122 



of Cork,* called by the country people Grannies Bed, a corruption 

 from Grian. The Phenicians worshipped Apollo by the name of 

 Grian, and the epithet Gryneus is twice found in "Virgil.-f- It has 

 also been found in inscriptions both by Gunter and Muratori ; 

 and in Camden's Lauden, there is an inscription to ApoUoni 

 Granno.ij: Among the Caledonians also the sun was adored under 

 the name of Grannius, evidently derived from the Gaelic, which 

 precisely agrees with the Irish language in calling the sun Grian. § 

 Some years ago a stone bearing an inscription to Grannius was dug 

 up between the Friths of Forth and Clyde, which proves that the 

 sun by this appellation, was one of the deities of the Jarghail or 

 western Caledonians.^ It is also a fact worthy of note, that the 

 great heath which separates Badenoch from Strathspey, where 

 several stone circles still exist, is called by tlie country people 

 Slia-Ghrannus, literally the heath of Grannius. While the whole 

 district bears the name of Grian-Tochd, the country of Grian.** 

 From the close connexion in language, customs, and political 

 relation between the ancient Caledonians and the Irish, these cir- 

 cumstances are strong confirmations of the hypothesis that the ido- 

 latry of the sun was the leading religion of Ireland. 



• Smith's History of Cork, II. p. 416. — Townsend's Survey of Cork, p. 113- 



f ^neid, B. IV. 1. 345 — Sixth Eclogue, 1. 72 The epithet Gryneus is usually derived from 



the name of a temple and town near Clazomena in iEolia, but it seems more probable that the 

 temple received its name from the god, rather than the god from the tempi?.— Philosophical 

 Survey, p. 230. 



t Bib. M. S. Stowensis, I. pp. 49—7. 



§ Macpherson's Antiq. Scotland, p. 287. — Mr. M. derives Grian from Gre or Gne, signify- 

 ing the nature, and t/iein the oblique case of tein, fire. — In the Gaelic language when a conso- 

 nant is placed before an h, the h is always silent, so that Gre-thein, must be pronounced Gre- 

 ein — that is, the essence or natural source qfjirt- 



IT Ibid. 286. 



•* Ibid. 287. 



