From: mike@biosun.lbl.gov (Mike Collier)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.celtic
Subject: Re: Sheela-na-gig
Date: 14 Sep 1992 06:51:38 GMT
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley
Distribution: world
Reply-To: mike@biosun.lbl.gov (Mike Collier)
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.253.249
Summary: Si/le na gCi/och
Keywords: sheela-na-gig, medieval churches

In article <MCMANUS.92Sep13165500@pell.anu.edu.au> mcmanus@pell.anu.edu.au (Aine McManus) writes:
>
>In article <12SEP92.18265101@enh.nist.gov> downey@enh.nist.gov writes:
> 
> 	<excerpt from book, lots deleted>
>
>	> Her name means "hag";
>	
>It does? I always believed it came from "Si/le na gci/och", meaning
>Sheila of/with the breasts.
>
>	> She is the greatest symbol of the life-and-death goddess
>	> left in Ireland, where her stones have in some cases been
>	> incporporated as "gargoyles" in Christian churches.  
> 
>I thought ("recieved wisdom": no sources except a bookshop in Galway
>called Sheila-na-Gig ) sheila-na-gigs were almost always found on
>churches, and were believed to scare away evil spirits. As far as I
>know, it isn't even certain if they're pre- or post-Christian.
>		,
>		Aine

	A good book on the subject is THE WITCH ON THE WALL, MEDIEVAL EROTIC
SCULPTURE IN THE BRITISH ISLES, by Jo/rgen Anderson, Rosenkilde and Bagger,
Copenhagen, 1977.  I bought my copy in Kenny's, Galway, a few years ago.  It's 
in English.  This book is the author's doctoral dissertation, in the history of 
art, at Copenhagen Unversity.  It reads like a doctoral dissertation. :-)

	He lists virtually all the known sheela-na-gigs and points out that all
the datable ones come from no earlier than the 12th century, i.e., Norman times.
Most are on churches, some on castles.  All are prominantly displayed.  They
were obviously intended to be seen by any one approaching the church or castle.

	An Irish friend and I visited the ruined 12th century (+ or - 1) church
at Kilnaboy in the Burren of Co Clare.  The sheela is over the entrance to the 
church.  My friend recalled the biblical passage in which Christ talked about 
the need to be born again. (No neither of us is a "born again" Christian.)  
The comparison between church entrance and vagina, between church and womb, 
seems unavoidable to me.  But I've not seen this possible meaning of sheelas
discussed anywhere.  Most I've read including Jo/rgen take sheelas as 
symbols intended to frighten people from sexual sin.  I'm not sure that people
of that time were so hung up on the "evil" of sexuality.  Others suggest
fertility symbols.  Unfortunately there seems to be no contemporary writing at
all about the sheelas.

	The name we today give to these figures was first recorded in 1840 by
John O'Donovan as "Sheela Ny Gigg".  This was applied by the country people of
Co. Tipperary, to a sheela in Rochestown, of which only drawings exist today.
The name apparently come from the Gaelic, Si/le na gCi/och, which translates
to Shiela (the woman's name) of the breasts.  Most sheelas don't have breasts,
but the Rochestown one apparently did.

	Hope this helps a little in understanding this very interesting but odd
figure.

						  Sla/n,
						  Michael Collier
						  jmcollier@lbl.gov