The name of this part of the globe appeared a long time ago, but why it is called so and who named the western half of Eurasia in this way is unknown. Rather, there are many assumptions about the genesis, they all link branding (or naming) with certain peoples.
Although as a single concept and construct, a single space with its own author's "code", Europe existed even before geographers started an age-old dispute over the number of continents on the globe (some of them consider Eurasia as a single continent, others look at Europe and Asia separately). Take the ancient Greeks. They believed that the world was divided into three most important parts: Europe, Asia and Libya, which was called the part of North and Northeast Africa known to the Hellenic civilization. This administrative division was applied in the maps by the great Ptolemy published in the Guide to Geography.
Perhaps if we had more sources, we would be able to trace the history of the name and phenomenon much further. But what is, is.
Why is it this way and not otherwise?
On this score, we repeat, there are a number of theories.
- If we focus on linguistics, many scientists believe that this name is descriptive, but, again, differ on the question of origin. Some are convinced that the roots are in ancient Greece. In ancient Greek, there are roots "eurus", which means "wide", and "ops", which translates as "eye" or even "face". At the output we get "wide looks", and this is quite consistent with the description of the coastline of the continent. However, there is a version that the whole phrase literally means "mainland".
- There is another version. They say that the name comes from the Mesopotamian Semitic Acadian language, and refers to the word "erebu", which means "sunset". Like, for Mesopotamia, everything that happened in the West was in the "sunset lands". In favor of this version also speaks the word "asu", that is, "Asia" - or sunrise.
- There are many mythological theories, some of which date back thousands of years. A popular version is about the goddess Europa, or the beloved of Zeus with the same name.
- There is also an interpretation according to which Europe is one of thousands of nymphs of the sea - oceanids, which, although located on a lower hierarchy compared to the Olympians, were also part of the local pantheon. However, this does not explain why Europe.
- Other options link Europe to the goddess of fertility and abundance, Demeter. However, which name appeared first is unclear. There is a version that it was Europe that was called the goddess of fertility before the establishment of Greek domination, and Demeter is a small local god who managed to improve his position in the pantheon in such a good way.
- In the most famous mythological version, Europa was the daughter of the Phoenix – or the Phoenician king Agenor. The supreme god of the Greek pantheon, Zeus the Thunderer, kidnapped her, turning into a white bull, and took her to Crete by sea, and already there she became the mother of three demigods - Minos, Radamant and Sarpedon.
