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Appendix IV

 

BRUTUS-THE-TROJAN AS THE HOMERIC HERO "PEIRITHOOS" AND HIS PHOENICIAN ASSOCIATE CORINEUS AS "CORONOS CAINEUS," THE ASSOCIATE OF "PEIRITHOOS"

 

 

HOMER, I find, appears to mention repeatedly King Brutus-the-Trojan as the famous hero "Peirithoos," both in his Iliad and Odyssey, as one of the most famous of ancient classic heroes, as the conqueror of aboriginal tribes, the slayer of the Calydon boar, and as the associate of the Phoenician Hercules in the cruise of the Argo for the Golden Fleece; and Hercules, according to all tradition, visited Gades, beyond the Pillars of Hercules, which Phoenician port was, as we have seen, the half-way house of Brutus on his voyage to Britain. Though, as Peirithoos lived several centuries before the epoch of Homer, that immortal bard, with his usual poetic licence and anachronism, in gathering together into one romance all the galaxy of heroic names floating in Trojan tradition in his day, makes Peirithoos an Achaian hero, a generation before the Trojan war; for he could not, from Brutus' Trojan ancestry, as a descendant of AEneas, bring him in at all otherwise.

The resemblance between Homer's "Peirithoos" and Brutus-the-Trojan is so striking, not merely in the form of the name, but also in the numerous details of their respective traditional history and adventures, that it establishes the great probability that they were one and the same personage.

First as to their ancestry. We have seen that Brutus, the "Briutus" of the Irish Scot texts, was, according to the Ancient British Chronicles, the grandson of AEneas' son Ascanios and resided for a time in Epirus of Greece, where he married the king's daughter. Now Homer describes his hero Peirithoos (who also was for a time in Epirus and where he also went "marriage" hunting)1 as "the son of the wife of Ixion."2 Here "Ixion" seems presumably a dialectic or purposely obscured form of "Ascanios," the "Isicon" of the Scottish and Irish Scot versions of the "Briutus" tradition; and "son" is frequently used in the general sense of "descendant."

So great was the fame of the warrior Peirithoos, the "Pirithous" of the Roman writers, that he is figured alongside his companion Coronus, Caineus (the "Corineus" of the British Chronicles) on the Shield of Hercules,3 and Homer makes Nestor say in chiding Achilles:-- 

   "Yea, I never beheld such warriors, nor shall behold 
    As were Peirithoos . . . and [Coronus] Caineus . . . like to the Immortals.
    Mightiest of growth were they of all men upon the earth; 
    Mightiest they were and with the mightiest fought they 
    Even the wild tribes of the mountain caves,
    And destroyed them utterly."4
 

The picture of the hero Peirithoos was frequently painted in the interior of temples in Ancient Greece.5 He is described as a slayer of the "Calydon boar,"6 which may preserve a memory of his conquest of Caledonia, especially as Brutus is reported in the Chronicles to have conquered

 

1 Pausanias, 1, 17                           2 Iliad, 14, 317; and Strabo, 439: 9, 5, 19.
3 Hesiod, Shield of Hercules, 178.
4 Iliad 1, 262-268. From Lang and Leaf's translation; and see Odyssey, 11, 631.
5 P.D.G., 1, 17 and 30; 5, 10; 8, 45; 10, 29.                                       6 Ib., 8, 45.

p.405: HOMERIC PEIRITHOOS & BRUTUS

 

N. Britain as far as the Forth. But his greatest achievement was his conquest of the wild marauding aborigines1 of Pelion mountain, a name, which may possibly, as we shall see, be an adaptation of the name of "the rock-shotten isle of Albion," to fit a well-known classic Greek name, or it may connote the older name for Alban of "Fel-inis," though the British texts record that Brutus did actually occupy the Pindos region before coming to Alban. The Homeric record reads:-- 

 
    "On that day when Peirithoos took vengeance of the shaggy wild folk,
     And thrust them forth from Pelion, and drove them to the Aithikes (of Pindos)."2
 

It seems remarkable here that the "Aithikes" tribe of the Pindos mountain range is suggestive of the shortened "Icht" and "Ictis" title of the Picts of the numerous Vente places in Britain, and the Pent-land Hills in series with Pindos.

In his campaign against the shaggy wild folk, Peirithoos is assisted by Coronus Caineus,3 just as Brutus was assisted by Corineus; and similarly Homer records that the sons of Peirithoos and Coronos Caineus, who had "jointly a fleet of forty black ships," ruled conjointly over the same wild people;4 so did the sons of Brutus and Corineus rule conjointly in Britain. Moreover, Peirithoos engaged in battle with the king of Epirus in Northwestern Greece and was confined on the banks of the Acheron river there,5 just as Brutus, in the British account of his fighting against the King of Greece, had a battle on the bank of the "Akalon" river there, a name which is evidently intended for "Acheron." Further, it is stated that Peirithoos visited Epirus, "marriage-hunting,"6 and was married on the borders of Epirus, just as Brutus married the daughter of the Grecian King of Epirus. In one of the frescoes in the ancient Greek temples Peirithoos is painted seated on the bank of the Acheron, and next him are the beauteous daughters of King Pandureos, one of whom was the famous "Clyte,"7 who appears to have been the wife of Brutus and, according to the British Chronicles, Brutus married the daughter of King "Pandrasus."8 Still further, Epirus and the adjoining South Macedonia, were in part inhabited by a tribe called "Parth-ini,"9 which was presumably the remains of the ruling tribe of Barats of Brutus, or the memory of his Barat or Brit-on tribe having formerly dwelt there, and in the Parth-ini region is the town "Barat" on the Devoli river. And on the northern or Macedonia frontier of Epirus was the town of "Phoenice" on the Xanthus river, thus attesting the ancient presence of Phoenicians there. For the classic Greek writers repeatedly state that Ancient Greece derived its letters and most of Higher Civilization from the Phoenicians. And lastly and significantly, Peirithoos suddenly disappears from ancient classic Greek history, and I can find no reference anywhere to his death or tomb in Greece, nor of that of his kinsman Coronus Caineus10. The last heard of him

1 These people are called Kentaurs, but are the historical human wild tribe and not the half-horse, half-men of the later myth-mongers subsequent to Pindar. It is noteworthy that the territory of the Cantii tribe of Kent includes the site of London according to Ptolemy (Geogr., 2, 3, 12) and Brutus occupied that site and built there his capital; and the form "Canter-bury" suggests a possible early form of "Canter" approximating "Kentaur."
2 The Aithikes were a people of Epirus and Thessaly and occupied Mt. Pindos range. Strabo, 327; 7, 7, 9 and 429: 9, 5, 1.
3 P.D.G., 5, 10.                               4 Il., 2, 746.                                     5 P.D.G., 1, 17.                               6 Ib., 5, 10.
7 Ib., 10, 28-30; and Odyssey, 19, 518. His wife in the Iliad bears the title of Hippodameia or "Horse-tamer," with the epithet "Clytos." Il., 2, 742.
8 This historical marriage of Peirithoos to the daughter of King Pandureos, the Pandrasus of the British Chronicles, is presumably the historical source of the myth that Peirithoos tried to carry off the Queen of Hell, Persephone or Kore or Ellen (Pausanias, 3, 18). For, as Pausanias relates, Ancient Greek artists pictured the Acheron River of Etruria as the river of Hell and gave it the name of Acheron in Hades ; and hence, obviously, the myth of Peirithoos punished in Hell by the indignant husband of Persephone, Pluto, as described by Virgil and other myth-mongers.
9 S., 327; 7, 7, 8.
10 The origin of the later myth that he raided Hell to carry off Proserpine and was captured by her enraged husband Pluto and condemned to infernal torture is exposed in above footnote 1.

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presumably is that, according to the later myth of the Quest for the Golden Fleece, he sailed away on the good ship Argos with Herakles and Jason and their company of heroes on board, and is not heard of again. This traditional voyage of adventure from Greece seems also significant; and the inference in view of all the circumstances is that the British Chronicles are correct in recording that he came as Brutus or "Briutus" to Alban, assisted by "Coronos Caineus," and was the first king of the Britons in Britain.

The identity of the great Homeric hero Peirithoos with the "Brutus" or "Briutus" of the British and Irish Scot Chronicles will be more clearly seen when thus tabulated:--

 

Identity of the Homeric Hero Peirithoos with Brutus, the Briton.

 

PEIRITHOOS
of Homer.

BRUTUS OR BRIUTUS
of British and Irish Scot Chronicles.

Son of Ixion.

In Greece was a great warrior hero.

Thrust the shaggy wild folk from their caves in Pelion.

Drove them to the Aithikos in the Pindos mountains.

 

Conquered Epirus and Thessaly of North Greece.

Fought against King of Epirus with his friend Prince Theseus, son of Aigeus, and was confined by that king on the banks of the Acheron.

Came to Epirus, "marriage hunting," was married on borders of Epirus, and in frescoes is represented seated next the daughters of King Pandureos.

Was aided in his fight against the shaggy folk by Coronos Caineus.

 

His son was joint ruler with son of Coronos Caineus.

The Parth-ini tribe on frontier of Epirus with town of Berat, and with Epirus, town of Phoenice.

He, along with Coronos Caineus, disappears from and does not seem to have died in Greece.1

Son of Ascanius or Isicon.

Went to Greece and became great warrior hero.

Thrust the wild aborigines from their caves in Albion or "Fel-inis."

Drove them across the "Icht sea" and to the Vindo and Pent-land Hills of the Picts or "Ichts."

Conquered King of Greece.

Fought against King of Greece with his friend, "the noble Greek prince Assaracus," and had engagement on banks of the Akalon.

Married daughter of King of Epirus, Pandrasus.

 

Was aided in his fight against the wild tribes of Aquitain and Alban by Corineus.

His son was joint ruler with son of Corineus.

The "Bart-on" or "Brit-on" title of Brutus' ruling tribe of Barat Phoenicians.

Brutus with Corineus appear in Alban or Britain.

 

 

This remarkable similarity between the traditions of the Homeric hero Peirithoos--the confederate of Coronos Caineus, the conqueror of aboriginal tribes, who went "marriage-hunting" to Epirus, slayed the Calydon boar and accompanied the Phoenician Hercules on a sea-voyage of adventure for the Golden Fleece--and King Brutus or Briutus "the Trojan"--the confederate of Corineus, who married in Epirus, and sailed with a fleet of Brito-Phoenicians on a voyage of adventure past the Pillars of Hercules to the Gold- and Tin-producing island of Albion including Caledonia, and, conquering the aboriginal tribes, colonized and civilized it--suggests that Homer had heard from Phoenician sailors of the great exploits of Brutus in Britain over three centuries before his day, and had woven them into the form we now find them in his immortal romance.

 

1 The legend of his death in captivity in Crete is only found in the later myth-mongering period.