One source of this Greek hypothesis is John of Fordun's Scotichronicon of the 15th century which covers the supposed origin of the Q-Celtic speaking Scots and Irish.
I have a version in a book called Myths & Legends of the British Isles edited by Richard Barber (1999, The Boydell Press). This starts off: "In the days of Moses there was a king in Greece called Neolus, and he had a son called Gaythelos ..." Gaythelos has a son called Hiber and, after many adventures through Egypt, north west Africa and Spain they arrive in Scotland and Ireland. My account continues a couple of pages later "It was therefore under the leadership of Gaythelos's son Hiber that is people made their way to the island (Ireland). Hiber found it completely uninhabited, and left his brother Hymec there with his family, while he himself returned to Spain. The names of Gaythelos, Scota and Hiber are all to be found in the modern names of these places: the Gaels are called after Gaythelos, Scotland after Scota, and Hibernia, which is now Ireland, after Hiber." And it goes on for several more pages. One well-attested link with Greece is via the Greek colony at Marseilles (Massilia) which had strong links, I believe, with many of the Celtic settlements of Gaul and across the Celtic world to Britain and Ireland. The Celts did not, of course, normally write anything down and their Druids, who seemed to have a good communications network, used the Greek alphabet (and probably the Greek language as well) when they wanted to write something. If subscribers are interested, I will do a bit more digging on this topic. One intriguing aspect of all this (to me at any rate) is that Virgil, coming as he did from Cisalpine Gaul, must have had a detailed knowledge of the Celtic world and may well have understood the Celtic language(s) spoken there and been familiar with some of the traditional pan-Celtic stories. I would be most interested to know what current thinking is on this Celtic dimension of Virgil. Patrick Roper > Subject: VIRGIL: Re: Greek origins of the Irish? > > > Dear Virgilians, > I hope this inquiry isn't too tangential for this list... I am > looking at how the Troy story was invoked in later medieval Irish > adaptations of Virgil and Dares, and recently came across an > assertion that puzzles me. Stanford, in his _Ireland and the > Classical Tradition_, maintains that the Irish "were encouraged to > see themselves as descended from the Greeks" (as opposed to > the Roman > or Trojan origins claimed by the English and the French), but does > not supply specific bibliography to support this. Does > anyone happen > to know anything about the supposed Greek origins of the Irish, or > know where I might look to find out more about this? Many > thanks in > advance! --Sylvia > Sylvia Federico > School of English > University of Leeds > Leeds LS2 9JT > > > 0113-233-4769 > ------------------------------------------------------------ > ----------- > To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. > Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message > "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation > marks). You > can also unsubscribe at > http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub
