Divine Deformity: The Plinian Races (via Isidore of Seville) in Irish Mythology

Authors

• Phillip Andrew Bernhardt-House no permanent/full-time affiliation at present

Keywords:

Lebor Gabála Érenn, Fomoiri, Isidore of Seville, Pliny the Elder, Sciopods, Cyclopes, Giants, Cynocephali, Blemmyae

Abstract

This article examines the characteristics of the Fomoiri in Irish mythological literature--particularly their being one-eyed, one-legged, and one-handed or one-armed--and rather than positing a proto-Indo-European or native Irish origin for these physical motifs, instead suggests that these characteristics may be derived from Isidore of Seville's Etymologiae, which contains a catalogue of the "Plinian races" of classical mythology and pseudo-ethnography within it.  All of the Fomoiri's characteristics can be compared to the physiological forms of the Giants, Sciopods, Cyclopes, and Blemmyae from the canonical list of Plinian races.  Further omparison of Irish accounts of cynocephali (dog-headed humanoids) within texts like Lebor Gabála Érenn are also likely derived from Isidore.