Frances Clynes

Solar Deities in Irish Mythology

Abstract

As has been noted by Stout and Waddell, the great neolithic monuments of Ireland appear repeatedly in all four cycles of Irish mythology, usually in connection with the solar deities and heroes. This presentation investigates the roles the monuments play in the myths and their strong association with mythological solar figures, in order to gain some understanding on the meaning the monuments held for people from different periods of time.. The texts analysed include scholarship on the archaeology and archaeoastronomy of the monuments and primary and secondary literature on the four cycles of Irish mythology.

Biography

Frances Clynes has an MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology and a PhD from the Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, where she is also a tutor on the Sky & Psyche and the Sacred Geography modules. In her other life she has a B.Sc and an M.Sc in Computing from Trinity College Dublin. Her research interests include the use of the Internet by astrologers, and more recently, the role of the Irish neolithic monuments in Irish mythology.