kuno Meyer (ed.), ‘Goire Conaill Chernaig i
Cruachain 7 aided Ailella 7 Conaill Chernaig’, ZCP I (1894): 104.

(61.) She was offered to fifty warriors (TBC 3049-52).

(62.) See TBC 1877-79, 1931-33, et passim.

(63.) In TBC 3886-89, Finnabair hears that many of the men of Ireland have died because of her,
and her heart breaks.

(64.) Táin Bó Cúalnge 4600-4601. See Quin 1953-75, fascicle E, 215: etarchossaít, “stirring up
mutual recrimination or strife.”

(65.) Táin Bó Cúalnge 1186-1192: In bantrocht da lécud immach do sÿaigid in meic .i. trí coícait
ban .i. deich mnáa 7 secht fichit díscir derglomnocht i n-óenfécht uili 7 a mbantóesech rempo,
Scandlach, do thócbáil a nnochta 7 a nnáre dó. Táncatar immach in banmaccrad uile 7
túargbatar a nnochta 7 a nnáre uile dó. Foilgid in mac a gnúis forru 7 dobretha a dreich frisin
carpat arná acced nochta nó náre na mban.

(66.) Kohl in Andersen 1977, 23. (Text translated from the German and Latin by Miriam
Robbins Dexter.)

(67.) Ibid.

(68.) See Ford 1988: 427: “Hence we have a cluster of motifs of ugliness/beauty/sexuality, and
prophesy is attached to the goddess who controls sovereignty, war, and death.”

REFERENCES
Andersen, J. 1977. The witch on the wall. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger.

Battaglia, F. 1997. Goddess religion in the early British Isles. In Varia on the Indo-European
past: Papers in memory of Marija Gimbutas, ed. M. R. Dexter and E. C. Polomé, 48-82. Journal
of Indo-European Studies Monograph 19. Washington, D.C.: The Institute for the Study of Man.

Best, R. I., O. Bergin, and M. A. O'Brien, eds. 1954-83. The book of Leinster: Formerly Lebar
na Nuachongbala. Eds. Best, Bergin and O'Brien, vol. 1; Best and O'Brien, vols. 2-5; A.
Sullivan, vol. 6. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.

Binchy, D. A., ed. 1963. Scela cano meic gartnain. Dublin: Institute for Advanced Studies.

Bowen, C. 1975. Great-bladdered Medb: Mythology and invention in the Táin Bó Cuailnge.
Éire (Ireland) 10(4): 14-34.

Brandenburg, A. E. 1993. Cathedrals and castles: Building in the middle ages. New York:
Harry M. Abrams, Inc.

19
 Breathnach, M. 1982. The sovereignty goddess as goddess of death. Zeitschrift fur celtische
Philologie 39: 243-60.

Brenneman, W., and M. Brenneman. 1995. Crossing the circle at the holy wells of Ireland.
Charlottesville, Va.: University of Virginia Press.

Carey, J. 1982-83, Notes on the Irish war-goddess. Éigse 19: 263-75.

Coe, P. P. 1995. Macha and Conall Cernach: A study of two iconographic patterns in medieval
Irish narratives and Celtic art. Ph.D. diss., University of California, Los Angeles.

Condren, M. 1989. The Serpent and the Goddess. San Francisco: Harper and Row.

Coomaraswamy, A. K. 1945. On the loathly bride. Speculum 20: 391-404.

Dexter, M. R. 1990a. Whence the goddesses: A source book. Teachers College, Athene Series.
New York: Pergamon.

--. 1990b. The hippomorphic goddess and her offspring. Journal of Indo-European Studies 18
(3-4): 285-307.

--. 1997. The brown bull of Cooley and matriliny in Celtic Ireland. in From the realm of the
ancestors: An anthology in honor of Marija Gimbutas, ed. J. Marler, 218-36. Manchester, Conn.:
Knowledge, Ideas, and Trends.

- -.1998. Queen Medb, Female Autonomy in Ancient Ireland, and Matrilineal Traditions. In
Proceedings of the Ninth Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference, May 23, 24, 1997, Karlene
Jones-Bley, Angela della Volpe, Miriam Robbins Dexter, and Martin Huld, eds. Washington,
DC: Journal of Indo-European Studies Monograph No. 28: 95-122. Institute for the Study of
Man.

Dexter, M. R. and E. C. Polomé, eds. 1997. Varia on the Indo-European Past: Papers in
Memory of Marija Gimbutas: 48-82. Journal of Indo-European Studies Monograph #19.
Washington, DC: The Institute for the Study of Man.

Dineen, P. S. 1927. An Irish-English dictionary. Dublin: Educational Company of Ireland.

Disterheft, D. 1997. Irish evidence for Indo-European royal consecration. In Studies in honor of
Jaan Puhvel, part 2: Mythology and religion, eds. J. Greppin and E. C. Polomé, 103-18. Journal
of Indo-European Studies Monograph 21. Washington, D.C: Institute for the Study of Man.

Dumézil, G. 1954. Le trio des Macha. Revue de l'histoire des religions 146: 5-17.

Ford, P. K. 1988. Celtic women: The opposing sex. Viator 19: 417-38.

Freitag, B. 1998. A New Light on the Sheela-na-gig. Éire (Ireland) fall/winter 1998 33-4.

Goode, S. and M.R. Dexter 2000. Sexuality, the Sheela na gigs, and the Goddess in Ancient
Ireland. ReVision 23 (1): 38-48.

Green, M. J. 1986. The gods of the Celts. Sutton: Gloucester.

20
 Guest, E. 1936. Irish Sheela-na-gigs in 1935. The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of
Ireland (Dublin) 66: 107-29.

--. 1937. Ballyvourney and its Sheela-na-gig. Folklore 48: 374-84.

Hennessy, W. M. 1870-72. The ancient Irish goddess of war. Revue Celtique 1: 32-55.

Henry, F. 1965. Irish art in the early Christian period. London: Methuen.

Jagadiswarananda, Swami, ed. 1953. Mârkân;d;eyapurâna: Devî-mâhâtmyam, Madras: Sri

Ramakrishna Math.

Joynt, M., ed. 1908 Echtra Mac Echdach Mugmedóin. Ériu 4: 92-111.

Kelly, E. P. 1994. Sheela-na-gig: A brief description of their origin and function. In Beyond the
pale: Art and artists at the edge of consensus. Dublin: The Irish Museum of Modern Art.

--. 1996. Sheela-na-gigs: Origins and functions. Dublin: County House.

Knott, E., ed. 1963. Togail Bruidne Da Derga. Dublin: The Dublin Institute for Advanced
Studies.

Lippard, L. 1983. Overlay. New York: Pantheon Books.

Littleton, C. S. 1982. The new comparative mythology: An anthropological assessment of the

theories of Georges Dumézil. Third ed. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Lottner, C. 1870-72. Postscript to Hennessy's ‘the ancient Irish goddess of war'. Revue Celtique
1: 55-7.

Lubell, W. M. 1994. The Metamorphosis of Baubo: Myths of Women’s Sexual Energy.

Nashville and London: Vanderbilt University Press.
.

Macalister, R. A. S., ed. and trans. 1941. Lebor Gabala Erenn, part 4. Dublin: Irish Texts
Society.
Mac Cana, P. 1955; 1958-59. Aspects of the theme of king and goddess in Irish literature.
Etudes Celtiques 7 (1): 76-114, 356-413; and 8 (1958-59): 59-65.

O'Connor, J. 1991. Sheela na gig. Fethard, County Tipperary: Fethard Historical Society.

O'Donovan, J. 1840. Ordnance survey letters, Tipperary (typed copy), Dublin. 1: 150.

Ó Máille, T. 1927. Medb Chruachna. Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie XVII: 129-146.

O'Rahilly, C., ed. 1967 1984. Táin Bó Cúalnge. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced
Studies.

Polomé, E. C. 1997. Some reflections on the Vedic religious vocabulary. In Studies in honor of
Jaan Puhvel, part 2: Mythology and religion, eds. J. Greppin and E. C. Polomé, 225-34. Journal
of Indo-European Studies Monograph 21. Washington, D.C.: The Institute for the Study of Man.

21
 Puhvel, J. 1970. Aspects of equine functionality. In Myth and law among the Indo-Europeans,
ed. J. Puhvel, 159-72. Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Quin, E. G., ed. 1953-75. Dictionary of the Irish language (RIA). Dublin: Royal Irish Academy.

Roberts, J. 1993. The Sheela-na-gigs of Britain and Ireland: An illustrated guide. Skibbereen,
West Cork: Key Books Publishing.

--. 1997. An illustrated map of the Sheela-na-gigs of Britain and Ireland. Ireland: Bandia
Publishing.

Roche, Richard 1995. The Norman Invasion of Ireland. Dublin: Anvil Books Ltd.

Ross, A. 1973. The divine hag of the pagan Celts. In The witch figure, ed. V. Newall. Studies in
Honor of Katharine Briggs. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Rynne, E. 1987. A pagan background for Sheela-na-gigs. In Figures from the past: Studies in
figurative art in Christian Ireland in honor of Helen M. Roe, ed. E. Rynne, 189-202. Ireland:
Glendale Press.

Stokes, W., ed. and trans. 1891. The second battle of Moytura. Revue Celtique 12: 52-130.

--., ed. and trans. 1901-02. The destruction of Da Derga's hostel. Revue Celtique 22: 40-47,
56-61, 404-37.

--., ed. and trans. 1908-10 Scéla Conchobair maic Nessa (Book of Leinster 106a). Ériu iv1: 22-
38.

Stokes, W., and E. Windisch. 1887. Irische texte, series 2, part 2. Leipzig: Hirzel.

Thurneysen, R., ed. 1936. Baile in Scâil. Zeitschrift für Celtischen Philologie XX: 213-227.

Van Hamel, A. G., ed. 1956 1978. Compert Con Culainn and other stories. Dublin: Institute
for Advanced Studies.

Vielle, C. 1994. The oldest narrative attestations of a Celtic mythical and traditional heroic
cycle. In Ulidia, eds. J. P. Mallory and G. Stockman, 217-27. Belfast: December Publications.

Weir, A., and J. Jerman. 1993. Images of lust: Sexual carvings on medieval churches. London:
B. T. Batsford Ltd.

Miriam Robbins Dexter, Ph.D. is an Indo-European linguist who has taught courses in Latin,
Greek, and Sanskrit language and literature in the Department of Classics at the University of
Southern California. She is presently teaching at the University of California, Los Angeles. She
is the author of Whence the Goddesses: A Source Book (1990), and is co-editor of Varia on the
Indo-European Past: Papers in Memory of Marija Gimbutas (1997), as well as a monograph of
Dr. Gimbutas's articles, The Kurgan Culture and the Indo-Europeanization of Europe: Selected
articles from 1952 to 1993 (1997). Dr. Dexter edited and supplemented the manuscript Dr.
Gimbutas was writing at the time of her death, The Living Goddesses (1999).

Starr Goode, M. A. is a poet and writer who teaches writing at Otis College of Art and Design in

22
Southern California. She is currently working on a book about Sheela na gigs.

23