The Upper Gonads

Not to be confused with the Orkney Islands, which Pytheas of Massilia  on his visit to  Britain in  322 BC described as triangular in shape, with a northern tip called Orcas.  The Roman geographer Pomponius Mela called the islands Orcades, as did Tacitus in 98 AD, claiming that his father-in-law Agricola had “discovered and subjugated the Orcades hitherto unknown” (although both Mela and Pliny had previously referred to the islands). Entomologists usually interpret the element orc- as a Pictish tribal name meaning “young pig”. Speakers of Old Irish referred to the islands as Insi Orc “islands of the young pigs”.