Dian Cécht- Celtic GodDeity"Physician of the Tuatha Dé Danann"

The Silver Arm of Nuada

Dian Cécht served as chief physician of the Tuatha Dé Danann. After Nuada lost his arm fighting Sreng of the Fir Bolg at the First Battle of Mag Tuired, Dian Cécht crafted a replacement of silver, fully articulated and functional. Each finger bent, each joint responded to Nuada's will. Under Irish sacral law, no blemished king could hold sovereignty, and the silver arm made Nuada whole enough to eventually reclaim his throne. But the arm was silver, not living flesh.

The Murder of Miach and the Scattered Herbs

Dian Cécht's son Miach learned the healing arts and grew to surpass his father. Working with his sister Airmed, Miach recovered Nuada's original arm and over three days and nights reattached it completely, fusing bone to bone and sinew to sinew until the arm lived again. Dian Cécht struck Miach with his sword four times: the first cut to the scalp, which Miach healed; the second to the bone, healed again; the third to the brain's membrane, still healed; and the fourth through the brain itself, which Miach could not survive.

From Miach's grave grew three hundred and sixty-five healing herbs, one for every joint, sinew, and organ of the body. Airmed gathered them and sorted them on her cloak, organising their properties into a system of complete herbal knowledge. But Dian Cécht overturned her cloak and scattered the herbs beyond recognition. This, the tale explains, is why no one knows all the uses of all healing plants.

The Well of Slane

At the Second Battle of Mag Tuired, Dian Cécht worked with Airmed and his other son Octriallach to maintain the Well of Slane, a well of healing into which wounded warriors were placed and from which they emerged restored, ready to fight again. The well's power came from the herbs and incantations that Dian Cécht and his children placed in its waters. When the Fomorians discovered the well's secret, they buried it under stones, but by then it had already turned the tide.