Epidii
A Celtic tribe that inhabited the modern-day regions of Argyll and Kintyre, as well as the islands of Islay and Jura. The Epidii (Greek Επίδιοι) were mentioned by the geographer Ptolemy of Alexandria:
- Next to the Damnoni, but more toward the east near the Epidium Promontorium are the Epidi and next to these the Cerones; ...
Etymology
The name includes the Brittonic and Gaulish root epos, meaning horse (Delamarre pp.163-164). (Compare with primitive Irish ech). It may, perhaps, be related to the Horse-goddess Epona. More recent research would make them Goidelic-speaking Scotti rather than Brythonic-speaking Britons. Cummins (1995) suggests that the tribal name may thus have been *Ecidii. The area they are presumed to have controlled became the heartland of the Early Medieval kingdom of Dalriada.
References
- Cummins, W.A.,(1995) The Age of the Picts, Alan Sutton.
- Delamarre, X. (2003). Dictionnaire de la Langue Gauloise (2nd ed.). Paris: Editions Errance. ISBN 2-287772-237-6
- Ptolemy, Geographia, II.ii
Further Reading
- Foster, Sally M., Picts, Gaels, and Scots, B.T. Batsford/Historic Scotland, 2002, ISBN 0713488743
- Campbell, Ewan, Saints and Sea-kings. The First Kingdom of the Scots, Canongate Books /Historic Scotland, 1999, ISBN 0862418747