Why did they name Europe , Europe ?

Question

Please tell me.

I know the story but, why ?

never heard of that whats wogland ?

Answer 1

Here's an interesting link on the use of the name Europe as well as the origin.
There's this as well: "The conception of Europe as a distinct division of the earth, separate from Asia and Africa, had its origin in ancient times. The sailors of the Aegean Sea applied the Semitic designations Ereb (sunset, west) and Acu (sunrise, east) to the countries lying respectively west and east of the sea; in this way it became customary to call Greece and the territory back of it Europe, while Asia Minor and the parts beyond were named Asia. At a later date the mass of land lying to the south of the Mediterranean was set off as a distinct division of the earth with the name of Libya or Africa. " The rest can be found at the second link.

Answer 2

The name comes from Ancient Greek Ευρώπη (Evrope) a character in Greek mythology, meaning "wide eyed", from ευρύς (evrys) "wide" + ώπς (ops) "eye, face, complexion". In Greek mythology, Europa was a Phoenician princess who was abducted by Zeus in bull form and taken to the island of Crete, where she gave birth to Minos. For Homer, Eurṓpē (Greek: Εὐρώπη; see also List of traditional Greek place names) was a mythological queen of Crete, not a geographical designation. Later Europa stood for mainland Greece, and by 500 BC its meaning had been extended to lands to the north.

The Greek term Europe has been derived from Greek words meaning broad (eurys) and face (ops) -- broad having been an epitheton of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion; see Prithvi (Plataia). A minority, however, suggest this Greek popular etymology is really based on a Semitic word such as the Akkadian erebu meaning "sunset" [1](see also Erebus). From the Middle Eastern vantagepoint, the sun does set over Europe, the lands to the west. Likewise, Asia is sometimes thought to have derived from a Semitic word such as the Akkadian asu, meaning "sunrise" [2], and is the land to the east from a Middle Eastern perspective.

Answer 3

Some great answers here so just a small footnote, Europe was originally called Enea by many of the nongreek inhabitants

Answer 4

Apparently a lot of the reason for the name Europe, is from Greek mythology. I've provided the link I found.

I hope this is what you were looking for.




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe#Etymology

Answer 5

I think the direction Prince Cadmus was chasing after her was in the direction of Europe.

Answer 6

After Eurpoa, from the Greek myth!

Answer 7

Probably after some guy,

Just like me where do you think they came up with name ICELAND

Two Words: Vanilla ICE

Answer 8

It's better than "Yer down," right?

Yeah, okay, that was a stupid answer. Forgive me. I'm kind of tired.

Answer 9

it has something to do with the story of Europa(i think)

Answer 10

Beats "Wogland".