View source for Fénius Farsaid

{{Short description|Legendary king of Scythia}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{one source|date=May 2018}}
'''Fénius Farsaid''' (also '''Phoeniusa, Phenius, Féinius; Farsa, Farsaidh''', many variant spellings) is a legendary king of [[Scythia]] who appears in different versions of [[Irish mythology]]. He was the son of [[Baath mac Magog|Boath]], a son of [[Magog (Bible)|Magog]]. Other sources describe his lineage from the line of [[Gomer]].<ref name=dias>{{Cite journal |last=Carey |first=John |author-link=John Carey (Celticist) |title=The Ancestry of Fénius Farsaid |journal=Celtica |volume=21 |year=1990 |pages=104–12 |url=http://www.ucc.ie/academic/smg/CDI/PDFs_articles/Carey_AncestryofFeniusFarsaid.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100705094121/http://www.ucc.ie/academic/smg/CDI/PDFs_articles/Carey_AncestryofFeniusFarsaid.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2010-07-05 }}</ref> According to some traditions, he invented the [[Ogham]] alphabet and the [[Goidelic languages|Gaelic language]].

According to recensions M and A of the ''[[Lebor Gabála Érenn]]'', Fénius and his son [[Nel_(mythology)|Nél]] journeyed to the [[Tower of Babel]] (in recension B, it is Rifath Scot son of Gomer instead). [[Nel_(mythology)|Nél]], who was trained in many languages, married [[Scota]], daughter of [[Pharaoh]] [[Cingris]] of Egypt, producing their son [[Goidel Glas]].

In the ''Lebor Gabála Érenn'' (11th century), he is said to be one of the 72 chieftains who built [[Nimrod (king)|Nimrod's]] Tower of Babel, but travelled to Scythia after the tower collapsed.

According to the [[Auraicept na n-Éces]], Fenius journeyed from Scythia together with [[Goídel Glas|Goídel mac Ethéoir]], Íar mac Nema and a retinue of 72 scholars. They came to the plain of [[Shinar]] to study the [[confusion of tongues|confused languages]] at Nimrod's tower. Finding that the speakers had already dispersed, Fenius sent his scholars to study them, staying at the tower, coordinating the effort. After ten years, the investigations were complete, and Fenius created ''in Bérla tóbaide'' "the selected language", taking the best of each of the confused tongues, which he called ''Goídelc'', [[Goidelic]], after Goídel mac Ethéoir. He also created extensions, called ''Bérla Féne'', after himself, ''[[Íarmberla]]'', after Íar mac Nema, and others, and the ''Beithe-luis-nuin'' (the Ogham) as a perfected writing system for his languages, Béarla na bhFileadh - 'language of the poets'. The Secret Language of the Poets, Gnaith-bhearla, a common language and dialect of the illiterate majority, it later became Old and Middle Irish, and eventually Modern Irish.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/agrammaririshla01odogoog <!-- quote=bearla fene brehon. --> A Grammar of the Irish Language, John O’Donovan]</ref>

The Auraicept claims that Fenius Farsaidh discovered four alphabets, the [[Hebrew alphabet|Hebrew]], [[Greek alphabet|Greek]] and [[Latin alphabet|Latin]] ones, and finally the [[Ogham]], and portrays the Ogham as the most perfected because it was discovered last.

==References==
{{Reflist}}
* George Calder, ''Auraicept na n-éces: the scholars' primer; being the texts of the Ogham tract from the Book of Ballymote and the Yellow book of Lecan, and the text of the Trefhocul from the Book of Leinster'', Edinburgh, J. Grant, 1917.

==Further reading==
* {{cite journal |last=Jaski |first=Bart  |title='We are of the Greeks in our origin': New Perspectives on the Irish Origin Legend |journal=[[Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies|CMCS]] |volume=46 |year=2003 |pages=1–53}}
* {{Cite journal |first=Róisín |last=McLaughlin |title=Fénius Farsaid and the Alphabets |journal=Ériu |volume=59 |year=2009 |pages=1–24 |doi=10.1353/eri.2009.0002 }}
* {{Cite LGE}}

{{Irish mythology (mythological)}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fenius Farsaid}}
[[Category:Characters in Irish mythology]]
[[Category:Creators of writing systems]]
[[Category:Scythian kings]]
[[Category:Japheth]]
[[Category:Ogham]]


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