The Riddle of “Erythra”

The term “Erythraean Sea” was the term applied by  Greek and Romans geographers to the Indian Ocean, including its adjuncts, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. According to different interpretations, the meaning of “erythra” is obtained as follows:

ý    Erythra means Red; this is historical idiosyncrasy, as modern connotation is reflected on the past.

ý    Agatharchides, however, is stated to be asserting based on a Persian legend that Erythra was not Red sea, but “Sea of King of Erythra”.

ý    Thus taking the expressions “Erythra Thalatta” and Thalatta erythra”, it is interpreted that “Erythra Thalatta” means  Sea of Erythras and “Thalatta erythra” connotes the Red sea.

ý    In any case, the story of Erythras, son of Myozaes reaching a land after a storm, just like Sindbad in intriguing, as the land or place is not named but “erythra”!

ý    It is just like the “Punt expedition” searching for gold, of course, the “Punt” is located in India, though, other views differ.

ý    In any case, just like Columbus, all declare that they “reached India”, “located India” or “associated anything with India”.

Thank you for your clarification.

Agartharchides answers your objection as follows:

“And so, for the reason here set forth, it is to be well distinguished (for to say Erythra thalatta, Sea of Erythras, is a very different thing from Thalatta erythra, Red Sea); for the one commemorates the most illustrious man of the sea, while the other refers tro the color of the water. Now the one explanation of the name, as due to the color, is false (for the sea is not red), but the other, ascribing it to the man who ruled there, is the true one, as the Persian story testifies”. (Wilfred H. Schoff, The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 1995, p.50)

Had the legendary person seen the ocean in the evenings or in the early mornings, the color would have been red due to the reflection of Sunrays on the surface of sea waters.

Here comes the idiosyncrasy, as we know about “atom”, but still accept it as an “atom”!.

I think a lot of myth has created under the name of erythrean sea. A popular myth, which Zecharia Sitchin debunks, is that the term Erythrea refers to the Red Sea. The myth was made famous by the book Periplus of the Erythrean Sea by a Hellenised Egyptian traveller and storyteller – probably the prolific Manetho – of classical antiquity.

It has hitherto been assumed that this periplus (a Latin word taken from the Greek periploos, which means narration of a coasting voyage) took place along the African shores of the Red Sea. This is the myth that produced "Eritrea" – the name of a northeastern African country.

However, that Erythrea was only the Greek version of Eridu and referred, rather, to the Persian Gulf, according to one version. Moreover, that a man or a god from Eridu was known as Yared (rendered in Greek and Latin translations as Jared).

In Persia itself and Turkey, Eridu also produced the word Ordu, which means a settlement, a colony or an encampment of the kind that Eridu was.

Does Ordu have anything to do with Urdu, the beautifully poetic form of Hindustani, which has a strong Persian and Arabic superstructure?

The word "urdu" is the Hindi word for camp or settlement. From its Turkish setting, Ordu also produced the English word horde, which means a migratory or wandering tribe or clan, a nomadic community, a multitude. To horde is to come together to form a settlement or a horde.

So how reliable is the writings of the unknown author supposedly wrote in 60 CE for which others give interpretation.

How Asok would react to it?