Note 90 — THE VOYAGE OF NEARKHOS.

For the legend of Erythrês see Agatharkhides De Mari Eryth. I. 1-4 and Strabo XVI. iv. 20. The Erythræan Sea included the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf, and the Red Sea, the last being called also the Arabian Gulf, when it was necessary to distinguish it from the Erythræan in general. It can hardly be doubted that the epithet Erythræan (which means red, Greek ερυθρος) first designated the Arabian Gulf or Red Sea, and was afterwards extended to the seas beyond the Straits by those who first explored them. The Red Sea was so called because it washed the shores of Arabia, called the Red Land (Edom), in contradistinction to Egypt, called the Black Land (Kemi), from the darkness of the soil deposited by the Nile. Some however thought that it received its name from the quantity of red coral found in its waters, especially along the eastern shores, and Strabo says (loc. cit.): “Some say that the sea is red from the colour arising from reflexion either from the sun, which is vertical, or from the mountains, which are red by being scorched with intense heat; for the colour it is supposed may be produced by both of these causes. Ktesias of Knidos speaks of a spring which discharges into the sea a red and ochrous water.”—Cf. Eustath. Comment. 38.