Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/519

Rh the other, as that is a consequence of the fact that a man who tights on horseback in the Mabinogion would be made to ride forth in a chariot drawn by two horses in the epic tales of Ireland. Herein Irish would seem to have antiquity on its side, since the chariot and chargers associated with the Irish Sun-god find their counterpart in those of Helios in Greek mythology.

Various allusions have been made to Diarmait, and now something more must be said of him, especially as both his parentage and his death have an important bearing on the view here taken of the Sun-god. Diarmait was the son of Corc and grandson of Duben, so the story of Corc has now to be briefly resumed where we left it off (p. 309). It will be remembered that after Corc had been completely purged of the paganism of his nature when he was a year old, he was taken back to Erinn: the next thing we read of him is that, years later, his father Cairbre, as provincial king, sent him as a hostage to Cormac mac Airt king of Erinn, who had his court at Tara. Cormac entrusted Corc to a mighty warrior called Aengus of the poisoned Spear, and Aengus treated him as his foster-son, and he was with him on the occasion of a hurried visit by Aengus to Tara to avenge an insult to his family. Aengus then killed a son of Cormac's, and in so doing he put out one of the king's