AIR-yoo
One of three sister goddesses who gave her name to Ireland itself, after securing a promise from the invading Milesians.
Ériu is one of three sister goddesses of the Tuatha Dé Danann — alongside Banba and Fódla — each associated with the sovereignty of Ireland itself. When the Milesians (the Sons of Míl) land to take the island by force, each of the three sisters meets the invaders in turn and asks that the land be named for her. The poet Amergin, speaking on behalf of the Milesians, grants each request, but it is Ériu's name that endures: the modern Irish name for the country, Éire, and the English "Ireland," both descend from hers.
As a sovereignty goddess, Ériu embodies the land as something a king must be joined to rather than simply rule over — a recurring idea across Irish myth in which kingship is legitimized through union with the goddess of the territory, rather than by conquest alone. Her sisters Banba and Fódla still appear as poetic names for Ireland in later literature, but it is Ériu's alone that became the country's actual name in two languages.
The genealogies preserved in the Lebor Gabála Érenn ("The Book of Invasions") place Ériu among the Tuatha Dé Danann's ruling generation, married to Mac Gréine, one of three joint kings of Ireland at the time of the Milesian invasion (his brothers Mac Cuill and Mac Cecht are married in turn to her sisters). After the Milesians' victory, tradition holds that Ériu and the rest of the Tuatha Dé Danann withdrew into the sídhe — the otherworldly mounds — rather than vanishing from the land altogether.
| Cycle | Entries here | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| The Mythological Cycle | 17 | The oldest of the four cycles, telling of the Tuatha Dé Danann and the successive invasions of Ireland. |
| The Fenian Cycle | 6 | Tales of Fionn mac Cumhaill and his band of warriors, the Fianna, set generations after the Ulster Cycle in a world of hunting, romance, and roaming adventure. |
| The Ulster Cycle | 12 | The heroic tales of Conchobar mac Nessa's court at Emain Macha, centered on Cú Chulainn and the great cattle raid of the Táin Bó Cúailnge. |
| The Historical Cycle | 1 | Also the Cycle of the Kings — legendary and semi-legendary tales of Ireland's High Kings, treated by medieval scribes as genuine national history. |
Yes — both Éire (the Irish name for the country) and "Ireland" derive from Ériu, the goddess who won the Milesians' promise that the island would carry her name.
Banba and Fódla, the two other sovereignty goddesses of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Both still appear as poetic or literary names for Ireland, but only Ériu's name became the country's actual one.
A figure who personifies the land itself, whose union with a king is what legitimizes his rule — a recurring pattern in Irish myth where kingship comes from being joined to the territory's goddess, not from conquest alone.