Ogma

The Irish god of writing, eloquence and poetry. Ogma was credited with being the inventor of the Celtic writing systems that the Druids used for their magic. These scripts were known as Ogham.

There are no clear indications of who Ogma's parents were. In one version, Ogma was considered to be the son of Dagda and the goddess Danu, but in others, Ogma and Dagda were brothers; in this version they were the sons of Eithne. Ogma had also been called the son of Elatha (or Elada), the king of the Fomorians.

Ogma was one of the seven champions in the First Battle of Moytura (Mag Tuired), but when Bres became the king of Tuatha dé Danann, Ogma was degraded into performing a humiliating manual job of gathering firewood.

When Lugh went to Nuada asking for a place to serve the king, Ogma seemed to be Nuada's foremost fighter. During the second battle of Moytura, Ogma killed one of the Fomorian leaders named Indech, the son of Domnu.

Ogma married Etain, the daughter of Dian Cécht. Ogma had a son named Caipre. Some say that he was the father of MacCuill, MacCecht and MacGrené (MacGrene), the three Danann kings who ruled Ireland during the Milesian invasion, though others say that Neit was their father.

To the Celtic Gauls he was called Ogmios. According to both Gallic and Irish myths, Ogma was a warrior god, depicted as a wrinkled old man wearing lion's skin cloak and carrying a bow and club. The Romans considered Ogmios as the Celtic equivalent of Hercules (Greek Heracles). They also depicted Ogimos as holding people chained to his tongue by their ears, to indicate he was the god of eloquence and poetry.