In Irish mythology, Danu or Dana was the mother goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann (peoples of the goddess Danu), although little is recorded about her as a character. Her Welsh equivalent is Dôn. The mythology of pre-Christian Ireland did not entirely survive the conversion to Christianity, but much of it was preserved, shorn of its religious meanings, in medieval Irish literature, which represents the most extensive and best preserved of all the branches of Celtic mythology. ... Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture A goddess is a female deity, in contrast with a male deity known as a god. A great many cultures have goddesses, sometimes alone, but more often as part of a larger pantheon that includes both of the conventional genders and in some cases... The Tuatha Dé Danann (peoples of the goddess Danu or erroneously tribe of Dan) were the fifth group of inhabitants of Ireland according to the Lebor Gabála Érenn (Book of Invasions) tradition. ... Welsh mythology, the remnants of the mythology of the pre-Christian Britons, has come down to us in much altered form in medieval Welsh manuscripts such as the Red Book of Hergest, the White Book of Rhydderch, the Book of Aneirin and the Book of Taliesin. ... Dôn was a Welsh mother goddess, equivalent of the Irish Danu. ...

Antiquity of her Recognition

Based on the evidence of place-names, such as the river Danube (Latin: Danuvius), Dniestr, Dneipr and Don, she may have been worshipped throughout the Celtic world. Indeed, the presence of a goddess named Danu in Hindu mythology, associated with water and mother of a race of Asuras called the Danavas, may indicate a very ancient Proto-Indo-European origin for this figure. The name *dhanu seems to have originally meant "swift". The Danube bend at Visegrád is a popular destination of tourists The Danube (German: Donau, Slovak: Dunaj, Hungarian: Duna, Slovenian: Donava, Croatian: Dunav, Serbian: Дунав/Dunav, , Bulgarian: Дунав (Dunav), Romanian: Dunăre, Ukrainian: , Latin: Danuvius), all ultimately derived from the PIE *dānu, meaning river or stream, is Europes second... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... The Dnieper River (Belarusian: Дняпро/Dnyapro; Russian: Днепр/Dnepr; Ukrainian: Днiпро/Dnipro; Polish: Dniepr; Latin: Borysthenes, Danaper) is a river (2290 km length) which flows from Russia through Belarus and then Ukraine. ... The term Don may refer to: Don, Donald Ducks nickname. ... Celtic mythology is the mythology of Celtic polytheism, the apparent religion of the Iron Age Celts. ... Danu is a goddess in Hindu belief. ... Hindu mythology is a term used by modern scholarship for a large body of Indian literature that details the lives and times of legendary personalities, deities and divine incarnations on earth interspersed with often large sections of philosophical and ethical discourse. ... // In Hinduism In Hindu mythology, the Asura (Sanskrit: असुर) are a group of power-seeking deities, sometimes misleadingly referred to as demons. ... Ancient anthropomorphic Ukrainian stone stela (Kernosovka stela), possibly depicting a late Proto-Indo-European god, most likely Dyeus, the thunderer. ...

In Irish celt lore, Danu is the supreme mother goddess. She is depicted, usually, with long flowing raven black hair, emerald green eyes with fair skin and fine features. Accompanied by a fairy, usually a phooka, she was the one that created the plans for invasion of Ireland. Her son Dagda is considered the great, all father, of the Irish Gods. Lir is another one of her sons, fathered by Beli. Though her mythos has been lost over the years she still takes precedence in many modern Celtic Wiccan circles. by Sophie Anderson A fairy, or faerie, is a spirit or supernatural being that is found in the legends, folklore, and mythology of many different cultures. ... The Dagda is an important god of Irish mythology. ... In Celtic mythology, Lir (the sea) was the god of the sea, father of Manannan mac Lir, Bran, Branwen and Manawydan by Penarddun and a son of Danu and Beli. ... Beli Mawr (Beli the Great) was a Welsh ancestor deity. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Etymology of the name

The reconstructed lexis of the Proto-Celtic language as collated by the University of Wales (http://www.wales.ac.uk/documents/external/cawcs/pcl-moe.pdf ) suggests that the name is likely to be ultimately derived from the Proto-Celtic *Danoā. This Proto-Celtic word connotes the semantics of ‘Giving,’ ‘Bountiful’ and ‘Flow.’ This apparent semantic connotation has led Dr. John Koch at the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies to propose that the original nature of this deity may well have been a personification of ‘overflowing abundance’ If this theory is correct, it would account for the deity’s associations with the a motherly ideal, the fertility of the earth and with rivers whose overflowing water surpluses may have been seen as a materialization of her presence. Equally, this would imply that she is not identical to Anann, but bears greater resemblance to the Roman Ops, the Greek Rhea and the Anatolian Cybele, all of whom are great mother goddesses symbolising abundance. This page is a candidate to be moved to Wiktionary. ... Proto-Celtic, also called Common Celtic, is the putative ancestor of all the known Celtic languages. ... In the main, semantics (from the Greek and in greek letters σημαντικός or in latin letters semantikós, or significant meaning, derived from sema, sign) is the study of meaning, in some sense of that term. ... In Irish mythology, Anann (Anu, Ana) was a mother goddess. ... A Sabine goddess, Ops (plenty) was a fertility deity and earth-goddess in Roman mythology. ... Rhea (or Ria meaning she who flows) was the Titaness daughter of Uranus and of Gaia. ... A fountain depicting Cybele in a chariot drawn by lions, in the Plaza de Cibeles, Madrid . Originally a Phrygian goddess, insofar as the Hellenes were concerned, Cybele (Greek Κυβέλη) was a manifestation of the Earth Mother who was worshipped in Anatolia from Neolithic times. ...

Danú is an Irish group. Danú is an Irish folk group. ...

Other names

• Dana
• Anu
• Ana
• Dôn (Welsh)

For an explanation of often confusing terms such as Great Britain, Britain, United Kingdom and England, see British Isles (terminology). ...

External links

• Associations between the Welsh Dôn and the Irish Dana