- Lí Ban
:"For the Chinese prince, see
Li Ban (李班). For the country whose French name isLiban , seeLebanon ."Lí Ban is an "Otherworldly woman" from
Irish Mythology , best known as the sister of the sea goddessFand , and perhaps an early sea deity herself.She appears in the Irish tale "Serglige Con Culainn" ("The Wasting Sickness of Cúchulainn"), first as a sea bird, and then as an avenging goddess.
In "Serglige Con Culainn" she acts as a messenger and mediator. She and
Láeg , the charioteer and companion of Cú Chulainn, work together to see that Cú Chulainn is healed in exchange for his aid in Fand's battle in the Otherworld.In Irish Christian tradition, another Liban was a woman who was transformed into a mermaid when her country was flooded (today the
Lough Neagh lake inNorthern Ireland ). She lived under the sea with her dog (who in the flood became an otter) for 300 years. She later emerged as a saint in the time ofSaint Comgall .Etymology
Lí Ban may be derived from
Proto-Celtic *leiābánniā (nf) ‘droplet of liquid’ or else *leiābénnā (nf) ‘woman of liquid.’Sources
*" [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G301015/index.html Serglige Con Culainn] " - Original text
* [http://www.manannan.net/library/cuchulain.html The Sick-Bed of Cuchulain] - An English translation of the above
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20031205155507/http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Bistro/2330/jemer.html The Only Jealousy of Emer]External links
* [http://pivarski.watson.org/mermaid_saint/index.html The Mermaid Saint]
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