Scota
In medieval Irish and Scottishlegend,Scotais the daughter of anEgyptianpharaohand ancestor of theGaels.[1]She is said to bethe originof theirLatinnameScoti,but historians say she (and her alleged ancestors and spouses) was purelymythologicaland was created to explain the name and to fit the Gaels into a historical narrative.[1][2]
Early sources
[edit]
Edward J. Cowantraced the first mention of Scota in literature to the 12th century.[3]Scota appears in the Irish chronicleBook of Leinster,in aredactionof theLebor Gabála Érenn.[4]The 9th-centuryHistoria Brittonumcontains the earliest surviving version of the Lebor Gabala Erenn story (centred on an unnamedGoídel Glas), but this earliest version does not mention Scota even indirectly.[5]
TheLebor Gabála Érennstates that Scota was the mother ofGoidel Glas,the eponymous ancestor of the Gaels. This Scota was the daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh named Cingris, a likely reference to Pharaoh Chenchres from thekings listofJerome(who is calledAkenkheresin Egyptian records). She marries Goidel's fatherNiul,son ofFénius Farsaid(the inventor of letters and legendary ancestor of the Phoenicians).
Niul son of Fénius returns toBabylonas part of an effort to study theconfusion of languages.He is a scholar of languages and is invited by Pharaoh Cingris to Egypt to take Scota's hand in marriage. Scota and Niul's son, Goídel, who was saved by a prayer fromMosesafter being bitten by a snake, is said to have created theGaelic languageby combining the best features of the 72 languages then in existence. In Fordun's early Scottish version, Gaythelos, as he calls Goídel Glas, is the son of "a certain king of the countries of Greece, Neolus, or Heolaus, by name", who was exiled to Egypt and took service with the Pharaoh, marrying Pharaoh's daughter Scota. TheLebor Gabála Érenndescribes him as aScythian,yet the famed Irish genealogistJohn O'Hartnotes that Niul's father was a Phoenician, the brother of the legendaryCadmus.[6]
Other twelfth-century sources state that Scota was the wife of Geytholos (Goídel Glas), rather than his mother, and was the founder of theScotsandGaelsafter they were exiled from Egypt.[7]
Other manuscripts of theLebor Gabála Érenncontain a legend of a Scotia who was the wife of Goidel's descendantMíl Espáineof ancientIberia.ThisScotia's Graveis a famous landmark in Munster.[8]
The Gaels, known in Gaelic asGoídeland in Latin asScoti,are said to be named after Goidel and Scota. However, historians say they were characters created to explain the names and to fit the Gaels into a historical narrative.[2][1]
Scota and the Stone of Scone
[edit]Baldred Bissetis credited with being the first to connect theStone of Sconewith the Scota foundation legends in his 1301 workProcessus,putting forward an argument that Scotland, not Ireland, was where the original Scota homeland lay.[9]
Bisset wanted to legitimize a Scottish (as opposed to English) accession to the throne whenAlexander III of Scotlanddied in 1286. At his coronation in 1249, Alexander himself heard his royal genealogy recited generations back to Scota. Bisset attempted to legitimize a Scottish accession by highlighting Scota's importance as the transporter of theStone of SconefromAncient Egypt,duringthe ExodusofMoses,to Scotland. In 1296, the Stone was captured byEdward I of Englandand taken toWestminster Abbey.In 1323,Robert the Bruceused Bisset's legend connecting Scota to the Stone in an attempt to return it toScone Abbeyin Scotland.[10]
The 15th-century English chroniclerJohn Hardynglater attempted to debunk Bisset's claims.[11]
Later sources
[edit]Andrew of Wyntoun'sOrygynale Cronykil of ScotlandandJohn of Fordun'sChronica Gentis Scotorum(1385) are sources of the Scota legends, alongside Thomas Grey'sScalacronica(1362).Hector Boece's 16th-centuryHistoria Gentis Scotorum( "History of the Scottish People" ) also mentions the Scota foundation myth.
Walter Bower's 15th-centuryScotichroniconincluded the first illustrations of the legends. The 16th-century writerHector Boeceincluded the story of Scota in hisHistoria Gentis Scotorum,andWilliam Stewartmade a verse translation in theScots languagefor the Scottish royal court.[12]
Scota's Grave
[edit]
"Scota's Grave"[13]or "Scotia's Grave"is a rock feature in Gleann Scoithín or 'Glenscoheen', south ofTraleeinCounty Kerry,Ireland. According to theNational Monuments Service,"Following a site inspection in 1999 it was concluded that the evidence was not sufficient to warrant accepting this as an archaeological monument".[14]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^abcLennon, Joseph (2008).Irish Orientalism: A Literary and Intellectual History.Syracuse University Press. pp. 11–12, 36.ISBN9780815631644.Retrieved14 June2018.
- ^abÓ hÓgáin, Dáithí (1991).Myth, Legend & Romance: An encyclopaedia of the Irish folk tradition.Prentice Hall Press. pp. 296–297.
- ^Cowan, E. J.Myth and Identity in Early Medieval Scotland.Scottish Historical Reviewixiii, No. 176 (Oct. 1984). pp.111–135.
- ^"Lebor Gabála Érenn".
- ^Dumville, David (1974), "Some aspects of the chronology of the Historia Brittonum",Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies,25(4): 439–445
- ^O'Hart, John.Irish Pedigrees; or the Origin and Stem of the Irish Nation.1892. Page 9
- ^Matthews, William. "The Egyptians in Scotland: the Political History of a Myth".Viator1 (1970). pp.289–306.
- ^MacKillop, James.A dictionary of Celtic mythology.Oxford University Press, 2004, p. 330.
- ^Broun, Dauvit.The Irish identity of the kingdom of the Scots in the 12th and 13th centuries.Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 1999, p. 120.
- ^McMullan, Gordon and David Matthews.Reading the medieval in early modern England.Cambridge University Press, 2007, p. 109.
- ^Carley, James P.Glastonbury Abbey and the Arthurian tradition.Boydell & Brewer, 2001, p. 275 ff.
- ^William Turnbull,Buik of the Croniclis of Scotland,vol. 1 (London, 1858), pp. 8-16
- ^"Scota's Grave".Placenames Database of Ireland.Retrieved4 January2023.
- ^"Historical Environment Viewer".National Monuments Service.Retrieved4 January2023.
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