Ethiopis or Itiyopp'is is the name of a legendary king from

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

n tradition who was the inspiration behind the name of the country,

According to an Ethiopian tradition, the term Ethiopia is derived from the word Ethiopis, a name of the Ethiopian king, the seventh in the ancestral lines. Metshafe Aksum or the Ethiopian Book of Aksum identifies Itiopis as the twelfth king of Ethiopia and the father of Aksumawi. The Ethiopians pronounce Ethiopia እትዮጵያ with a Sades or the sixth sound እ as in incorporate and the graph ጰ has no equivalent in English or Latin graphs. Ethiopis is believed to be the twelfth direct descendant of Adam. His father is identified as Kush, while his grandfather is known as Kam.

Traditions

Hamitic dynasty

One tradition states that this king was descended from Cush, son of Ham and grandson of

Noah Noah (; , also Noach) appears as the last of the Antediluvian Patriarchs (Bible), patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5–9), the Quran and Baháʼí literature, ...

. This tradition further claims that Ethiopis' descendants included his son Aksumawi, grandson Malayka Aksum, and great-grandsons Sum, Nafaz, Bagi'o, Kuduki, Akhoro and Farheba. This genealogy suggests a connection between Ethiopia and the

Nubia Nubia (, Nobiin language, Nobiin: , ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the confluence of the Blue Nile, Blue and White Nile, White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), and the Cataracts of the Nile, first cataract ...

n kingdom of

Kush KUSH 1600 AM is a radio station licensed to Cushing, Oklahoma. The station broadcasts a Full service format, consisting of local and national talk, sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, tha ...

, as represented by Ethiopis being the son of Cush. Aksumani, the son of Ethiopis, is likely meant to represent the

kingdom of Axum The Kingdom of Aksum, or the Aksumite Empire, was a kingdom in East Africa and South Arabia from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, based in what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, and spanning present-day Djibouti and Sudan. Emerging ...

, which ruled from the 1st to the 10th century A.D. over parts of modern-day Ethiopia and

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

. The '' Book of Axum'' claims that Ethiopis was the twelfth king of Ethiopia. The ''Book of Axum'' also claims that he built Mazabar, Ethiopia's first capital. One Ethiopian tradition claims that Ethiopis was buried in

Axum Axum, also spelled Aksum (), is a town in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia with a population of 66,900 residents (as of 2015). It is the site of the historic capital of the Aksumite Empire. Axum is located in the Central Zone of the Tigray Re ...

and fire used to burn in his grave. Egyptologist

E. A. Wallis Budge Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge (27 July 185723 November 1934) was an English Egyptology, Egyptologist, Orientalism, Orientalist, and Philology, philologist who worked for the British Museum and published numerous works on the ancient ...

noted that some Ethiopian king lists name Ethiopis as the very first king of Ethiopia.

Sabaean dynasty

The official chronicle of the Ethiopian monarchy from 1922, written by the then prince regent Tafari Makannon, includes a different tradition. According to this king list, two kings named Etiyopus ruled during the 17th and 18th centuries B.C. as part of the Agdazyan dynasty which descended from Sheba, who himself was a descendant of Ham according to the

Table of Nations The Generations of Noah, also called the Table of Nations or ''Origines Gentium'', is a genealogy of the sons of Noah, according to the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, Genesis ), and their dispersion into many lands after Genesis flood narrative ...

. Etiyopus I reigned from 1856 to 1800 B.C. ( Ethiopian calendar), preceded by king Sabe II and succeeded by king Lakndun Nowarari. Etiyopus II reigned from 1730 to 1700 B.C. (Ethiopian calendar), preceded by Her Hator I and succeeded by Senuka I. The relations of these two kings with their predecessors and successors is not made clear on the king list and their names certainly do not match with the names of Ethiopis' descendants mentioned in the previous tradition. However, the Ethiopian queen Cassiopeia of

ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

myth is mentioned earlier as part of the same dynasty and thus may be intended to be perceived as an ancestor of Ethiopis.

Roman tradition

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

stated that Ethiopis or "Aethiops" was the son of the Roman god Vulcan (unverified information).

Origins of the word "Ethiopia"

Some Ethiopian traditions trace the word "Ethiopia" to ''Itan'', a Ge'ez word for

incense Incense is an aromatic biotic material that releases fragrant smoke when burnt. The term is used for either the material or the aroma. Incense is used for aesthetic reasons, religious worship, aromatherapy, meditation, and ceremonial reasons. It ...

, a reference to the Ethiopian plateau which has long traded in incense. Despite Ethiopian traditions claiming a native origin for the country's name, many Western historians disbelieve Ethiopians and instead claim the word " Aethiopia" must be of Western, specifically Greek, origin. Greek historian

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

used the word to refer to parts of

Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

that were known to the Greeks at the time, specifically all inhabited land south of

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

.For all references to Ethiopia in Herodotus, see
this list
at the Perseus Project. It had also been used as a vague term for dark-skinned peoples since the time of

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

. In ancient times, "Ethiopia" often referred to the Kingdom of Kush in modern-day

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

rather than strictly the territory of modern-day

. Herodotus specifically named Meroe as the capital of "Aethiopia". He also noted that there had been eighteen Ethiopian kings and one Ethiopian queen who ruled Egypt. The Egyptian priest Manetho described this dynasty as being made up of "Ethiopian kings". When the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

today claims this name may be due to the conquest of Meroe by the Aksumite Empire (located in modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea) in the 4th century A.D., after which the Axumites began referring to themselves as "Ethiopians". This was likely due to the

Biblical The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...

usage of the word "Ethiopian" and a desire for the newly Christianized Axumites to form a connection with Biblical tradition. E. A. Wallis Budge theorised that one of the reasons why the name "Ethiopia" was applied to Abyssinia was because Syrian monks identified

and Nubia with Abyssinia when translating the Bible from Greek to Ge'ez. Budge further noted that the translators of the Ethiopic Bible from the 5th and 6th centuries had identified Kush with Abyssinia for centuries and that this interpretation was accepted by the modern day people of the region. He argued that it was unlikely that the "Ethiopians" mentioned in ancient Greek writings were the Abyssinians, but instead were far more likely to be the

Nubians Nubians () ( Nobiin: ''Nobī,'' ) are a Nilo-Saharan speaking ethnic group indigenous to the region which is now northern Sudan and southern Egypt. They originate from the early inhabitants of the central Nile valley, believed to be one of th ...

of Meroë.

References