Thalia Lightbringer – AncientPages.com - Where did the Tuatha de Danann come from?
Legends of these people resemble those of ancient Greek gods, goddesses and archaic heroes; Could there be a connection? Do the Irish owe more to the Greeks than they know?
It sounds like a fairy story, and some of the evidence does come from mythical tales, but remember that Troy was found because Heinrich Schliemann took Homer’s tale of the Trojan War to have some basis in fact.
It is probably true that these tales were embellished to make them more magical and exciting, but facts are still embedded within the story. Before writing was common, people used poetry to help them remember the facts of a tale. Homer describes armor perfectly that was no longer used in his day, later confirmed by archaeological finds like the boar’s tooth helmet.
The ancient Irish used the same practice to remember their history, and their tales similarly describe ancient battles in great detail. The Druids were renowned for their amazing abilities to remember long lists of laws among other things.
The ancient Greeks were intrepid explorers and skilled sailors. They colonized places all around the Mediterranean and had a wide trade network. Plato compared them to “frogs around a pond” in his Works because of their expansive colonization of the area. Is it possible that they also colonized ancient Ireland?
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