The Erythraean Sea ( grc-gre, Ἐρυθρὰ Θάλασσα, ''Erythrà Thálassa'', ."Red Sea") was a former maritime designation that always included the Gulf of Aden and at times other seas between

Arabia Felix Arabia Felix (literally: Fertile/Happy Arabia; also Ancient Greek: Εὐδαίμων Ἀραβία, ''Eudaemon Arabia'') was the Latin name previously used by geographers to describe South Arabia, or what is now Yemen. Etymology The term Arabia ...

and the Horn of Africa. Originally an ancient Greek geographical designation, it was used throughout Europe until the 18–19th centuries. At times the name frequently extended beyond the Gulf of Adenas in the famous 1st-century ''

Periplus of the Erythraean Sea The ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' ( grc, Περίπλους τῆς Ἐρυθρᾶς Θαλάσσης, ', modern Greek '), also known by its Latin name as the , is a Greco-Roman periplus written in Koine Greek that describes navigation and ...

''to include the present-day

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...

Arabian Sea The Arabian Sea ( ar, اَلْبَحرْ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Bahr al-ˁArabī) is a region of the northern Indian Ocean bounded on the north by Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel ...

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bod ...

, and

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...

as a single maritime area.

Name

The Greeks themselves derived the name from an

eponym An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

ous King Erythras, knowing that the waters so described were deep blue. Modern scholars sometimes attribute the name to the seasonal blooms of the red-hued '' Trichodesmium erythraeum'' in the

Agatharchides Agatharchides or Agatharchus ( grc-gre, Ἀγαθαρχίδης or , ''Agatharchos'') of Cnidus was a Greek historian and geographer (flourished 2nd century BC). Life Agatharchides is believed to have been born at Cnidus, hence his appellation. A ...

had written of the origin of the name Erythraean Sea on the book (De Mari Erythraeo, § 5) in a story about the king Erythras: "There was a man famous for his valor and wealth, by name Erythras, a Persian by birth, son of Myozaeus..... the glory of the Island ascribed to him by the popular voice because of these his deeds, that even down to our own time they have called that sea, infinite in extent, Erythraean Sea

Use

The name "Erythraean Sea" has been or is still used for the following places: *In the opening sentences of

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society ...

' history, written in the 5th century BC, he refers to the

Phoenicians Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...

having come originally from the Erythraean Sea. *In the ''

'', written in the 1st century AD, as well as in some ancient maps, the name of the sea refers to the whole area of the northwestern Indian Ocean, including the

. *In centuries past, the name "Erythraean Sea" was applied by cartographers to the NW part of the

, mainly the area around

Socotra Socotra or Soqotra (; ar, سُقُطْرَىٰ ; so, Suqadara) is an island of the Republic of Yemen in the Indian Ocean, under the ''de facto'' control of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council, a secessionist participant in Yemen’ ...

, between

Cape Guardafui Cape Guardafui ( so, Gees Gardafuul, or Raas Caseyr, or Ras Asir, it, Capo Guardafui) is a headland in the autonomous Puntland region in Somalia. Coextensive with Puntland's Gardafuul administrative province, it forms the geographical apex of th ...

and the coast of

Hadhramaut Hadhramaut ( ar, حَضْرَمَوْتُ \ حَضْرَمُوتُ, Ḥaḍramawt / Ḥaḍramūt; Hadramautic: 𐩢𐩳𐩧𐩣𐩩, ''Ḥḍrmt'') is a region in South Arabia, comprising eastern Yemen, parts of western Oman and southern Saud ...

. This appellation has now become obsolete and the name Gulf of Aden is used, although for a smaller area. In maps where the NW Indian Ocean is named thus, the Red Sea appears as "Arabian Gulf". *The name "Erythraean Sea" was used as well to refer to some gulfs attached to the Indian Ocean, specifically, Gulf of Aden and Gulf of Oman. *As a name for the

, especially after the 19th century. The modern country of Eritrea was named after this ancient Greek name. *Since 1895, the name has also been applied to a large dusky region on the surface of planet

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...

, known as Mare Erythraeum.

Classic literature sources

Chronological listing of classical literature sources for Erythraean: * Herodotus, ''Herodotus'' 1. 18 (trans. Godley) (Greek history C5th BC) * Herodotus, ''Herodotus'' 1. 142 * Herodotus, ''Herodotus'' 1. 180 (''The Greek Classics'' ed. Miller 1909 Vol 5 p. 96 trans. Laurent) * Herodotus, ''Clio'' Book 1 (trans. Laurent) * Herodotus 2. 11 (''The Greek Classics'' ed. Miller 1909 Vol 5 p. 116 trans. Laurent) * Herodotus 2. 158 (''The Greek Classics'' ed. Miller 1909 Vol 5 p. 186) * Herodotus 2. 159 (''The Greek Classics'' ed. Miller 1909 Vol 5 p. 186 ) * Herodotus, ''Herodotus'' 6. 8. 8 ff (trans. Godley) * Thucydides, ''Thucydides'' 8. 4 (trans. Smith) (Greek history C5th BC) * Thucydides, ''Thucydides'' 8. 14 * Thucydides, ''Thucydides'' 8. 16 * Thucydides, ''Thucydides'' 8. 24 * Thucydides, ''Thucydides'' 8. 33 * Aeschylus, Fragment 105 (192) ''Prometheus Bound'' (trans. Weir Smyth) (Greek tragedy C5th BC) * Aristotle, ''De Mundo'' 393b ff (ed. Ross trans. Forster) (Greek philosophy C4th BC) * Tibullus, ''Tibullus'' 3. 4. 11 ff (trans. Postgate) (Latin poetry C1st BC) * Diodorus Siculus, ''Library of History'' 14. 84. 4 ff (trans. Oldfather) (Greek history C1st BC) * Parthenius, ''The Love Romances'' 9. 1 (The Story of Polycrite) (trans. Gaselee) (Greek poetry C1st BC) * Strabo, ''Geography'' 7. 3. 6 (trans. Jones) (Greek geography C1st BC to C1st AD) * Strabo, ''Geography'' 13. 1. 14 * Strabo, ''Geography'' 13. 1. 19 * Strabo, ''Geography'' 13. 1. 64 * Strabo, ''Geography'' 14. 1. 31 * Strabo, ''Geography'' 14. 1. 33 * Strabo, ''Geography'' 16. 3. 5 * Scholiast on Strabo, ''Geography'' 16. 3. 5 (''The Geography of Strabo'' trans. Jones 1930 Vol 7 p. 305) * Strabo, ''Geography'' 16. 4. 20 * Scholiast on Strabo, ''Geography'' 16. 4. 20 (''The Geography of Strabo'' trans. Jones 1930 Vol 7 p. 305) * Strabo, ''Geography'' 17. 1. 43 * Livy, ''The History of Rome'' 38. 39. 11 ff (trans. Moore) (Roman history C1st BC to C1st AD) * Pliny, ''Natural History'' 4. 36. (trans. Bostock & Riley) (Roman history C1st AD) * Pliny, ''Natural History'' 7. 57 (trans. Rackham) * Pliny, ''Natural History'' 8. 73 (43) * Pliny, ''Natural History'' 9. 54 ff * Scholiast on Pliny, ''Natural History'' 9. 54 ff (''The Natural History of Pliny'' trans. Bostock & Riley 1855 Vol 2 p. 431) * Pliny, ''Natural History'' 12. 35 (trans. Bostock & Riley) * Bacchylides papyrus, The Drinking-song (''Lyra Graeca'' trans. Edmonds 1927 Vol. 3 p. 657) (Greek poetry C1st AD) * Statius, ''Silvae'' 4. 6. 17 (trans. Mozley) (Roman epic poetry C1st AD) * Statius, ''Thebaid'' 7. 564 ff (trans. Mozley) * Josephus, Berossus from Alexander Polyhistor, Of the Cosmogony and Causes of the Deluge (''The Ancient Fragments'' trans. Cory 1828 p. 19) (Romano-

Jewish-Babylonian The history of the Jews in Iraq ( he, יְהוּדִים בָּבְלִים, ', ; ar, اليهود العراقيون, ) is documented from the time of the Babylonian captivity c. 586 BC. Iraqi Jews constitute one of the world's oldest and mos ...

history C1st AD) * Plutarch, ''Moralia'', Bravery of Women, 3 (The Women of Chios) 244F ff (trans. Babbitt) (Greek history C1st to C2nd AD) * Plutarch, ''Moralia'', Bravery of Women 17 (Polycrite) 254C ff * Plutarch, ''Moralia'', The Greek Questions (30) 298B ff * Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' 7. 5. 3 ff (trans. Frazer) (Greek travelogue C2nd AD) * Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' 7. 5. 5. 12 ff * Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' 10. 12. 4 * Athenaeus, ''Banquet of the Learned'' 4. 74 (trans. Yonge) (Greek rhetoric C2nd AD to C3rd AD) * Athenaeus, ''Banquet of the Learned'' 10. 44 ff * Athenaeus, ''Banquet of the Learned'' 11. 49 ff * Dio, ''Roman History,'' Epitome of Book LXVIII 28. 3 ff (trans. Cary) (Roman history C2nd to C3rd AD) * Eusebius, Berossus from Apollodorus, Of The Chaldean Kings (''The Ancient Fragments'' trans. Cory 1828 p. 19) (Christian-Babylonian history 4th AD) * Tzetzes, ''Chiliades or Book of Histories'' 8.57. 621 (trans. Untila et al.) (Greco-Byzantine history C12th AD) * Tzetzes, ''Chiliades or Book of Histories'' 8.57. 628 ff Classical literature source for Erythean: * Ovid, ''Fasti'' 1. 543–586 (trans. Frazer) (Roman epic poetry C1st BC to C1st AD)

References

External links

*''The Periplus of the Erythrean sea, containing an account of the navigation of the ancients, from the sea of Suez to the coast of Zanguebar'', William Vincent (ed.), 2 voll., London, 1800
vol. 1vol. 2
* William H. Schoff,

' (New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1912), with additional commentary including alternate spellings or translations from Lionel Casson's more recent edition. {{Authority control Seas of the Indian Ocean Seas of Africa Seas of Asia Bodies of water of the Red Sea History of cartography History of geography Ancient Greek geography Bodies of water of Yemen Bodies of water of Somalia

Name

Use

Classic literature sources

See also

References

External links