Erythraean Sea

The Erythraean Sea was a former maritime designation that always included the Gulf of Aden, and at times other seas between Arabia Felix and the Horn of Africa. Originally an ancient Greek geographical designation, the term was used throughout Europe until the 18th and 19th centuries. The area referred to by this name frequently extended beyond the Gulf of Adenas in the famous 1st-century Periplus of the Erythraean Seato designate all of the present-day Red Sea, Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf, and Indian Ocean as a single maritime area.

Name

The Greeks themselves derived the name from an eponymous King Erythras and knew 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 Red Sea.
Agatharchides had written of the origin of the name Erythraean Sea on the book 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' history, written in the 5th century BC, he refers to the Phoenicians having come originally from the Erythraean Sea.
In the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, 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 Arabian Sea.
In centuries past, the name "Erythraean Sea" was applied by cartographers to the north-western part of the Indian Ocean, mainly the area around Socotra, between Cape Guardafui and the coast of Hadhramaut. This appellation has now become obsolete and the name Gulf of Aden is used although for a smaller area. In maps in which the north-western part of the 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 Red Sea, especially after the 19th century, the Red Sea is also always called with the Ancient Greek name in Modern Greek. The modern country of Eritrea was named after the Ancient Greek name.
Since 1895, the name has also been applied to a large dusky region on the surface of planet Mars that is known as Mare Erythraeum.

Classic literature sources

Chronological listing of classical literature sources for Erythraean:

Herodotus, Herodotus 1. 18
Herodotus, Herodotus 1. 142
Herodotus, Herodotus 1. 180
Herodotus, Clio Book 1
Herodotus 2. 11
Herodotus 2. 158
Herodotus 2. 159
Herodotus, Herodotus 6. 8. 8 ff
Thucydides, Thucydides 8. 4
Thucydides, Thucydides 8. 14
Thucydides, Thucydides 8. 16
Thucydides, Thucydides 8. 24
Thucydides, Thucydides 8. 33
Aeschylus, Fragment 105 Prometheus Bound
Aristotle, De Mundo 393b ff
Tibullus, Tibullus 3. 4. 11 ff
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 14. 84. 4 ff
Parthenius, The Love Romances 9. 1
Strabo, Geography 7. 3. 6
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
Strabo, Geography 16. 4. 20
Scholiast on Strabo, Geography 16. 4. 20
Strabo, Geography 17. 1. 43
Livy, The History of Rome 38. 39. 11 ff
Pliny, Natural History 4. 36.
Pliny, Natural History 7. 57
Pliny, Natural History 8. 73
Pliny, Natural History 9. 54 ff
Scholiast on Pliny, Natural History 9. 54 ff
Pliny, Natural History 12. 35
Bacchylides papyrus, The Drinking-song
Statius, Silvae 4. 6. 17
Statius, Thebaid 7. 564 ff
Josephus, Berossus from Alexander Polyhistor, Of the Cosmogony and Causes of the Deluge
Plutarch, Moralia, Bravery of Women, 3 244F ff
Plutarch, Moralia, Bravery of Women 17 254C ff
Plutarch, Moralia, The Greek Questions 298B ff
Pausanias, Description of Greece 7. 5. 3 ff
Pausanias, Description of Greece 7. 5. 5. 12 ff
Pausanias, Description of Greece 10. 12. 4
Athenaeus, Banquet of the Learned 4. 74
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
Eusebius, Berossus from Apollodorus, Of The Chaldean Kings
Tzetzes, Chiliades or Book of Histories 8.57. 621
Tzetzes, Chiliades or Book of Histories 8.57. 628 ff

Classical literature source for Erythean:

Ovid, Fasti 1. 543–586