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45.
But it is plain that none have obtained knowledge of Europe's eastern or northern regions, so as to be able say if it is bounded by seas; its length is known to be enough to stretch along both Asia and Libya.
[2]
I cannot guess for what reason the earth, which is one, has three names, all women's, and why the boundary lines set for it are the Egyptian Nile river and the Colchian Phasis river (though some say that the Maeetian Tanaïs river and the Cimmerian Ferries1 are boundaries); and I cannot learn the names of those who divided the world, or where they got the names which they used.
[3]
For Libya is said by most Greeks to be named after a native woman of that name, and Asia after the wife of Prometheus;2 yet the Lydians claim a share in the latter name, saying that Asia was not named after Prometheus' wife Asia, but after Asies, the son of Cotys, who was the son of Manes, and that from him the Asiad clan at Sardis also takes its name.
[4]
But as for Europe, no men have any knowledge whether it is bounded by seas or not, or where it got its name, nor is it clear who gave the name, unless we say that the land took its name from the Tyrian Europa, having been (it would seem) before then nameless like the rest.
[5]
But it is plain that this woman was of Asiatic birth, and never came to this land which the Greeks now call Europe, but only from Phoenicia to Crete and from Crete to Lycia. Thus much I have said of these matters, and let it suffice; we will use the names established by custom.
Herodotus, with an English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920.
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References (22 total)
- Commentary references to this page
(1):
- Walter Leaf, Commentary on the Iliad (1900), 2.461
- Cross-references to this page
(8):
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 1.3.2
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), A´SIA
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), EURO´PA
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), PHASIS
- Basil L. Gildersleeve, Syntax of Classical Greek, The Article
- Smith's Bio, A'sia
- Smith's Bio, Euro'pa
- Smith's Bio, Prometheus
- Cross-references in notes from this page
(1):
- Herodotus, Histories, 4.12
- Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page
(12):
- LSJ, Ἀσία
- LSJ, Μαιῶται
- LSJ, ἀνώνυ^μ-ος
- LSJ, διορ-ίζω
- LSJ, ἐπί
- LSJ, ἐπωνυ^μ-ία
- LSJ, μεταλαμβάνω
- LSJ, ὅρισ-μα
- LSJ, ὅσος
- LSJ, οὔρισμα
- LSJ, πρότερος
- LSJ, συμβάλλω
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