For the locality in Mangalore

Mangalore

Mangalore is the chief port city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located about west of the state capital, Bangalore. Mangalore lies between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghat mountain ranges, and is the administrative headquarters of the Dakshina Kannada district in south western...

. see Bolar (Location)

Bolar (Location)

Bolara is a locality in Mangalore City, Karnataka, India.The famous Mangaladevi Temple by which Mangalore derives its name is located in Bolara...

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In Irish mythology

Irish mythology

The mythology of pre-Christian Ireland did not entirely survive the conversion to Christianity, but much of it was preserved, shorn of its religious meanings, in medieval Irish literature, which represents the most extensive and best preserved of all the branch and the Historical Cycle. There are...

, Balor of the Evil Eye (sometimes spelled Balar or Bolar) was a king of the Fomorians

Fomorians

In Irish mythology, the Fomoire are a semi-divine race said to have inhabited Ireland in ancient times. They may have once been believed to be the beings who preceded the gods, similar to the Greek Titans. It has been suggested that they represent the gods of chaos and wild nature, as opposed to...

, a race of giants. His father was Buarainech

Buarainech

In Irish mythology, Buarainech was the parent of Balor, the King of the Fomorians. Squire glosses the name as 'cow-faced.'...

 and his wife was Cethlenn

Cethlenn

In Irish mythology, Cethlenn or Cethleann was the wife of Balor of the Fomorians and, by him, the mother of Ethniu. She was also a prophetess and warned Balor of his impending defeat by the Tuatha Dé Danann in the second battle of Magh Tuiredh...

. According to legend, he lived on Tory Island

Tory Island

Toraigh is an inhabited island 14.5 km off the northwest coast of County Donegal, Ireland. It is also known in Irish as Oileán Thoraigh, Oileán Thoraí or Oileán Thúr Rí.-Language:The main spoken language on the island is Irish, but English is also understood...

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Balor was notable for his eye in the middle of his forehead and one directly opposite at the back, which meant he couldn't be sneaked up on from behind. According to prophecy, Balor was to be killed by his grandson. To avoid his fate, he locked his daughter, Ethlinn, in a tower made of crystal

Crystal

A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituent atoms, molecules, or ions are arranged in an orderly repeating pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions. The scientific study of crystals and crystal formation is known as crystallography...

 to keep her from becoming pregnant. However, Cian

Cian

In Irish mythology, Cían , son of Dian Cecht of the Tuatha Dé Danann, is best known as the father of Lug by the Fomorian princess Ethniu.He was born with a caul on his head, and was turned into a pig as a boy when struck by a druid's wand. Thereafter he could transform into a pig at will...

, one of the Tuatha Dé Danann

Tuatha Dé Danann

The Tuatha Dé Danann are a race of people in Irish mythology. In the invasions tradition which begins with the Lebor Gabála Érenn, they are the fifth group to settle Ireland, conquering the island from the Fir Bolg....

, with the help of the druidess Birog

Birog

Biróg, in Irish mythology, is a leanan sídhe or fairy woman. A folktale recorded by John O'Donovan in 1835 relates how the Fomorian warrior Balor, to frustrate a prophecy that he would be killed by his own grandson, imprisons his only daughter Eithne in the tower of Tory Island, away from any...

, managed to enter the tower. She gave birth to triplets by him, but Balor threw them into the ocean. Birog saved one, Lugh, and gave him to Manannan mac Lir

Manannán mac Lir

Manannán mac Lir is a sea deity in Irish mythology. He is the son of the obscure Lir . He is often seen as a psychopomp, and has strong affiliations with the Otherworld, the weather and the mists between the worlds...

, who became his foster father. He was called Lugh

Lugh

Lug or Lugh is an Irish deity represented in mythological texts as a hero and High King of the distant past. He is known by the epithets Lámhfhada , for his skill with a spear or sling, Ildánach , Samhildánach , Lonnbeimnech and Macnia , and by the...

 Lamhfada and became a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann.

Lugh led the Tuatha in the second Battle of Magh Tuiredh

Magh Tuiredh

Cath Maige Tuired , meaning "The Battle of Magh Tuireadh", is the name of two saga texts of the Mythological Cycle of Irish mythology. The name Mag Tuired means "plain of pillars" or "plain of towers", and is anglicised as Moytura or Moytirra...

 against the Fomorians. Ogma

Ogma

Ogma is a character from Irish mythology and Scottish mythology. A member of the Tuatha Dé Danann, he is often considered a deity and may be related to the Gallic god Ogmios....

 disarmed Balor during this battle, but Balor killed Nuada

Nuada

In Irish mythology, Nuada or Nuadu , known by the epithet Airgetlám , was the first king of the Tuatha Dé Danann. He is cognate with the Gaulish and British god Nodens...

 with his eye. Lugh shot a sling-stone

Sling (weapon)

A sling is a projectile weapon typically used to throw a blunt projectile such as a stone or lead "sling-bullet". It is also known as the shepherd's sling....

 which drove Balor's eye out the back of his head, where it continued to wreak its deadly power on the Fomorian army. In other versions Lugh blinded Balor with a spear made by Goibniu

Goibniu

In Irish mythology Goibniu or Goibhniu was the smith of the Tuatha Dé Danann. The name of his father appears as Esarg or Tuirbe Trágmar, the 'thrower of axes.' Irish texts do not mention his mother but his counterpart in Welsh mythology, Gofannon, is a son of Dôn...

, or decapitated him and used his eye against the Fomorians.

One legend tells that, when Balor was slain by Lugh, Balor's eye was still open when he fell face first into the ground. Thus his deadly eye beam burned a hole into the earth. Long after, the hole filled with water and became a lake which is now known as Loch na Súl, or "Lake of the Eye", which is to be found in County Sligo.

The folklorist Alexander Hagerty Krappe (1894–1947) discusses the Balor legend in his book Balor With the Evil Eye: Studies in Celtic and French Literature (1927). Krappe believes Balor comes from a very ancient myth, perhaps, he suggests, going back to fertility rites at the time of the introduction of agriculture, of a woman (the earth) shut away by an old man (the old year), impregnated by another man, whose child (the new year), then kills the old man. Other versions of this myth: Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh was the fifth king of Uruk, modern day Iraq , placing his reign ca. 2500 BC. According to the Sumerian king list he reigned for 126 years. In the Tummal Inscription, Gilgamesh, and his son Urlugal, rebuilt the sanctuary of the goddess Ninlil, in Tummal, a sacred quarter in her city of...

, Osiris

Osiris

Osiris is an Egyptian god, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld and the dead. He is classically depicted as a green-skinned man with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive crown with two large ostrich feathers at either side, and...

, Balder

Balder

Baldr is a god in Norse mythology.In the 12th century, Danish accounts by Saxo Grammaticus and other Danish Latin chroniclers recorded a euhemerized account of his story...

, Danaë

Danaë

In Greek mythology, Danaë was a daughter of King Acrisius of Argos and Eurydice of Argos. She was the mother of Perseus by Zeus. She was sometimes credited with founding the city of Ardea in Latium....

, Balor in Ireland, the "May Count" in Sweden, and "it has even penetrated to Uganda, where it is told of a local chief." Moreover, according to Krappe, Balor is related to Janus

Janus (mythology)

In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Janus is the god of beginnings and transitions, thence also of gates, doors, doorways, endings and time. He is usually a two-faced god since he looks to the future and the past...

, Kronos

Cronus

In Greek mythology, Cronus or Kronos was the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titans, divine descendants of Gaia, the earth, and Uranus, the sky...

, the Serbian monster "Vy," the Welsh Ysbaddaden

Ysbaddaden

; "Ysbaddaden, Chief of Giants," is the primary antagonist of the Welsh romance Culhwch ac Olwen. A vicious giant residing in a nigh on unreachabe castle, he is the father of Olwen and uncle of Goreu fab Custennin...

 Pennkawr, and other versions of a two-headed god with an evil eye. Krappe also suggests that the woman may originally have been a cow goddess, such as Hathor

Hathor

Hathor , is an Ancient Egyptian goddess who personified the principles of love, beauty, music, motherhood and joy. She was one of the most important and popular deities throughout the history of Ancient Egypt...

, Io

IO

Io, IO, I/O, i/o, or i.o. may refer to:-An abbreviation:* I.O., a theater in Chicago, Illinois dedicated to improvisational comedy* i.o., "in illo ordine", Latin phrase meaning "respectively"...

 or Hera

Hera

Hera was the wife and one of three sisters of Zeus in the Olympian pantheon of Greek mythology and religion. Her chief function was as the goddess of women and marriage. Her counterpart in the religion of ancient Rome was Juno. The cow and the peacock were sacred to her...

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External links

• G. H. Kinahan "Donegal Folk-lore: Ballor of the Evil Eye." The Folk-Lore Journal. Volume 5, 1894.