Sometimes the trio of names is preceded by the announcement that they
are three. There is one especially common type, where three sons are recorded
as sprung from one father, for example:
Τρω: δ’αo τρε4 πα4δε α, μ3μονε $ξεγνοντο,
r Ιλο ́ τ’Lσσα ́ ρακο ́ τε κα? α, ντθεο Γανυμ δη.
From Tros three fine sons were born:
Ilos and Assarakos and godlike Ganymedes. (Il. 20. 231 f.)
trayas tv An ̇ girasah
̇
putra ̄ loke sarvatra vis ́ruta ̄h
̇
:
Br
̇haspatir Utathyas ́ ca Sam
̇vartas ́ ca dhr
̇tavrata ̄h
̇.
But of Angiras, three sons renowned everywhere in the world:
Br
̇haspati and Utathya and Samvarta the resolute. (MBh. 1. 60. 5)
Tri meib Giluaethwy ennwir,
tri chenryssedat kywir:
Bleidwn, Hydwn, Hychdwn hir.
The three sons of false Gilfaethwy,
three champions true:
Bleiddwn, Hyddwn, Hychdwn the tall. (Math vab Mathonwy 281–3 Ford)
trı ̄ meic No ̄e nair cech neirt:
Sem, Cam, Iafet aurdairc.
Three sons of Noah, of every (kind of ) strength:
Shem, Ham, Japheth the glorious. (Lebor Gabála Érenn 189 f.)In these and in many other cases we have a more or less identical pattern:
the words ‘three sons’, with the father’s name in the genitive, with or without
a verb such as ‘were born’; a general qualification of the sons as ‘fine’,
‘renowned’, etc.; and then their individual names in an Augmented Triad.^135
It is hard to avoid the inference that this was a traditional formula from the
common poetic inheritance. Here we seem to find a remnant of the Indo-
European storyteller’s building work: a recognizable structural component,
with the lineaments of its verbal patterning still in place.
(^135) To the examples quoted in my 2004 paper, 46 f., may be added a further Irish one from
The Fort of Árd Ruide (E. Gwynn, The Metrical Dindshenchas, iv (Dublin 1924), 368–71), ‘Three
sons did Lugaid leave; | whither are gone their riches? –– | Ruide, son of broad-built Lugaid, |
Eochaid and manly Fiachu’.
- Phrase and Figure 119