The Folk of the Goddess Danu — The Mysterious Dananns and Danavas

Throughout ancient myths and legend, we have a reference to the migrations of people. It does not matter what sacred text you investigate: codified within its pages is the stories of people. That is what the majority of religion is, and it is only the inclusion of theology (ideas about gods) and supernatural experience (i.e. seeing angels, flying, or ascending to heaven) that morphs sacred texts into religion.

At a foundational level, these texts are history — at least pseudo-history, as we might call it today. And nothing against the ancients with that distinction. Most of the wold couldn’t read or write in ancient times. They were remembering… Tribes. The Mahabharata epic of Vedic India… The Folk of Danu — The Mysterious Dananns and Danavas is an ancient legend recounted across Eurasia west of the Himalayas.

The roots of the Folk of the Goddess Danu story are truly ancient. As far as I can tell, it appears to hail from the earliest human memories. If we consider the myth in its general outline — a deity with a name etymologically related to Danu who gave their name to an entire lineage whose figures feature strongly in World’s Ancient Religions — this legend is recounted in Ireland and India.

It is the story of an ancient people, recorded in a number of the world’s oldest religions and their mythologies. Whoever they were — if there is an historical basis for these clans mentioned — they were important enough to be remembered to this day … from more than one source.

These are the Tuatha Dé Danann (Tuath De), the Tribe of the Goddess Danu (and Tribe of God’s) respectively, of Irish Celtic mythology. Along with Danu and the race of Danavas born from her in Vedic and Hindu Religion.

Table of Contents

• The Eponymous Danu
• The Faces of Danu
  • Danu and the Danavas of India
  • Danu and the Dananns of Ireland
  • Danaus, Danae, and the Danaans of Greece and Rome
• A Memory of an Ancient Tribe
  (Passed Through Indo-European Legend)

The Eponymous Danu

A deity exists in ancient scripture, known by a number of different names depending on the culture doing the remembering of ancient legend, and the language they are using. Yet the interesting thing is that many of these peoples are distantly related in both language and culture.

In both Celtic and Vedic religions, this deity is known as the goddess Danu. In both of these cases, Danu is the progenitor after whom an entire lineage of gods and goddesses are named, the eponymous founder.

However, it is my belief that there is reason to suspect that there are connections to Danu among the Indo-European religions. Is there a deity in Greek (and Roman) religion that is connected to Danu? It turns out that yes, there are candidates. I first discovered Danae, the mother of the great Greek Hero Perseus, whose relatives were known as Danaans is later times.

However, after a small amount of research, it became clear that Danaus — a primordial male deity — is after whom all ancient Greeks were named.

Danu is the name of a goddess in the oldest Vedic literature, as well as in the mythology of ancient Ireland. Her name is identical, and in both cases is the eponymous founder of an entire bloodline filled with many of the most prominent individuals in their respective religions.

There is a proven etymological connection between these names, as these Indo-European languages — Vedic, Norse, Celtic, Greek, and — all descend from a common language. Referred to as Proto–Indo–European by some.

The most common is the goddess Danu. There is an Irish goddess who figures deeply into Celtic Mythology, after whom is named an entire peoples important to the story of Celtic history — the Tuatha Dé Danann.

The… (“folk of the goddess Danu”).

In Vedic Mythology we also find Danu, and she too is the mother of an entire race known as the danavas — a race of asuras,

The Faces of Danu

Danu and the Danavas of India

In the earliest layers of the Vedas — the ancient scriptures of India that were brought into India by the Aryan people from the northeast, a noble, royal Indo-European people — Danu is one of the most well-known goddesses.

Danu is the daughter of Prajapati Daksha and his wife Panchajani. and the consort of the sage Kashyapa.

Curiously,

Danu and the Dananns of Ireland

Just as Danu is a primordial goddess of the Vedic (and later Hindu) religions, she is also

One of the interesting consequences of this (which we will discuss in greater detail) is related to the age of Celtic mythology. In short, the prevailing opinion is that the Celtic myths that we have extant, such as those found in the Lebor Gabala, is that these traditions are relatively young mythologies.

Danaus, Danae, and the Danaans of Greece and Rome

This tale is found in another variation in Ancient Greece tracing its roots back thousands of years. Danaus was an ancient king from Africa. Danaus was said to rule Libya, his brother… His lineage was

Danaus was said to be the son of King Belus of Egypt, and his wife Achiroe (one of the Neireids).

The main difference in this account (relative to the Vedic and Celtic mentions) is that the Danaans are explicitly human — not gods (asuras) as they are in the Vedic tradition, nor gods / deities / supernatural beings as they are depicted as the Tuatha De. (I have come to appreciate this about the…

In ancient Greece, the most probable candidate for the earlier Indo-European god/goddess is Danaus.

The similarities between Danaus and Danu in their mythology, are that:

• Eponyms of entire lineages

The major difference is that Danaus is male, while Danu is female in both Vedic and Celtic myth. (This may or may not be significant. There are linguistic arguments for why a deity may undergo a gender transition (as is the case with Utu/Shamash of Sumerian Religion). More imporantly to me, however, is the exisence of the name (and numerous renditions of the name at that, Danaus, Danae)

This indicates, potentially the movement of a people. The memory of Danaus is that he was once a king of Egypt, but he fled in ancient times. (As the story goes, his twin-brother Aegypticus wanted his 50 sons to marry the 50 daughters of Danaus, but he, Danaus, chose to flee instead. Ignoring the details of the myth, we have the movement of a people, from Egypt…

One of the interesting things is that Danaus was the legendary founder of one of the main Greek bloodlines. This is another similarity between Danaus and Danu (both the Irish and Vedic forms) — their children are among the most well-known within their respective relious tradition.

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Ancient Greek Mythology has another legendary account that is familiar in both name and story — first the ancient figure named Danae, and an ancient name for the Greeks, the Danaans.

Again we see these same names and themes arising within ancient religion, mythology and legend, but specifically within those of the related Indo-European cultures. The term Danaans was the third most frequently used term to refer to the Greeks in Homer’s Iliad (behind Achaeans and Argives, respectively). [2]

What is compelling in this account, is how the origins of the various Greek ethnicities (as viewed from the Greek perspective of their historical origins of their major tribes) trace directly back into Greek Mythology — to the gods and to the Great Flood.

She was chosen by Zeus to bear him a child, a son. Legendary Perseus.

Like Danu of both Celtic and Vedic myth, Danae was the foundation of a tribe. It is from her offspring that the divine blood was infused, even though her son and descendants were those who made the lineage famous — unto even today.

Yet even this is much the same as Danu from the Vedic Tradition. It is her Danavas, the Asuras that were born from her, that the stories are told of. This is also true of the Tuatha De Danann of Celtic myth and legend.

In a fashion incredibly reminiscent of how the Norse

The interesting connection that Danae brings to the story, is towards deeper Indo-European roots. We find this in both an etymological connection within Indo-European languages, as well as a folk legend of the Greeks, that Perseus was the founder, or ancestor, of Persian kings.

A Memory of an Ancient Tribe Passed Through Indo-European Legend

Arising from the Danaans and Danavas of Danu (and Danaus) the argument follows that this is an ancient memory — probably a prehistoric memory — of the Indo-Europeans. Not every detail from these varied myths, but the core features, passed down to the children of the Indo-Europeans (the Greeks, Celts, and Vedic Aryans).

featuring a tribe of renown and an eponymous female founder. In all cases we have a lineage who are entwined with the “gods” and “divine blood” in some way. (It is a tradition shared by all cultures.) They are important in that they stretch back to the beginnings of things. In some cases, back to the dawn of creation itself, and in others back to…

Again we have to wonder at the significance of this ancient recollection — and its meaning.

The tale of Danu and the Danavas (Danu and the Tuath De, and the goddess Danu and her people in all their forms) appears to be one of the oldest recollections of our species. We can see this tale featured in the ancient myths and legends of numerous Indo-European peoples (Vedic, Celtic, Germanic) indicating that it has a greater age than the peoples and cultures who retained the tradition for thousands of years.

While we cannot simply accumulate every account that features a female founder of a people together, it does not appear that we are doing that here.

What is more, is that it was important enough to be remembered. One of the things that you come across studying religions, ancient religions to be more precise (or any religion that has endured millennia), are statements of changes. For example, in the early days of Vedic Religion Danu was viewed in one way, while the danavas and the asuras were also viewed differently. However, in later Hinduism, the asuras shifted towards a polarizing demonic countenance…

In this case, the changes don’t interest me as much, because they are an evolution of interpretation — nothing more. Certainly not closer to the truth

Associations With Inanna, Ishtar, and Isis

Tracing Danu both back in time, and into distinct non-Indo-European cultures, religions, and mythologies

Curiously, these connections can be made, in spite of a difference in language that the myths are remembered in.

The Primordial Danu

With all of this emphasis on illustrating the various forms that Danu can take…

Significance

There are extensive parallels between geographically disparate ancient religions (Vedic, Celtic, Norse, Greek, Sumerian, and other systems) that indicate the existence of a prehistoric common form that these religions took — which I call the Ancestral Tradition. The Folk of Danu (in all of the various forms that we discussed here) is one such connection between ancient religions.

On its own we can see that the Folk of Danu Myth indicates a cross-cultural connection — that is, the myth itself is evidence of its existence in very distant cultures, indicating a relationship. This is especially true when we think of the Vedic Aryans and the early Celts whose telling of the narrative are so similar as to indicate a connection. While one single myth on its own does not prove a cultural, religious, and mythological connection, we have numerous examples.

The Folk of Danu myth indicates the existence of a tradition that preceeded all children born from it. A singular strain within a proposed Ancestral Tradition,

The significance of this theoretical tribe is three-fold:

1. A Cross-Cultural Description Of An Important Tribe — In this circumstance, I am not overly concerned with the specifics of Danu, Danae, Danavas, and the Tuath De Danann. The important theme is the memory of a Yes, they are described in different ways.

Further Reading

• Danu (Vedic Goddess)
• Danu (Celtic Goddess)
• Danavas
• Tuatha De Danaan
• Danavas
• Asuras

Notes

All that I am doing right now, all that I need to do right now, is build up Projeda into what I know it can be. Realistically, I have about a month to get a whole lot of this stuff done. I know (somehow) that I can do it. (Although I am not entirely sure why…)

The daityas and danavas — two different lineages born to sisters from the same father — itself illustrates the geneaological difference between the asuras and devas: there is none. They are literally cousins. On the one hand,

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If we go back even further in the historical record specifically () then we arrive at the more ancient counterparts of …

The significance of the Danaans is that the existence of this memory is verified to be ancient. Truly ancient. From a very early Indo-European (or Proto-Indo-European) peoples, giving the geographic and cultural range of this myth. Meaning that this story has something important to do with the earliest of times…

Resources

1. Wikipedia Editors. Achaeans (Homer). Wikipedia. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achaeans_(Homer)> Accessed 8 Aug 2025.