Macha

[8] In modern Scottish Gaelic, the etymologically related term machair refers to a fertile grassy plain that is maintained by continuous trampling and grazing of livestock.

In the Dindsenchas Macha is called Grian Banchure, the "Sun of Womanfolk" and is referred to as the daughter of Midir of Brí Léith.

[4] A poem in the Lebor Gabála Érenn mentions Macha as one of the daughters of Partholón, leader of the first settlement of Ireland after the flood, although it records nothing about her.

A version of the same gloss in MS H.3.18 identifies Macha with Badb, calling the trio "raven women" who instigate battle.

[15] Keating explicitly calls them "goddesses",[16] but medieval Irish tradition was keen to remove all trace of pre-Christian religion.

Macha pursued Díthorba's sons alone, disguised as a leper, and overcame each of them in turn when they tried to have sex with her, tied them up, and carried the three of them bodily to Ulster.

Marie-Louise Sjoestedt writes of this figure: "In the person of this second Macha we discover a new aspect of the local goddess, that of the warrior and dominator; and this is combined with the sexual aspect in a specific manner which reappears in other myths, the male partner or partners being dominated by the female.

When he leaves to attend a festival organised by the king of Ulster, she warns him that she will only stay with him so long as he does not speak of her to anyone, and he promises to say nothing.

[4] For disrespecting and humiliating her, she curses the men of Ulster to be overcome with weakness—as weak "as a woman in childbirth"—at the time of their greatest need.

[5][25] It shows that Macha, as goddess of the land and sovereignty, can be vengeful if disrespected,[2] and how the rule of a bad king leads to disaster.