Balor of the Evil Eye

Balor can be equated to a god of death and destruction, in Irish mythology he was the son of Net, and lord of the Formorians, the grotesque race that inhabited Ireland before the Tuatha de Dannan.

He became known as ‘Balor of the Evil Eye’ after he spying on druids preparing a draught of wisdom; some of the potion splashed on to his eye, which made his stare baleful to all those he looked upon. He kept his evil eye closed when not in battle, and his lid was so heavy that he needed four attendants to lift it.

He was eventually slain by his own grandson Lugh, the god of light, and a Celtic equivalent of Apollo. Lugh put out his eye with a slingshot, which can be seen as a god of light removing the blight from the land. That Balor would be killed by his grandson had been prophesised a long time before. Balor had guarded against this by imprisoning his daughter on an island so that she could not become pregnant. However Cain mac Cainte managed to reach the island, and through their union Lugh was born.