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The House of Israel

Grecian Israelites Settled in "For now by sad and painful trouble
shall I be encompassed if I go
Ireland too near the Iernian Islands.
For unless, by bending within the holy headland,
I sail within the bays of the land and the
It is accepted that the ancient history of the British barren sea,
Isles was interlaced with the movements of peoples I shall go outward into the Atlantic
from the Near and Middle East, in the B.C. centuries. Ocean."
The significance of Ireland in the development of Brit-
ain -- and subsequently of the English-speaking peo- Thus we have in the poem a mention of not later than
ples who sprang from Britain -- is clearly established. the 7th century B.C., of a voyage from Greece to the
A study of early Irish history is rewarding. It reveals an vicinity of Ireland. Aristotle, born in 384 B.C., retains
amazing confusion of historical and imaginative details the same name Ierne: Herodotus had earlier recorded
which have defied the most painstaking attempts to that Africa had been circumnavigated long before his
clarify them.
time, by Phoenician ships, which returned via the pil-
lars of Hercules.
It is clear from these that Ireland was colonized by
successive waves of immigrants from eastern lands Tacitus, writing of Roman Agricola's penetration into
which cannot always be identified. But claims for the northern Britain makes his only reference to Ireland,
antiquity of Irish civilization receive confirmation on which Roman soldiers never set foot:
from independent archaeological discoveries which
show that, at least as far back as the Bronze Age, im-
ported cultures and, probably, waves of settlers who in- "He saw that Ireland, lying between Britain and Spain
troduced them, contributed in successive periods to and at the same time convenient to the ports of Gaul
the creation of a well-ordered society. might prove a valuable acquisition."

Important Greek communities may, with great cre-
Classical literature is of assistance in studying the an-
tiquities of Ireland for it throws much light on the dence, be identified as being of Israel, as in the case of
authenticity of the native histories, as we now have the Lacedaemonians whose capital was Sparta. Jose-
them. The works of Greek and Roman writers make phus, in his Antiquities of the Jews records that the
mention of Ireland and its people. Although the infor- Lacedaemonian king Areios sent an embassy to the
mation to be gathered from these sources leaves much Jewish High Priest acknowledging that the Jews and
to be desired, it is of the greatest value in considering Lacedaemonians were racially akin, both having de-
the periods concerned and it does help to provide a scent from Abraham. A later High Priest, sending en-
framework of reference to existing Irish literature. Ac- voys to visit the Spartans recalled the incident.
cording to the learned 18th century antiquarian, Sir
James Ware, by far the earliest reference to Ireland is It is of the greatest interest to read that the seal on the
to be found in the ancient Poem of the Argonautica. It letter from Sparta showed an eagle holding fast a ser-
is by some thought to be a forgery, but by others attrib- pent. Both these emblems are Israelitish -- of the tribe
uted to Opheus of Crotona who died in c. 526 B.C. of Dan. The Spartans had preserved it for their official
Traditionally, he was a member of the heroic Argonaut transactions. This episode is confirmed in the Apocry-
expedition. pha Book of I Macabees. It is also worthy of note that
this heraldic device of the tribe of Dan is described in
According to Diodorus Siculus, the Argonauts sailed Homer's Iliad as appearing over the contending Trojan
up the Tanais (Danube), transporting their ship to a and Greek armies during the siege of Troy -- a clear
river flowing northward to the sea and thence they indication at least, that the emblems were recognized
sailed home via Cadiz. The ship Argo is quoted in the as having national significance.
poem as saying:

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