This most important geographical name has the following significations. 1. The continent of Asia. — 2. Asia Minor (see below). — 3. The kingdom of Troy (Poet. a. g. Ov. Met. xiii. 484). — 4. The kingdom of Pergamus. — 5. The Roman province of Asia (see the Article). — 6. A city of Lydia (see below, No 1.). — 7. An island of Aethiopia, accordins: to Steph. B., who gives Άσιάτης for a citizen, and Eth. Άσιεύς, This article is on the continent of Asia. 1. Origin and Applications of the Name. — The origin of the names, both of Europe and Asia, is lost to antiquity, but perhaps not irrecoverably. The Greek writers give two derivations. First, on their system of referring the names of tribes and countries to a person as eponymus, they tell us of a nymph Asia as one of the Oceanida, daughters of Oceanus and Tethys (Hes. Theog. 359), the wife of Iapetus, and mother of Prometheus (Apollod. i. 2. § 2; Eustath. ad Dion. Per. 270, 620; Etym. Mag. s. v.; Schol. Lycophr. 1412), or, according to others, the wife of Prometheus. (Herod, iv. 25; Schol. Apollon. i. 444; Steph. B. s. v.) In this mythical genealogy, it should be noticed that Asia is connected with the Titanic deities, and Europe with the race of Zeus. (Ritter, Vorhalle, p. 456.) The other class of derivations connects Asia, in the first instance, with Lydia, which some of the grammarians distinctly state to have been at first called Asia; an opinion which Strabo ascribes to the school of Demetrius of Scepsis. (Strab. xiii. p. 627; Schol. Aristoph. Thesm. 120; Schol. Apoll. Rhod. ii. 779.) We are told of a city called Asia, near M. Tmohis, where the Lydian lyre was invented (Etyn. Mag. s. v.; Steph. B. s. v.), and to which Eckhel (vol. iii. p. 93) refers the Lydian coins bearing the inscription ΑΣΙΕΩΝ. Herodotus says that the Lydians themselves derived the name of Asia from one of their ancient kings, Asias, the son of Cotys, the son of Manes, whose name continued to be borne by the ^vA^
near the Catster was still shown in Stralio's time. (Strab. xir. p. 650.) A similar account is given by Ditnyvins of Halicamassns, in his discnssion respecting the Etmscans, the snpposed emigrants from Lydia ^ p. 21, ed. Sylbarg). Another instamce of the oooDectaoa of the name with Lydia is famished by the passage of Homer, in which we have also the ' fint example of the word Asia in a Greek writer • {IL iL 461): — 'Affim iv Acifutfyi, KaO(rrp(ov hiupX Pi*9pa. (Coroi^ Dion. Perieg. 836—^8.) In this pBssajce, the ancient grammarians read 'Acrfw as the gcoitire of ^Atriar, not 'Airfy the dative of 'Airtov. (SrboL Ariatoph. Jlc&. 68; Strab. xiv. p. 650, comp. xiii. p^ 627; Steph. B. ». 9.; Eustath. ad Dion. JWieg. 620, ad Bom. pp. 204. 10; Etym. Mag. «. r.) Bnt even if^ with some of the best modern arhc^BXB, we adopt the reading thus rejected by the ^aodrats, 'Aa(qp should still be taken as the adjective cooDected with 'Acriis, i. e. C^ meadow eaered to tie hero Anas. (Hermann, ad ffymn. in Apoll 350; Thiersch, Gramm. § 178, No. 26; Spitzner, otf he.: of ooorse, no an^omoit can be ^wn from Virjnl's Aeia prata Cagetri, Georg. i. 383, 384, which is a mere imitation; comp. Jen. vii. 701, |
tive of &rfi, mttd or slime^ barely requires mention, Strph. B. e. v.; Eustath. ad Dion. Perieg. 620.) The text of Homer confirms the statement of ancient writers, that Homer knows nothing of Asia, as one of the divisions of the world, any more than of Europa or Libya, and that such a system of division, among the Greeks at least, was probably subsequent to the Homeric poems. (Strab. xii. p. 554; Steph. B. s. V.) He also uses "Acio^ or 'Ao-Jar as a proper name of more tiian one hero among the Trojan allies (see Diet, of Biog. art. Amu), and it deserves notice that one tradition derived the name of the continent from the sage and seer Asios, who presented the palladium to Tros (Eustath. ad Dion. Perieg. 620; Suid. 8. v. IlaAAdStoy); indications that the root was known in other parts of W. Asia besides Lydia. Another tradition of considerable importance is preserved by Strabo from the poet Callinas; namdy, that when the Cinmierians invaded Ada, and took Sardis, the people whom they drove out of the dty were called 'Haioi^f r, which the grammarians of the school of Demetrius of Scepsis interpreted as the Ionic form of ^Afftovtis. (Strab. xiii. p. 627.) Neither should we altogether overlook the firequency of the syllable As in Trojan and other Asiatic names, such as 'Ao-irdpeucos, 'AajceU yios, and several others. Scholars who are accustomed to regard antiquity only friom a Grecian point of view, are content to draw from these premises the conclusion, that Asia was the name first applied by the Greeks, whether borrowed from the natives or not^ to that part of the region east of the Aegean Sea with which they first became acquiunted, namely, the plains of Lydia; that the Greek colonists, who settled on the coasts of that region, were naturally distinguished from those of the mother country, as the Greeks of Ada; and that the name, having thus become common, was extended with their extending knowledge of the country, first to the regions within the Halys and the Taurus, and ultimately to the whole continent. It is important to observe that this is confessedly a mere hgpotheeis; for the expressicm of an opinion on such a subject by an ancient writer, who could not possess the means of certain knowledge, must not be taken as positive evidence, simply because it comes to ns in the form of a statement made by one whom we accept as an authority on matters within the range of his knowledge; nay more, such statements, when reduced to their trae value, as ojnnions, are aSien desennng of much less regard than the speculations of modern scholars, based on a wider foundation, and guided by a sounder criticism. There is a science Oi ancient history, even as to its facts, which is ever advancing, like all other sciences, and fer similar reasons. Least of all can it be permitted to the inquirer, wilfrilly to restrict himself to one kind of evidrace; as, fbr example, to take the as- sertions and hints of classical writers at their utmost value, while rejecting the results of Oriental and other learning. If the primeval history of Asia is ever to be settled on a basis of probability (and few objects of learning yield in interest to this), it must be by a comprehensive and patient criticism, cautions but not timid, of all the existing sources of information, in history, ethnography, philology, mythology, and antiquities; whether derived from the West, the East, or the North; from direct testimony, indirect evidence, or well conducted speculation; from sacred or secular |
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