#milesians

Scota appears in the Irish chronicle Book of Leinster (containing a redaction of the Lebor Gabála Érenn). According to Irish Folklore and Mythology, the battle of Sliabh Mish was fought in this glen above the town of Tralee, where the Celtic Milesians defeated the Tuatha Dé Danann but Scotia, the Queen of the Milesians died in battle while pregnant as she attempted to jump a bank on horseback.…

believed (mythologically) to be the earliest spoken Irish poem, by Amergin Glúingel, a Milesian bardic druid and judge. he was one of the seven sons of Míl Espáine. found originally in Lebor Gabála Érenn (The Book of Invasions) and then later Augusta Lady Gregory's "Of Gods and Fighting Men" (1904), she translates it as such:

"I am the wind on the sea,

I am the wave of the sea,

I am the bull of seven battles,

I am the eagle on the rock,

I am the flash from the sun,

I am the most beautiful of plants,

I am a strong wild boar,

I am the salmon in the water,

I am a lake in the plain,

I am the word of knowledge,

I am the head of the spear in battle,

I am the god that puts the fire in your head,

Who spreads the light in the gathering on the hills?

Who can tell the ages of the moon?

July 12, 2021 | Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Lately I have been (re)watching Indian Jones movies starring Harrison Ford, and today I watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). In this movie we get a look into Indiana’s youth—and his relationship with his father, Henry Jones, Sr. For example, initially he was not scared of snakes, flicking one away; however, he ends up SUBMERGED in them. (They look to be ribbon snakes, which are not venomous? Still, scary stuff, though.)

One scene that is pretty standard in most (if not all) of the movies is Indiana in the university classroom, teaching some archaeology course. “Next week,” the class will be learning “Egyptology, starting with the excavation of Naukratis by Flinders Petrie in 1885.”

As I did not take Dr. Jones’s course (or any other course) on Egyptology, we are going to Britannica for more information. According to Britannica, “Naukratis, also spelled Naucratis, [is an] ancient Greek settlement in the Nile River delta, on the Canopic (western) branch of the river. An emporion (‘trading station’) with exclusive trading rights in Egypt, Naukratis was the centre of cultural relations between Greece and Egypt in the pre-Hellenistic period. The station was established by Milesians in the 7th century BC, but Greeks from other cities also settled there. It flourished throughout the classical period but declined after Alexander’s conquest of Egypt and the foundation of Alexandria (332). The site of Naukratis was discovered in 1884 by W. M. Flinders Petrie and excavated by Petrie and Ernest Gardner (1884–86) and by D. G. Hogarth (1899, 1903). They uncovered dedications to deities and Greek pottery that threw light on the early history of the Greek alphabet and the commercial activity of various Greek states, especially in the 6th century BC.”

The map below shows where Naukratis is relative to other ancient Egyptian cities (source).

The story in the movie took place elsewhere, that is, not in Egypt. Egypt already got its own Indian Jones movie in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).

On a very unrelated note, near the end of the movie there is a scene (which I will provide no context to) that caught my eye because of four words: “Elsa” and “Let it go.” Elsa does not say “let it go.” Still ... “Let it go, let it go / Can’t hold it back anymore / Let it go, let it go / Turn away ...” More like, let him go.

And later:

In religious iconography or mythological art, three separate beings may represent either a triad who always appear as a group or a single deity known from literary sources as having three aspects. In the case of the Irish Brigid it can be ambiguous whether she is a single goddess or three sisters, all named Brigid. The Morrígan also appears sometimes as one being, and at other times as three…