Aengus

Aengus
Member of the Tuatha Dé Danann
Aengus, illustration by Beatrice Elvery in Violet Russell's Heroes of the Dawn (1914)
Abodes	Brú na Bóinne
Weapons	Moralltach Beagalltach Gáe Buide Gáe Derg
Animals	Swan
Consorts	Étaín Caer Ibormeith
Parents	Dagda Boann Midir (foster-father)
Siblings	Oghma an Cermait (brother)
Children	Diarmuid Ua Duibhne (foster-son)

In Irish mythology, Aengus (Old Irish: Oíngus, Óengus) is a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann and probably a god of love, youth and poetic inspiration. He is traditionally described as having singing birds circling his head.

In Old Irish his name is spelled Oíngus or Óengus [oiŋɡus], from Proto-Celtic *oino- "one" and gus "strength" (or possibly "choice"). In Middle Irish this became Áengus, and in Modern Irish Aengus or Aonghus [ˈeːŋɡəsˠ], [ˈeːŋɣəsˠ]. Epithets include Óengus Óc/Aengus Óg ("Aengus the young").

His parents were the Dagda and Boann. He was said to have lived at Newgrange by the River Boyne.

The Dagda had an affair with the river goddess Boann, wife of Nechtan. To hide her pregnancy, the Dagda made the sun stand still for nine months so that Aengus was conceived, gestated and born in one day. Midir was his foster-father.

When he came of age Aengus dispossessed the Dagda of his home, Brú na Bóinne (an area of the Boyne River Valley that contains the passage tombs Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth). He arrived after the Dagda had shared out his land among his children, and none was left for Aengus, so Aengus asked his father if he could live in Brú na Bóinne – the central spiritual spot by the Boyne, the river whose goddess is Bóinne – for "a day and a night", and the Dagda agreed. Irish has no indefinite article, so "a day and a night" is the same as "day and night", which covers all time, and so Aengus took possession of Brú na Bóinne permanently. In a different version of this story, appearing in The Wooing of Etain, Aengus uses the same ploy to trick Elcmar out of Brú na Bóinne, with the Dagda's connivance. In this version, Midir is Aengus's foster-father, while Elcmar is the husband of Boann cuckolded by the Dagda.