 | This article includes a list ofgeneral references, butit lacks sufficient correspondinginline citations. Please help toimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(October 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Partholón (Modern Irish:Parthalán) is a character in medieval Irish Christianpseudohistory, said to have led one of the first groups to settle inIreland. His name comes from the Biblical nameBartholomaeus (Bartholomew), and may be borrowed from a character in the Christian pseudohistories of SaintsJerome andIsidore of Seville.[1][2]
In most versions of the tale, Partholón is the leader of the second group of people to settle in Ireland, theMuintir Partholóin (People of Partholón). They arrive on the uninhabited island about 300 years afterNoah's Flood and introduce farming, cooking, brewing and building. After some years, they all die ofplague in one week.
The earliest surviving reference to Partholón is in theHistoria Brittonum, a 9th-century BritishLatin compilation attributed toNennius. It says that Ireland was settled three times by three different groups, with 'Partholomus' arriving first fromIberia with a thousand followers who multiplied until they numbered four thousand, before dying of plague in a single week.[3]
TheLebor Gabála Érenn, an 11th-century Christian pseudohistory of Ireland, says that Ireland was settled six times, with Partholón and his followers being the second group. The number may have been chosen to match the "Six Ages of the World".[4] According to theLebor Gabála, Ireland was uninhabited following the deaths ofCessair and her companions inthe Flood. It says that Partholón came fromGreece[5] and was the son of Sera, son of Sru, who was himself a descendant ofMagog,son ofJapheth, who was theson ofNoah. Partholón and his people sail to Ireland viaSicily and Iberia, arriving 300 or 312 years after the flood and landing atInber Scéne (Kenmare inCounty Kerry). With Partholón were his wife (Delgnat), their three sons (Slanga, Rudraige and Laiglinne), the sons' wives (Nerba, Cichba and Cerbnad), and a thousand followers.
Partholón and all of his people—five thousand men and four thousand women—died of the plague in a single week, on Senmag (the "old plain"), near modernTallaght.
Seathrún Céitinn's 17th-century compilationForas Feasa ar Érinn says they arrived in 2061 BC. It claims that Partholón was the son of Sera, the king of Greece, and fled his homeland after murdering his father and mother. He lost his left eye in the attack on his parents. He and his followers set off fromGreece, sailed via Sicily and arrived in Ireland from the west, having traveled for two and a half months.
According to Céitinn, at the time of Partholón's arrival, Ireland consisted of one open plain, three lakes and nine rivers. Partholóin cleared four more plains, and seven more lakesburst from the ground. Named figures are credited with having introduced cattle husbandry, ploughing, cooking, dwellings, trade and dividing the island into four parts. Partholon divides Ireland into four parts for his four sons named Er, Orba, Fearon, and Feargna.[6]
In Céitinn's version of the story, at theBattle of Mag Itha, the first battle fought in Ireland, the Partholóin battled and defeated theFomorians, who were led byCichol Gricenchos.
A poem in theLebor Gabála, expanded by Céitinn, tells how Partholón and his wife, Delgnat, lived on a small island near the head of the estuary of theRiver Erne. Once, while Partholón was out touring his domain, Delgnat seduced a servant named Topa. Afterward, they drank from Partholón'sale, which could only be accessed through a golden tube. Partholón discovered the affair when he drank his ale and recognized the taste of Delgnat's and Topa's mouths on the tube. In anger, he killed Delgnat's dog and Topa. But Delgnat was unrepentant and insisted that Partholón was to blame, as leaving them alone together was like leaving honey before a woman, milk before a cat, edged tools before a craftsman, or meat before a child, and expecting them not to take advantage. This is recorded as the first case of adultery and the first jealousy in Ireland. The island in question was named Inis Saimera after Saimer, Delgnat's dog.
TheAnnals of the Four Masters says they arrived in 2520Anno Mundi (after the "creation of the world"). This work states that the plague came 300 years after their arrival, in May, and that one man survived:Tuan, son of Partholón's brother Starn. Known as a legendaryseer, Tuan was said to be a storehouse of knowledge of Irish history because he lived across the generations in different incarnations. Through a series of animal transformations, he survived through the centuries to be reborn as the son of a chieftain named Cairell in the time ofColm Cille (6th century AD). He remembered all he had seen, and thus preserved Partholón's story.
| Preceded by | Mythical settlers of Ireland AFM 2680 BC FFE 2061 BC | Succeeded by |