A long-awaited and absorbing study of the most exciting characters in Irish mythology. While men dominated early Irish society, women ruled the supernatural. Goddesses of war, fertility, and sovereignty ordered human destiny. Most awesome was The Morrigan, the war goddess, responsible for planning and fermenting the Tain, the catastrophic war between Connacht and Ulster. With the coming of Christianity, the power of the goddesses began to become obscured, although the early monks did nothing to hide the goddesses' aggressive sexuality. But with the English invasion the ability to bestow sovereignty was severely lessened: no longerable to create kings, but instead vainly hope for a Jacobite rescue. This magnificent study shows the fall in status of the pagan goddesses over time; that this fall mirrors a loss of recognition of the roles of women is also evident from the texts.