Bridging the Continental divide: neo-Latin and its cultural role in Jacobean Scotland, as seen in the Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum (1637)

  [p67]

The Gathelus

1Tradition has it that an Athenian offspring of Cecrops, a in the bloom of youth, having put his trust in his mighty strength and youthful vigor, plundered the lands of the Macedonians, b and the Achaian c countryside. Although he would usually not tolerate any guidance, even from his father, when a divine omen prophesized foreign rites, Gathelus ventured to fit out a wooden ship, and having set out from native lands, he applied himself to the mighty oars. He then joined the Egyptian army and tormented the battlelines of the Ethiopians, and crushed by his hand proud Meroe, d and thus he earned the daughter of Amenophis the king of Egypt, e whom no other surpassed in skill or spirit, and he joined with her in the bond of marriage.

12However he wanted to escape the barbarous altars of hated Busiris, f whose sister he was joined to in marriage, those altars notorious for the ritual sacrifice of the sons of Isaac. g So, while also disturbed by fresh omens, and warnings from the Gods, he left Egypt, and made a course across the calm seas, having evaded the eddying Syrtian tides. h He clashed with the tyrants of the Numidians, i and went beyond the far-off boundaries where Hercules laboured. j He set out across the deep seas, through the deepest depths of the ocean, and in his bold boat he tried to converse with heaven, and dared entrust his life to the waves, and his prayers to the wind. For a long time driven this way and that, and led astray by various wrong turns, he wandered far and wide along the western shore in his boat, and then on the banks of the river Munda he established new fortifications on this new land: writers call it Brachara. k However, the long-drawn-out span of time can sometimes alter objects themselves, and often alters their names. Not far from the river, which rolls along golden yellow with its golden sands and glittering shavings of gold, a most rich land gushes forth in twin springs, and greatly clashing tides. One sucks everything down into the abyss and devours it, the other, throwing itself up into the light, expels all.

33This place was first discovered by the grazers of sheep, and then, when a shady grove, by the pruner of the high oak tree.   [p68] And any flock that ventured here, as it touched the edge of the spring with its foot, was led away from peril. Often Gathelus would get up early and go to this place, wondering greatly at the condition of both springs, and at the nature and divinely-inspired essence of the surrounding sky and earth; while Scota his wife would often inspect her image in the clear water, and, while cleaning her snowy hands and snowy feet, she would also often relieve her thirst firstly at one spring, and then at the other.

43It is said that the Athenian then spoke aloud to himself thus: 'almighty Nature, the one and only creator of so many, and so great, and such diverse works, give to me a beautiful offspring from my wife: give to me a tribe, and a city that will last.' He spoke no more, when a voice came back from the sacred spring and the adjacent sacred grove:

48'Cecrops' son, deemed worthy of a distinguished marriage with Scota, behold this nourishing land produces twin fountains, and there is no single innate nature for both. The womb of your pregnant wife soon will produce twins, but yet not brothers with the same nature. Each illustrious son will bear a crown on their royal brow: the older one will have strength, the younger virtue; the former fraud, the latter honesty. The former will stain his triumphal garlands with blood, and from the blood-stained earth he will rise in power towards heaven. The latter will be decked in Apollo's garland and the leaves of the peaceful olive-branch, and have a head shaded by a civic crown of oak.'

58Gathelus, pouring forth kisses to the ground from his downturned mouth, answers thus: 'whatever divinity's title you bear, whether you are a Naiad who dwells in the holy springs, or a Nymph who dwells in the green depths of the forest, and haunts the pathless woods, or the genius of the place, l the nourisher of the fruit-bearing earth, or else you are a very mighty deity flown down from high heaven; fulfill the prophecy which you are promising and ratify this omen.'

70Thus he spoke, and happily shared his joy with his wife: he declared the hope given them of an offspring by the present promise.

72However, with the fates pointing toward greater things, they say that he was expelled by the hatred of the natives, or rather that, following the fates by his own will, he journeyed through the billowing waves of Neptune against the terrifying Northern Wind, and between the Trileucan and Cantabrian gulf, beyond which is the Galician region; Gathelitia itself was called after the name of Gathelus. m From this is Gatheletum, and in abbreviated pronunciation Galetum:   [p69] hence also they named the city of Caletus, and the Caletan people. n On each side of the opposing border the land stretches on uninterrupted, the middle of which the lofty peaks of the severe Pyrenees surround, and they separate the ancient kingdom into two adjoining kingdoms; which kings from the line of Gathelus for a long time held; all followed industriously the customs of Gathelus, and followed every refinement: both art and war, and language and laws.

86Here finally, they relate, with fleet anchored in their longed-for home in the farthest extreme of the western world, Gathelus set down the household gods, and the city of the Brigantes, and also the Brigantian citadels, o those vast temple complexes: where now, known by the name of Compostella, the Roman world with profane religious rites and criminal impiety stupidly worships with the bone of an ass. p

93Here first, mounted on the marble seat in the predestined land, he accepts the venerable titles and royal rights and the other regalia of the kingdom granted by the people, both the gem-studded sword, and the crown and sceptre; and he calls the nation Scotia, after his wife, and instituted perpetual honours for their altars.

99He then sets out not just to impart the arts of war and peace, and also the law: delivering justice to the people, and giving laws to the convoked elders; and then he steers the equitable government of the state.

102Not less fortunate in his children from his wife Scota did this father appear to be. For Iber now rules in advancing years: and Imecus, famous for his native virtue, stands out in brilliance.

105The first son intends to extend his name and ancestral kingdom as much by might as by valour, so far as he believes that manifestly he is supported by divine favour, and also is getting closer to high heaven. Because of him is the Iberian kingdom and River Iber famous: q from him Hibernia rises, from the name Iberus, across the sea, r and also whatever reknown has risen from the reknown of great Iber. So great was his love of fame and crazed his desire for domination.

113The second son, s although junior by birth, though not the junior in the praise earned by his modest speech, passionately maintains his bright fire within his soul, and piously and judiciously strives to protect what he has inherited. Not for himself, but for his brother and dear parents does he seek to gain a name, and an honourable reputation in ages to come.   [p70] For this reason does Hibernia bear a brother's name perpetually. For this reason also does the Scottish nation bear a mother's renown. And for this reason is a language taken from a father's name (Gathelus) famous.

121Consequently, Iber, whom Iberia boasts of as king, is proud, and Imecus, to whom Eire falls, is modest at heart; they are the two fated springs sprung from an Egyptian maiden, with differing natures and clashing motivations, whom Gathelus once marvelled at not far from the gold-flowing river. t That son of Gathelus, peace-loving Imecus, maintains his realm, inherited through virtue and ancestral law. The warlike Iber extends the Iberian kingdoms across the Minius, and both the Munda and Boetin, and across the River Iber: and also the peaks of the Pyrenees, and beyond Gades u on the vast stretch of the ocean: where Calpe gazes on Abyla, v and the expanse of the inner sea: where the shores bend the blue waves on its long winding coast.

134And now the ill-omened Iber grasping for gold, and more ravenous than Orcus, snatches everything through unrestrained warfare: and cutting to ribbons the people in slaughter, and reducing kingdoms to ruins, he is more monstrous in wickedness than all others.

138Alas what a hated tribe of Hell, sprung from the mother Megaera the Fury! Which for a long time now has devastated both western and eastern world. The race of the Moors has mixed with Iber's stock, which Punic w might destroys with Cerberus' pride, and divine and human laws have been broken. However, the kindly mercy of heaven, generous with the bounty of the field, is bequeathed to Imecus: there is an abundance of all things, both flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, and for these, rich grazing land everywhere. His land is without the bite of snakes or the tooth of wolves, x it is devoid of all plague and all dangerous things: it neither produces such poisons, nor supports those imported from elsewhere, rather the land abounds in both rivers of milk and rivers of honey.

150Whatever he heard at home from the Athenian fathers, or whatever Egyptian secrets he drew from their sacred books, and whatever he learned while hanging on Moses' every pious word, under whose leadership he earned lofty honours in martial victory, each and every one of these stories, told from the mouth of their teacher Gathelus, all the people regularly wrote down in Greek characters and Egyptian symbols or committed them to their keen memory;   [p71] from Cantabria, Imecus brought this with himself into his kingdom. Why should I mention Cadmus' city, or inspiring Helicon, and both the Lyceum, illustrious with the ancient light of learning, and Cynosarges, next in order to be mentioned when it comes to the transmission of knowledge? When the great achievements of acting and speaking well came from the Tanagrean, Gephyrian, Lebratemian and Tanaian masters? y What of Siga, Cirrha, Hermonthida, and Deucalion's offspring, from whence the prophecy of the Druids came true on Caledonian shores? z