The Eblani ( Ἐβλάνοι) or Eblanii ( Ἐβλάνιοι) (manuscript variants: Ebdani
Ἐβδανοί Blani
’λάνοι Blanii
’λάνιοι were a people of ancient
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
uniquely recorded in
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...
's 2nd-century ''
Geography
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...
'', in which they inhabit a region on the east coast, roughly north of
County Dublin
"Action to match our speech"
, image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Dublin.svg
, map_alt = map showing County Dublin as a small area of darker green on the east coast within the lighter green background of ...
. Ptolemy also lists a "city" called
Eblana
Eblana () is an ancient Irish settlement that appears in the ''Geographia'' of Claudius Ptolemaeus (Ptolemy), the Greek astronomer and cartographer, around the year 140 AD. It was traditionally believed by scholars to refer to the same site as ...
( Ἔβλανα), which he locates between the estuaries of the rivers Buvinda (Βουουίνδα) and Oboca (᾿Οβόκα), implying a coastal site between the
Boyne and probably the
Liffey respectively. O'Rahilly tentatively suggested that the tribal name, which he speculatively reconstructed as ''*Ebodanī'', may have survived in the toponym Edmann, a region on the east coast, probably in
County Louth
County Louth ( ; ga, An Lú) is a coastal county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. Louth is bordered by the counties of Meath to the south, Monaghan to the west, Armagh to the north and Down to the ...
, occasionally mentioned in early texts. O'Rahilly's line of reasoning was inspired by the form ''Ebdanoi''
Ἐβδανοίfound in one manuscript family of Ptolemy's work, but this variant is demonstrably the result of a transcriptional error for ''Eblanoi'' ( Ἐβλάνοι) in a
majuscule
Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (or more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (or more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing ...
script, where Λ has been misread as Δ, and not vice versa as O'Rahilly reasoned. The associated settlement of the Eblani is spelled Eblana in all surviving manuscripts, with only minor accentual differences. This strongly suggests that ''Eblanoi''
¼˜Î²Î»Î¬Î½Î¿Î¹was Ptolemy's original version, and ''Ebdanoi''
¼˜Î²Î´Î±Î½Î¿Î¯the error. This defective reading cannot therefore be cited in support of his hypothesis.
[K. Müller (ed.), ''Claudii Ptolemaei Geographia'' (Paris 1883-1901) I, p. 79 (apparatus criticus)]
Local historian Brendan Mathews has more recently suggested a link with the passage grave system at the mouth of the Delvin river, originally of at least eight tombs, which would have been a prominent landscape feature and established harbour in Ptolemy's day. The linguistic shift from Eblana to Delvin (Irish Albhain) seems far more likely.
References
{{Ptolemy's Ireland
Tribes of ancient Ireland