(Ass. Madai). The formation of the Median Empire must have taken place about the middle of the 7th cent., but the existence of the people in their later seats (E of the Zagros mountains and S of the Caspian Sea) appears to be traceable in the monuments back to the 9th cent. They are thus the earliest branch of the Aryan family to make their mark in Asiatic history. See Mey. GA1, i. § 422 ff.; KAT3, 100 ff.; ATLO2, 254.
(7) (
Hebrew characters) ((Greek characters)) is the Greek (Greek characters), and denotes primarily the
Greek settlements in Asia Minor, which were mainly Ionian: Ezk. 2713,
Is. 6619. After Alexander the Great it was extended to the Hellenes
generally: Jl. 46, Zech. 913, Dn. 821 1020 112. In Ass. Yamanai is said
to be used but once (by Sargon, KIB, ii. 43); but the Persian Yauna
occurs, with the same double reference, from the time of Darius (cf.
Æsch. Pers. 176, 562). Whether the word here includes the European
Greeks cannot be positively determined.[1]—The 'sons' of Javan are
(v.4) to be sought along the Mediterranean, and probably at spots
known to the Heb. as commercial colonies of the Phœnicians (on which
see Mey. EB, 3736 f.). Very few of them, however, can be confidently
identified.
(8) (Hebrew characters) ((Greek characters), (Greek characters)) is mentioned only in Ezk. 277 ((Hebrew characters)) as a
place supplying Tyre with purple. The older verbal identifications
with the (Greek characters) (Jos. Jer.; so De.), (Greek characters) (TJ), (Greek characters), etc., are valueless;
and modern opinion is greatly divided. Some favour Carthage,
because of Elissa, the name of the legendary foundress of the city
(Sta. Wi. Je. al.); others (Di. al.) southern Italy with Sicily.[2] The
most attractive solution is that first proposed by Conder (PEFS, 1892,
45; cf. 1904, 170), and widely accepted, that the Alašia of the TA
Tablets is meant (see KIB, v. 80-92). This is now generally recognised
as the name of Cyprus, of which the Tyrian purple was a product:[3] see
below on (Hebrew characters). Jensen now (KIB, vi. 1, 507) places (Hebrew characters) beyond the
Pillars of Hercules on the African coast, and connects it with the
Elysium of the Greeks.
(9) (Hebrew characters) ((Greek characters)) is identified (since Bochart) with (Greek characters)
(Tartesos), the Phœnician mining and trading station in the S of Spain;[4]
and no other theory is nearly so plausible. The OT Tarshish was rich
in minerals (Jer. 109, Ezk. 2712), was a Tyrian colony (Is. 231. 6. 10), and
a remote coast-land reached by sea (Is. 6619, Jn. 13 42, Ps. 7210); and
to distinguish the Tarshish of these pass. from that of Gn. 10 (De.
Jast. al.), or to consider the latter a doublet of (Hebrew characters) (Che. Mü.), are but
counsels of despair. The chief rival theory is Tarsus in Cilicia (Jos.
- ↑ Against the theory of a second (
Hebrew characters) in Arabia (which in any case
would not affect the interpretation of this pass.), see Sta. Akad. Red. 125-142. Cf., further, ATLO2, 255.
- ↑ Cf. T
O on Ezk. 277 (Hebrew characters); and Eus. Chr. Arm. ii. p. 13:
(Greek characters), (Greek characters) + et Athenienses [Arm.].
- ↑ See Müller, ZA, x. 257 ff.; OLz. iii. 288 ff.; Jen. ZA, 379 f.; Jast. DB, v. 80 b.
- ↑ Her. i. 163, iv. 152; Strabo, iii. 151; Plin. HN, iii. 7, iv. 120, etc.
