Fenius Farsa - Citizendia

Fenius Farsa (also Phoeniusa, Phenius, Fénius; Farsaid, Farsaidh, many variant spellings) was a legendary king of Scythia who shows up in many legends of Irish folklore. In Classical Antiquity, Scythia ( Greek Skuthia) was the area in Eurasia inhabited by the Scythians, from the 8th The Mythology of pre-Christian Ireland did not entirely survive the conversion to Christianity, but much of it was preserved shorn of its religious meanings According to some traditions, he was the creator of the Ogham alphabet and the Gaelic language. Ogham (ogam ˈɔɣam Modern Irish or, English) is an Early Medieval Alphabet used primarily to represent the Old Irish language (and The Goidelic languages, (also sometimes called particularly in colloquial situations the Gaelic languages or collectively Gaelic) historically formed a Dialect

In the Lebor Gabála Érenn (11th C), he is said to be one of the 72 chieftains who built Nimrod's Tower of Babel, but travelled to Scythia after the tower collapsed. Lebor Gabála Érenn ( The Book of the Taking of Ireland) is the Middle Irish title of a loose collection of Poems and Prose narratives Nimrod ( was a Mesopotamian Monarch mentioned in the Jewish Tanakh, and who figures in many legends and folktales The Tower of Babel (מגדל בבל Migdal Bavel برج بابل Burj Babil) is a structure featured in chapter 11 of the Book of Genesis, an enormous

According to the Auraicept na n-Éces, Fenius journeyed from Scythia together with Goídel mac Ethéoir, Íar mac Nema and a retinue of 72 scholars. The Auraicept na n-Éces ("the scholars' primer" is claimed as a 7th century work of Irish grammarians written by a scholar named Longarad They came to the plain of Shinar to study the confused languages at Nimrod's tower. Shinar (Hebrew he שִׁנְעָר Šin`ar, Septuagint Σεννααρ Sennaar 'land of the rivers' is a broad designation applied to Mesopotamia, occurring The confusion of tongues ( confusio linguarum) is the initial fragmentation of human languages described in the Book of Genesis 111–9 as a result of the construction Finding that they had already been 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. The Goidelic languages, (also sometimes called particularly in colloquial situations the Gaelic languages or collectively Gaelic) historically formed a Dialect He also created extensions of Goídelc, 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. The names he gave to the letters were those of his 25 best scholars.

Auraicept claims that Fenius Farsaidh discovered four alphabets, the Hebrew, Greek and Latin ones, and finally the Ogham, and that the Ogham is the most perfected because it was discovered last. The Auraicept na n-Éces ("the scholars' primer" is claimed as a 7th century work of Irish grammarians written by a scholar named Longarad The Hebrew alphabet (אָלֶף-בֵּית עִבְרִי alephbet ’ivri) consists of 22 letters used for writing the Hebrew language. The Greek alphabet (Ελληνικό αλφάβητο is a set of twenty-four letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early Ogham (ogam ˈɔɣam Modern Irish or, English) is an Early Medieval Alphabet used primarily to represent the Old Irish language (and

References

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.

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