Echoes of Antiquity in the Early Irish Song of Amergin

The purpose of this brief paper is to highlight similarities between the 'first poem spoken in Ireland' and certain classical and scriptural motifs, some of which may hitherto have gone unnoticed. The poem is an invocation uttered by Amergin Glúingel, the Milesian Druid, as he set his right foot upon Ireland; its text is recorded in the eleventh-century Lebor Gabála Érenn, usually known in English as the Book of Invasions.