CLASSICAL INFLUENCEof classical, as well as patristic, Greek and Latin
literature, but we cannot be certain in many cases
whether it was acquired on the continent or is a
product of the Irish schools. Archaeological evidence
and incidental references in the literature of the
Graeco-Roman world also indicate that the Irish were
well aware of the existence of their Mediterranean
neighbors and their languages and culture.
Current dogma on the status of classical influence
on medieval Irish scholarship varies from extreme
scepticism to mild optimism. The conventional way
to assess the knowledge of Greek is to examine the
written evidences of its transcription into Greek let-
ters or in Latin transliteration. The pitiful state of
the preservation of Irish manuscripts has left us with
little enough remains of Greek material per se. But
in an overwhelmingly Latin-speaking ecclesiastical
environment, there is likely to have been a limited
requirement for the preservation of extensive pas-
sages of Greek, except for specific liturgical or other
purposes. The Anglo-Saxon church was introduced
to Greek learning by the arrival at Canterbury of
Theodore and Hadrian, who, Bede tells us, were as
well-conversant with Greek as Latin and left behind
them a generation of students who were proficient
in both languages. The glosses on the Pentateuch
first discovered by Bischoff, and attributed by him
to Theodore, contain only the bare minimum of
Greek vocabulary, and then largely in Latin translit-
eration. But it has been shown that they preserve a
substantial knowledge of Greek patristic literature.
What we have is a knowledge of Greek dressed up
in Latin form for speakers of Latin. This understand-
ing must also be applied to Hiberno-Latin literature.
It is generally thought that Ireland would have had
very little contact with the few sources of spoken
Greek or of Greek literature remaining in Italy. But
there is increasing evidence of knowledge of Greek
patristic and liturgical material in the early period
after conversion to Christianity, and this is not unre-
lated to the question of classical influence. Where did
Ailerán of Clonard acquire his knowledge of Greek
onomastica sacra, or the manuscript known as Liber
Commoneifind its Greek liturgical material? Some
knowledge of Greek can therefore be clearly dis-
cerned from the few remaining fragments of biblical
or liturgical Greek copied into some manuscripts,
chiefly for pious ostentation, as well as from the
Fahan Mura inscription discussed by Macalister and
largely ignored since.
It has been shown recently that the Irish had an acquain-
tance with classical clausular structure and meter, and
some may have had a basic reading knowledge of
Greek itself. Allusions to classical mythology are scat-
tered throughout Hiberno-Latin literature in works
composed at home, such as the Liber hymnorum, and
in hagiography, biblical exegesis, and grammatical and
scholastic texts. Some influence from the late classical
world in these sources is therefore certain.
Regarding classical Latin literature, Virgil was cer-
tainly well known to them, as were several other
authors including Petronius and Lucretius, in the trans-
mission of whose works the Irish played a part. The
oldestmanuscript of the Scholia Bernensia on Virgil’s
Eclogues and Georgics came through Irish hands.
Many emigré Irish scholars played an important role
in the preservation of fragments or texts of classical
Latin authors otherwise little known in the Middle
Ages. The poems attributed to Columbanus contain
theearliest allusions to and use of a range of classical
literature. Jonas of Bobbio’s biography of Columbanus
says that in his youth he had received some grounding
in liberal arts and grammar. However, the authorship
of five poems formerly attributed to him has been
disputed, primarily because of their implications for
some knowledge of classical literature in the early Irish
schools, and the poems have been attributed to a later
Columbanus of Saint Trond. From the early seventh
century at the latest, the Irish became acquainted with
the works of the late classical grammarians, such as
Donatus, Priscian, and many lesser-known grammati-
cal works, but the earliest Hiberno-Latin literature to
show a knowledge of Aristotelian philosophy or the
works of Boethius comes from the period of the
Carolingian renaissance, and therefore cannot be attrib-
uted with certainty to the Irish schools. Another emigré,
Dicuil, wrote several works on geography, computus,
grammar, and astronomy that show a knowledge of
Pliny, Solinus, and Ptolemy, who were also known in
the Irish schools.
In the later medieval period, perhaps from the tenth
century onward, vernacular adaptations and transla-
tions of Greek and Latin classics were being produced.
One could instance the To gáil Troí, a Middle-Irish
version of the fictitious account given by the fifth-
century author called Dares Phrygius. It is the earliest
vernacular translation of an admittedly pseudoclassical
work of literature. The fourteenth-century tale called
Merugud Uilix Maic Leirtis (The Wanderings of
Ulysses, Son of Laertes) is an adaptation of Homer’s
Odyssey, which is not without literary merit. There are
echoes of Homeric and other classical literature else-
where in Middle and Early Modern Irish, which are
not all due to coincidence or to some putative common
Indo-European inheritance. There are some free ver-
sions of Latin epics also, such as Statius’ Thebaid
(To gáil na Tébe), Virgil’s Aeneid, and Lucan’s Civil
Wa r(In Cath Catharda), all dating from the fourteenth
to the fifteenth century.
AIDAN BREEN