View source for Lí Ban

{{Short description|Irish female mythological figure}}
{{for|Liban the mermaid of Lough Neagh|Lí Ban (mermaid)}}
{{for|the animated series|Lí Ban (animated series)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

'''Lí Ban''' ({{etymology|sga|[[wikt:lí#Irish|lí]]|beauty||[[wikt:ban#Irish|ban]]|of women}};<ref>Carney, James, "The Earliest Bran Material", in: Bernd Naumann (ed.), Latin Script and Letters A. D. 400-900, 1976, p. 188.</ref><ref>Koch, John, Celtic Culture, ABC-CLIO, 2006, p. 1608.</ref> thus 'paragon of women'<ref name="MacKillop 1998"/>) may refer to an otherworldly female figure in [[Irish mythology]].

This Lí Ban claimed the beautiful [[Fand]] as sister, and was wife to [[Labraid Luathlám ar Claideb]] ("Labraid of the swift sword-hand"), the ruler of [[Mag Mell|Magh Mell]].<ref name="MacKillop 1998">{{Citation |last=MacKillop |first=James |title=Dictionary of Celtic Mythology |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |place=Oxford |year=1998 |pages=205, 297, 320, 383–4 |isbn=0-19-280120-1}}: s.v. ''Fand'', ''Lí Ban'', ''Mag Mell'', ''Serglige Con Culainn''</ref>

She appears primarily in the Irish tale of ''[[Serglige Con Culainn]]'' (''The Wasting Sickness of Cú Chulainn''), where she is the daughter of [[Áed Abrat]]. She appears first in the form of a [[sea bird]], then as an otherworldly woman who inflicts the story's eponymous sickness on Cú Chulainn. In the story, Lí Ban acts as messenger and mediator; she and [[Cú Chulainn]]'s charioteer [[Láeg]] work together to see that Cú Chulainn is healed in exchange for his aid in Fand's battle in the [[Celtic Otherworld|Otherworld]].<ref name="MacKillop 1998"/>

From this, Lí Ban may have derived her namesake,<ref name="MacKillop 1998"/> a legendary [[Lí Ban (mermaid)|Lí Ban]] of [[Lough Neagh]].<!-- who according to a traditional story was transformed into a half-salmon half-human, and though presumably mortal lived for hundreds of years in that shape.--><ref name="MacKillop 1998"/><ref>{{citation|editor-last=O'Donovan |editor-first=John |editor-link=John O'Donovan (scholar) |title=Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland |edition=2 |volume=1 |publisher=Hodges, Smith, and Co. |year=1856 |page=201|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xy05AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA201 }}</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*{{Cite Serglige Con Culainn}}
*[http://www.manannan.net/library/cuchulain.html The Sick-Bed of Cuchulain] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090708123153/http://www.manannan.net/library/cuchulain.html |date=8 July 2009 }} - An English translation of the above
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20031205155507/http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Bistro/2330/jemer.html The Only Jealousy of Emer]

==Further reading==
*{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Vries |first=Ranke de |title=The Names of Li Ban |encyclopedia=Myth in Celtic Literatures |editor=Joseph Falaky Nagy |series=CSANA Yearbook 6 |location=Dublin |year=2007 |publisher=Four Courts |pages=39–54 |isbn=978-1-84682-046-5}}

{{Celtic mythology (Mythological)}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Li Ban}}
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[[Category:Irish goddesses]]
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[[Category:Tuatha Dé Danann]]
[[Category:Ulster Cycle]]
[[Category:Irish-language feminine given names]]
[[Category:Feminine given names]]