A Mother’s Love, A Mother’s Sacrifice: Tailtiu and Lugh | S5 Ep9

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OUR STORY

As the traditional Irish myth goes, Tailtiu, the foster mother of Lugh of the Tuatha Dé Danann, clears vast fields so the people can plant their first crops. And then she dies from exhaustion. The great festival of Lughnasa (on or around August 1) is held in her honor. In this retelling, our host Marisa Goudy imagines why Tailtiu, a woman of the Fir Bolg, would sacrifice herself in this way.

REFLECTIONS

• The myth - and the reality - of the selfless mother. Is it possible to celebrate what motherhood is, but also decouple it from that expectation of self-sacrifice?
• The way the birth of the son leads to the initiation of the mother in myths around the world.
• The origins of the festival of Lughnasadh
• What conveys divinity? Tailtiu was a member of the mortal Fir Bolg, but it was her devotion and her action that rendered her the goddess we remember today.
• This story is often used as the origin of agriculture, which is near-universally seen as a good thing, but James C. Scott’s Against the Grain questions the “narrative of progress” - the creation of sedentary farming communities had a lot more to do with benefitting the state and concentrating power in the hands of the few than it did with offering people a reliable, nutritious food supply.
• This story invites us to question everything. What if Tailtiu had made a different choice? What if she brought a group of women to help her and had not died? What if she had bumped into Lugh on her way? What if she hadn’t replicated the Greek model and brought agriculture to Ireland?

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Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com

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