Cuchulainn’s death pose bound upright to a stone defied his enemies

Evidence

But the hero would not die lying down. With the last of his strength, Cuchulainn dragged himself to a tall standing-stone (a pillar-stone) at the edge of the battlefield, and he bound himself upright to it with his own belt, so that even in death he would stand on his feet, facing his foes, his sword in his hand. And so he stood, bound to the stone, dying but upright. … His enemies, who had surrounded him, were still too afraid to come near — for who could be sure the terrible Hound of Ulster was truly dead while he yet stood with his sword? They waited. At last a raven — the bird of the war-goddess — came and settled on the hero’s shoulder, and only then, seeing the carrion-bird perch on him unafraid, did his enemies know that Cuchulainn was truly dead, and dared at last to approach. — , A Year of World Stories, 14368

Categorization

• FICTION: The detail of a dying hero binding himself upright could seed a fiction scene about defiance beyond death.