The Irish Jerusalem: etymological politics and the study of Greek in medieval Ireland

Abstract

This study examines the etymology of the placename Tara, Irish Temair, in the Old Irish glossary Sanas Cormaic and in the Dindṡenchas tradition. Its focus is the derivation of Temair from a purported Greek verb teomoro and it is proposed that this etymology may have drawn on the Harleian Graeco-Latin (Cyrillus) glossary and could ultimately have been inspired by the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville. It further addresses the idea that Cormac mac Cuilennáin, king and bishop of Cashel, was the author of Sanas Cormaic and proposes that medieval etymology, as a branch of Irish learning drawing on the Graeco-Roman learned tradition, might reveal contemporary political concerns coded into the origins of words.