Aethiopian, Æthiopian, Æthiopic or Ethiopian Sea or Ocean ( la, Æthiopicum Mare or ''Oceanus Æthiopicus''; ar, البحر الأثيوبي) was the name given to the southern half of the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
in classical geographical works. The name appeared in maps from ancient times up to the turn of the 19th century.
Geography
The originally Greek term Okeanos Aithiopos is an old name for what is now called the South Atlantic Ocean. It is separated from the North Atlantic Ocean by a narrow region between
Natal, Brazil
Natal ( ) is the capital and largest city of the state of Rio Grande do Norte, located in northeastern Brazil. According to IBGE's 2021 estimate, the city had a total population o896,708 making it the 19th largest city in the country. Natal is a ...
and
Monrovia, Liberia
Monrovia () is the capital city of the West African country of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic coast and as of the 2008 census had 1,010,970 residents, home to 29% of Liberia’s total population. As th ...
. The term Ethiopian Ocean appeared until the mid-19th century, for example on the map ''Accuratissima Totius Africae in Lucem Producta'', engraved by
Johann Baptist Homann and
Frederick de Wit
Frederik de Wit (born Frederik Hendriksz; – July 1706) was a Dutch cartographer and artist.
Early years
Frederik de Wit was born Frederik Hendriksz. He was born to a Protestant family in about 1629, in Gouda, a small city in the ...
and published by
Jacob von Sandrart
Jacob von Sandrart (3 May 1630, Frankfurt am Main — 15 August 1708, Nuremberg) was a German engraver primarily active in Nuremberg.
At age ten Sandrart obtained his artistic training from his better-known uncle Joachim von Sandrart in Amsterda ...
in
Nürnberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ci ...
in 1702.
The name Aethiopian was related to the fact that, historically,
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
west and south of Egypt was known as
Aethiopia
Ancient Aethiopia, ( gr, Αἰθιοπία, Aithiopía; also known as Ethiopia) first appears as a geographical term in classical documents in reference to the upper Nile region of Sudan, as well as certain areas south of the Sahara desert. It ...
. Nowadays the classical use of the term has become obsolete. Also the nation of
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
, then known as Abyssinia, is located nowhere near its namesake body of water but in the opposite eastern end of Africa which is much closer to the Indian Ocean and its subset the
Red Sea
The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...
.
History
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
historians
Diodorus
Diodorus Siculus, or Diodorus of Sicily ( grc-gre, Διόδωρος ; 1st century BC), was an ancient Greek historian. He is known for writing the monumental universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty books, fifteen of which su ...
and
Palaephatus
Palaephatus (Ancient Greek: ) was the author of a rationalizing text on Greek mythology, the paradoxographical work ''On Incredible Things'' (; ), which survives in a (probably corrupt) Byzantine edition.
This work consists of an introduction and ...
mentioned that the
Gorgons
A Gorgon ( /ˈɡɔːrɡən/; plural: Gorgons, Ancient Greek: Γοργών/Γοργώ ''Gorgṓn/Gorgṓ'') is a creature in Greek mythology. Gorgons occur in the earliest examples of Greek literature. While descriptions of Gorgons vary, the te ...
lived in the
Gorgades, islands in the Aethiopian Sea. The main island was called Cerna and, according to
Henry T. Riley
Henry Thomas Riley (June 1816 – 14 April 1878) was an English translator, lexicographer, and antiquary.
Life
Born in June 1816, he was only son of Henry Riley of Southwark, an ironmonger. He was educated at Chatham House, Ramsgate, and at C ...
, these islands may correspond to
Cape Verde
, national_anthem = ()
, official_languages = Portuguese
, national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole
, capital = Praia
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, demonym ...
.
![Iberian_mare_clausum_claims](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Iberian_mare_clausum_claims.svg)
On 16th century maps, the name of the Northern Atlantic Ocean was ''Sinus Occidentalis'', while the central Atlantic, southwest of present-day
Liberia
Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...
, appeared as ''Sinus Atlanticus'' and the Southern Atlantic as ''Mare Aethiopicum''.
By the 17th century
John Seller
John Seller (1632–1697) was an English compiler, publisher, and seller of maps, charts, and geographical books. From 1671 he was hydrographer to the King.
Early life
Seller, son of Henry Seller, a cordwainer, was baptized in London on 29 Decemb ...
divided the Atlantic Ocean in two parts by means of the
equator
The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can als ...
. He named the northern portion of the Atlantic "Mar del Nort" and the southern part "Oceanus Æthiopicus" in his ''Atlas Maritimus'' published in 1672.
Edward Wright did not label the North Atlantic at all but called the portion south of the
equator
The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can als ...
the "Aethiopian Sea" in a map that was published posthumously in 1683.
John Thornton used the term in "A New Map of the World" from 1703.
Decades after the terms Ethiopian Ocean or Ethiopian Sea had fallen into disuse to refer to the Southern Atlantic Ocean, botanist
William Albert Setchell
William Albert Setchell (April 15, 1864 – April 5, 1943) was an American botanist and marine phycologist who taught at the University of California, Berkeley, where he headed the Botany Department. Among his publications are the ''Phycotheca ...
(1864–1943) used the term for the sea around certain islands close to
Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...
.
[ Setchell, W. A. 1932. ''Macrocystis and its holdfasts.'' Univ. California Publ. Bot. 16: 445-492, i]
George F. Papenfuss, ''Studies of South African Phaeophyceae. I. Ecklonia maxima, Laminaria pallida, Macrocystis pyrifera'', American Journal of Botany, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Jan., 1942), pp. 15-24
/ref>
See also
*Ethiopia (mythology)
Ancient Aethiopia, ( gr, Αἰθιοπία, Aithiopía; also known as Ethiopia) first appears as a geographical term in classical documents in reference to the upper Nile region of Sudan, as well as certain areas south of the Sahara desert. Its ...
*Gorgons
A Gorgon ( /ˈɡɔːrɡən/; plural: Gorgons, Ancient Greek: Γοργών/Γοργώ ''Gorgṓn/Gorgṓ'') is a creature in Greek mythology. Gorgons occur in the earliest examples of Greek literature. While descriptions of Gorgons vary, the te ...
References
External links
*
Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand 1868-1961
Anais do Museu Paulista: História e Cultura Material - Do oceano dos clássicos aos mares dos impérios: transformações cartográficas do Atlântico sul
* ttp://www.thelatinlibrary.com/pomponius1.html Pomponius Mela, de Chorographia Liber Primusbr>BBC - Mapping Africa
{{List of seas
History of the Atlantic Ocean
History of cartography
Oceanography
History of geography
Ancient Greek geography
Bodies of water of Africa