Bandia an fhlaithis

Is téarma acadúil é  Bandia an Fhlaithis, a fheictear de ghnáth i Léann Ceilteach, cé go bhfuil an smaoineamh céanna ann i nósanna eile faoin ainm hieros gamos.  Is bandia í, ina samhail den tuath, a bhronnann flaitheas ar rí á phósadh nó as caidreamh collaí a bheith aici leis.

Tagann roinnt scéalta dá leithéid leis an moitíf Loathly Lady (D732 sa Motif-Index le Stith Thompson).  Cáintear é áfach as a rá go bhfuil gach bean láidir ina bandia flaithis.

Fianaise stairiúil 
Dar le cuir síos Gréagacha agus Rómhánacha, d'fhéadfadh é gur dhéithe iad mná Ceilteacha stairiúla sábháil is Camma agus Cartimandua.  Is léir é fosta go raibh banais idir an rí agus a  thiarnas.  Sna deasghnátha aitheanta mar feiseanna, bhíodh ann idir gníomhaíocht ghnéasach agus capaill.  Is graosta fós, maíonn Giraldus Cambrensis in Topographia Hibernica den bhliain 1188, go mbeirtí rí nua Chineál Chonaill, barróg ghnéasach ar chapall bán, a mharaítí ansin chun anraith a dhéanamh.  Nití an rí féin san anraith, agus d'óladh an rí agus a mhuintir ansin é.

Is scéal suntasach ó thaobh an troip seo é Echtra Mac nEchach.  Tairgeann bean ghránna uisce dosna mic ar son póige.  Is é Niall amháin a phógann le fonn í, agus thairis sin tá gnéas aige leis.  Leis sin,  iompaíonn an cailleach ina bean álainn, agus aithrisíonn do an rann a leanas:
 A rí Temra is mé in flaithes adbér rit a mórmaithes
 dot shíol go bráth uas gach claind is é in fáth fíor fá a nabraim.
Is léir gur bréagstair é an scéal chun tacú a thabhairt le ceannaireacht chlann Uí Néill i nÉirinn.

Léirmheas 
 The fairly strong evidence for a tradition of sovereignty goddesses in early Ireland has led to a fashion in Celtic scholarship for interpreting other female characters as euhemerised sovereignty goddesses, or for arguing that the portrayals of women have been influenced by traditions of sovereignty goddesses. This way of reading medieval Celtic female characters goes back to the 1920s, and is related to the myth and ritual school of scholarship.  Mar shampla example, the protagonist of the Welsh Canu Heledd is sometimes read in this way, and figures as diverse as Guenevere; the Cailleach Bhéirre;<ref>Jo Radner, 'The Hag of Beare: The Folklore of a Sovereignty Goddess', Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin, 40 (1970), 75-81.</ref> Medb; Rhiannon; warrior women such as the Morrígan, Macha agus Badb; and the loathly lady of Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale have been viewed in the same light.  Britta Irslinger has argued that female characters in early Irish literature whose names relate to ruling or the supernatural, or who have been named after kingdoms, originate as sovereignty goddesses, whereas those whose names relate to drink or some other benefit of the hall were queens. However, recent scholarship has tended to criticise these assumptions, in both medieval Irish and related material.  For example, the portrayals of Gormflaith ingen Donncadha (bás 861), Gormflaith ingen Flann Sinna (c. 870–948), and Gormflaith ingen Murchada (960–1030) have all been read as showing influence from the idea of the sovereignty goddess, but this has been shown to rest on little evidence. Likewise the role of the Empress of Constantinople, who appears in the Middle Welsh Peredur but not in its French source, has been found to be open to other readings.  Even where female characters might historically owe something to traditions of sovereignty goddesses, reading them primarily through this lens has been argued to be limiting and reductive.

Foinsí 
 Sjoestedt, Marie-Louise. 1949. Gods and Heroes of the Celts, translated by Myles Dillon. London: Methuen
 Breatnach, R. A. 1953. “The Lady and the King: A Theme of Irish Literature.” Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review 42 (167): 321–36.
 Mac Cana, Proinsias. 1955, 1958–1959. “Aspects of the Theme of King and Goddess in Irish Literature.” Études celtiques 7: 76–144, 356–413; 8: 59–65.
 Bhreathnach, Máire. 1982. “The Sovereignty Goddess as Goddess of Death?” Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 39 (1): 243–60.
 Lysaght, Patricia. 1986. The Banshee: The Irish Death Messenger. Dublin: O’Brien Press. pp. 191–218.
 Herbert, Máire. 1992. “Goddess and King: The Sacred Marriage in Early ireland.” In Women and Sovereignty, edited by Louise Olga Fradenburg, 264–75. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press.
 Eichhorn-Mulligan, Amy C. 2006. “The Anatomy of Power and the Miracle of Kingship: The Female Body of Sovereignty in a Medieval Irish Kingship Tale.” Speculum 81 (4): 1014–54.
 Gregory Toner, Manifestations of Sovereignty in Medieval Ireland, H. M. Chadwick Memorial Lectures, 29 (Cambridge: Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, University of Cambridge, 2018), .

Tagairtí 

Ancient Ireland
Celtic mythology
Irish goddesses
Fertility goddesses
Marriage and religion
Religious rituals
Women and religion