Aenghus, the God of Love
The Celtic god of love and health was known by various names. He was Aenghus mac Og, “Son of Youth,” to the Irish, and Mabon ap Modron, “Youth, Son of the Mother” to the Welsh.
Aenghus and his equivalents were very different from the average Celtic god. While the typical Celtic deity, even a poet, was invariably portrayed as a brawny, mustached warrior, the god of eternal youth was depicted as a beardless young man or a small child.
The Welsh equivalent of Aenghus is the youth-god Mabon ap Modron, also the son of a water goddess and also associated with love and healing. Mabon was a favorite in medieval Welsh romances and appears as a character in many early Arthurian tales. There is some evidence that medieval Welsh poets identified the youthful deity with the infant Jesus.
Aenghus was the ruler over the Neolithic tomb at Newgrange, viewed by the Irish as the home of the god and an entrance to the Otherworld. The nearby river Boyne is named for the rover goddess Boann, his mother. The circumstances of Aenghus's birth are quite peculiar — he is the product of an affair between Boann, a river goddess, and Dagda. In order to keep the pregnancy secret, the Dagda halted the sun for the term of the goddess's pregnancy, and so Aenghus was born out of time. He was fostered either by Midir or by Manannan mac Lir, depending on the source.
Aenghus is closely associated with water birds, and both he and his bride Caer had the ability to take on the form of swans.
