Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

poetry Oestreminis ("Extreme West") was a name given to the territory of what is today modern

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...

and

Galicia Galicia may refer to: Geographic regions * Galicia (Spain), a region and autonomous community of northwestern Spain ** Gallaecia, a Roman province ** The post-Roman Kingdom of the Suebi, also called the Kingdom of Gallaecia ** The medieval King ...

, comparable to ''Finis terrae'', the "end of the earth" from a Mediterranean perspective. Its inhabitants were named Oestrimni from their location. In ''Ora Maritima'' ("Seacoasts"), a poem inspired by a much earlier Greek mariners' ''

periplus A periplus (), or periplous, is a manuscript document that lists the ports and coastal landmarks, in order and with approximate intervening distances, that the captain of a vessel could expect to find along a shore. In that sense, the periplus wa ...

'', Rufus Avienius Festus, Roman poet of the fourth century CE known for his pieces on geographical subjects, records that ''Oestriminis'' was peopled by the ''Oestrimni'', a people who had lived there for a long time, and had to run away from their native lands after an invasion of serpents. His fanciful account has no archeological or historical application, but the poetical name has sometimes been ambitiously applied to popularized accounts of the Paleolithic inhabitants of Atlantic Iberia. The expulsion of the ''Oestrimni'', from ''Ora Maritima:'' The "serpent people" of the semi-mythical

Ophiussa Ophiussa, also spelled Ophiusa, is the ancient name given by the ancient Greeks to what is now Portuguese territory near the mouth of the river Tagus. It means Land of Serpents. The expulsion of the ''Oestrimni'' The 4th century Roman poet Ruf ...

in the far west are noted in ancient Greek sources.

Notes

External links

Ora Maritima
(in Latin)

Serpent cult in the Ancient Word (in Spanish)

Ancient Portugal History of Galicia (Spain) {{Portugal-hist-stub

See also

Notes

External links