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PART-OLON’S IDENTITY WITH CATH-LUAN 395

Hittite province of Cilicia, which latter Prwt-gioln records on his monument as his father-land. And the “ Gleoin”’ title is clearly the ‘“ Gioln”’ or “ Gyaolowenie ” title inscribed on his Newton Stone.

The curious addition to this record that ‘‘ Aganthirsi’’ was also the name of his clan suggests that the later bardic compiler of this tradition sought to identify these Gleoin people with the colony of the Geloni tribe of quasi-Greek merchants in Scythia, north of the Black Sea, described by Herodotus as living amongst a Scythian tribe adjoining the Agathirsi Scyths. If this word “ Aganthirsi”’ really existed in the early traditional documents, it may have been intended for ‘‘ Agadir,’ the name of the old Phoenician sea-port city of Cadiz in Iberia, whence Part-olon is reported to have come.

The “ Geloni ’’ people of the colony in Scythia, described by Herodotus, were probably a colony of Hitto-Pheenician ‘“ Khilaani’’ traders. Herodotus tells us’ that they were originally resident in Greek trading ports, but were expelled thence, and were engaged in Scythia as furmerchants. They were blue-eyed and red-haired? and worshipped Dionysus (as did the Phoenicians), and “ had temples adorned after the Greek manner with images, altars and shrines of wood.’’ What is especially significant is that “ all their city is built of wood, its name is‘ Gelonius,, . . . it is lofty and made entirely of wood.’’ All this suggests that the buildings were of the style of the “‘ Khilaani”’ palace and mansion of the Hitt-ites. Significantly also, these Geloni were related to the Phoenician sea-port of Gades (Cadiz) with its famous temple of the Phcenician Hercules, in Iberia, outside the Pillars of Hercules. Herodotus relates the legend that they were the descendants of this Phoenician hero, Hercules, who, on returning from Gades, drove the herds of Geryon into Scythia and left there two sous, Gelon and Agathyrsis, from whom those two tribes were descended.*

Tt is also remarkable that this presumably Phoenician colony of Geloni in Scythia was likewise settled amongst a primitive nomad people who, like the Picts, painted their skins blue, and whom V irgil calls ‘‘ the painted Gelons.”"* But Herodotus is at pains to point out that this painted nomad tribe in whose land the Geloni traders had their colony were the aborigines and erroneously called ‘‘Geloni’’ by the Greeks. He says that their proper tribal name was “ Bud-ini’’ and that they were a totally different and inferior race to the Geloni.

“ They do not use the same language as the Geloni nor the same mode of living, and are the

only people of those parts who eat vermin ; whereas the Geloni are tillers of the soil, feed upon corn, cultivate gardens, and are not at all like the Budini in form or complexion.”

We thus seem to have here in this colony of Gelons in Scythia in the filth century b.c. another parallel instance of what occurred in the Don Valley about the same period, of a colony of fair Phcenician Barat “ Giolns"’ with a high civilization settled amongst a population of primitive nomads who painted their skins blue and were otherwise seemingly akin to the Picts of Scotland.

Further similarity between Cath-luan and Part-olon is seen in the tradition that the former first arrived in and possessed a part of Erin before proceeding to North Alban or Scotland.’ His opponent in Ireland was “ Herimon,” or “ Eremon,’’ which might possibly be a scribal variant for the Umor or Fomor men who opposed Part-olon in Ireland. The tradition that Part-olon, as well as Cath-luan, held possession of the South Coast of Ireland probably indicates that Part-olon established and kept a colony there in addition to his kingdom in the North of Scotland.

* Herodotus, 4, 108. * Turner's Notes on Herodotus, 4, 108. * Herodotus, 4, 8-10.

*** Pictosque Gelonos,” Virgil, Georgics, 2, Ir4-5.

«Skene, op. cit., 125-6. Cath-luan is traditionally reported to have landed or fought a great battle on the “Slaine” River, which is usually identified with the Slaney River of Wexford, that is, further East than Part-olon's traditional landing place.