When Cuchulainn arrives at his Ulster court threatening violence

King Conchobar “orders his women to intercept him, naked” A tense

Moment, but the women are happy to oblige, and the hero is “delayed,”

Until he can be cooled off in a succession of baths. In order to dissuade

Him from killing on another occasion the ladies at court uncover

Their breasts. Indeed, the Ulster women are shown to have a tougher

Sexuality than is common in most heroic literature, their lust readily

Aroused by seeing a tasty man. Modern scholars of the Irish sagas see

This depiction as part of the patriarchal viewpoint of the male

Writers, this is how men would like women to be, up for it, all

The time, all of them, except their own women who will do what

They are told. Patriarchy is not absent, but I think it could not

Create these lovely women and their honest sexual display,

Which matches what I know of women’s sly humour, their way

Of hinting that male desire is weak compared with theirs

And much too boastful. Their grace is not to control nature

But to express it in restraint or shared enjoyment with a chosen

partner. Cassius Dio, in the 3^rd century, tells of a Roman

Empress who criticised the lax morality of Celtic women

To a Celtic noblewoman, her guest. “We are honest,” she replied

“In how we deal with natural desires. We consort openly, bride

Or lover, with the best of men, while you are debauched in secret

By the vilest.” And Scotland now? A society that cannot even speak it

Without sniggers has much to learn from one that lived its sexuality

With humour and honour, led by women, in the light of day.