Decoding the ‘Caldron of Poesy’

Abstract

The ‘Caldron of Poesy’, a seemingly cryptic early Irish text dating probably from the eighth century, discusses three cauldrons in varying positions that represent different degrees of knowledge and art. It will be argued that this construct may have been a local representation of long-standing and basic assumptions about the structure of the human mind and the role of education, which ultimately reach back to the beginnings of Greek learning.