In Irish mythology, Banba (modern spelling: Banbha), daughter of Delbáeth and Ernmas of the Tuatha Dé Danann, is a matron goddess of Ireland. She was married to Mac Cuill, a grandson of the Dagda.[1]
She was part of an important triumvirate of matron goddesses, with her sisters, Ériu and Fódla. According to Seathrún Céitinn she worshipped Macha, who is also sometimes named as a daughter of Ernmas. The two goddesses may therefore be seen as equivalent. Céitinn also refers to a tradition that Banbha was the first person to set foot in Ireland before the flood, in a variation of the legend of Cessair.
In the Tochomlad mac Miledh a hEspain i nErind: no Cath Tailten,[2] it is related that as the Milesians were journeying through Ireland, "they met victorious Banba among her troop of faery magic hosts" on Senna Mountain, the stony mountain of Mes. A footnote identifies this site as Slieve Mish in Chorca Dhuibne, County Kerry. The soil of this region is a non-leptic podzol http://www.ucd.ie/sssi/Soils%20of%20Ireland_files/Soils_colour.png. If the character of Banba originated in an earth-goddess, non-leptic podzol may have been the particular earth-type of which she was the deification.
The LÉ Banba (CM11), a ship in the Irish Naval Service, was named after her.
Initially, she could have been a goddess of war as well as a fertility goddess.
