Áine

• All Limited Edition Prints
• Giclée Printing using Archival Inks
• Signed and numbered by the artist
• High Quality 300gsm Art Silk Paper
  
  

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Áine

A goddess of summer, wealth, and sovereignty, Aine is associated with the sun and the harvest. Primroses and meadowsweet are believed to be connected to her symbolising love, fertility, and the abundant blessings of nature..Linked to the festival of Midsummer, she is strongly connection to the land, water and healing. One of her symbols is the white swan.
Áine is among the most revered and powerful of Irish mythological Goddesses!

She is remembered for overcoming adversity and exacting powerful revenge on the man who wronged her.

Ailill Aulom was the ruling King of Munster but was restless and worried as he had a problem. Every time he would sleep he would awaken to find that the grass in his fields would not grow. This was a potentially devastating problem for the King as the grass provided food for the livestock, ensuring food for the people.

Ferchess the Druid advised him to visit KnockÁiney at Samhain Eve, to seek out the restorative powers of that place. He set out for KnockÁiney and arrived with the expectation of his problems being solved.

But fate was to intervene and the fragilities of the human spirit were to collide with the power of the creatures from the Otherworld.

Ailill fell into a drowsy half-sleep and later found himself sleep-walking when he encountered a beautiful vision. It was Áine, the daughter of Eoghabal of the Tuatha Dé Danann.

Human desire overwhelmed him and he shed his royal dignity, driven by lust. He set upon the lone woman and forced himself upon her.

Áine was outraged and exacted immediate revenge. In her fury she bit off his ear, maiming the King, marking him for life.

In Celtic tradition only a perfect unblemished person could attain the role of High King of Ireland. Ailill had been maimed. He was imperfect. Áine had delivered a devastating blow to her attacker.

From that time on the King was known as Aulom meaning 'one-eared', and could never reign over Ireland. Despite this his descendants became known as the Eoghanachta, and were a powerful Irish dynasty centered at Cashel, dominating the southern part of Ireland.

It is in this manner that the legend of Áine grew. She became associated with the ability to grant power and sovereignty.