Scota

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Scota or Scotia is a figure from the Celtic mythology of Ireland and Scotland . This is the name of two different legendary daughters of two Egyptian pharaohs , to whom the Gael traces their descent. This was to explain the name Scoti , which the Romans first used for Irish looters and later also for invaders from Argyll and Caledonia - later Scotland.

mythology

The one Egyptian princess named Scota is referred to as the daughter of Pharaoh Nectanebus (meaning Nectanebos I or Nectanebos II. ) And wife of Míl Espáne , and her sons are said to have settled Ireland .

Scota (left) with Goidel glass on the journey from Egypt ( Scotichronicon by Walter Bower , manuscript from the 15th century)

According to the early Irish chronicle Lebor Gabála Érenn ("Book of the Conquest of Ireland") the other Scota (also Scotia) was the daughter of the Egyptian pharaoh Cingris , whose name only occurs in Irish mythology. She married Nél, the son of Feinius Farsaidh , who was of Babylonian or Scythian origin and traveled to Scythia after the collapse of the Tower of Babel . Nél was a linguist and was invited to Egypt by the Pharaoh and married to Scota. Their marriage gave birth to a son named Goidel Glas , the eponymous ancestor of the Gael. He created the Gaelic language by combining the best features of the 72 languages ​​that existed at the time.

According to John von Fordun's work Scottichronicon (around 1345), Scotia married the Greek prince Gaythelos , whose further fate and that of his son Hyber roughly coincide with that of Goidel described below. This is denied by George Buchanan in the book Rerum Scoticarum (1582), since no Greek author mentions Gaythelos . There is also no support for Fordun's theory in modern research.

Goídel (or his son Sru ) was driven out by a pharaoh - to whom the 17th century Irish chronicler Geoffrey Keating ascribed the name Intuir - shortly after the Israelites left Egypt. After numerous migrations, his descendants settled in Hispania (or Iberia, today's Spain and Portugal ). There Míl Espáne was born, whose sons Eber Finn and Eremon established the Gaelic presence in Ireland.

According to Seumas MacManus ' Story of the Irish Race , Scota married Niul, who is shown here as the grandson of Gaodhal Glas . Another Scota happened to be the daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh and married Miled (or Milesius ). This second Scota and Miled lived on Iberia with their eight sons and their families. After Miled's death, Scota went to Ireland with her relatives, but many of her sons were killed in a storm on the way there, while Queen Scota herself died during the battle between the Milesians and the Tuatha Dé Danann .

Scota's grave is said to be in a valley area south of the city of Tralee (Ireland), usually called Foley's Glen , which is also known as Gleann Scoithín (which means valley of the little Scota but also valley of the little flower ).

See also

literature

  • Seumas MacManus: The Story of the Irish Race. A popular history of Ireland . Random House, New York 1990, ISBN 0-517-06408-1 (reprint of New York 1921 edition).
  • Michael O'Clery et al. a. Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland. From the earliest period to the year 1616 . AMS-Press, New York 1966 7 vols., (Reprint of the Dublin 1876 edition)
  • Aidan Dodson: Monarchs of the Nile . Rubicon Books, London 1995, ISBN 0-948695-20-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Helmut Birkhan : Nachantike Keltenrezeption. Praesens Verlag, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-7069-0541-1 , p. 399 f.