Ecne

 ( Irish Gods ) 

In Celtic mythology, Ecne (Wisdom, Old Irish ecna, ecne, wise, enlightened) was one of the Tuatha Dé Danann and was the god or goddess of wisdom. MacCulloch, John Arnott: The Religion of the Ancient Celts (1911) - chapter V, The Tuatha Dé Danann online at sacred-texts.com (accessed 23 October 2007)

Ecne is generally presumed to be the grandson of the goddess Ana/Anu who conceived Ecne after being impregnated by her three sons.

Ana's three sons may have been Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharba, who were sons of Tuireann, aka Delbáeth. Thus Ecne's three fathers were perhaps these brothers Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharba (of Oidheadh Chlainne Tuireann). Since the brothers were sired by Tuireann/Delbáeth upon his own daughter Danand, the brothers too were born out of an incestual relationship. The brothers are called the tri dee Donand, meaning the three gods of Danu, which can also be read as the three gods of dán, or knowledge. Related attributes are personified as their descendants, and Wisdom is the daughter of all three.

For Ecne to be the daughter of three brothers also recalls the early Celts practice of polyandry.

Ecne's three fathers killed Cian, the father of Lugh, Gods & Goddesses: Ecne at shee-eire.com (accessed 23 October 2007) and Lugh's deadly revenge is recounted in Oidheadh Chlainne Tuireann ("The Fate of the Children of Tuireann'). The Fate of the Children of Turenn online (accessed 23 October 2007)

In Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions, James Bonwick reports Ecne as female and as the goddess of poetry.Bonwick, James: Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions (London, Sampson Low, Marston & Co, 1894) p. 141