Εὐρώπη

Forms

Εὐρώπη (Eurṓpē) f (genitive Εὐρώπης); first declension^[1] Doric Εὐρώπα; epic Εὐρώπεια for the heroine, in Moschus.^[2][3] Εὐρωπία for the heroine in Sophocles and Euripides.^[4]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.^[4][5] Because the legend of Europa and the bull seems to go back to Mycenaean times, Frisk thinks it natural to take the name as Pre-Greek, as Sommer did.^[5] Greek explanations have long been offered: Bailly and Wiktionary give εὐρύς (eurús, “wide”) and ὤψ (ṓps, “face, eye”), “wide-faced” or “wide-eyed”, and Aly derived it from εὐρώς (eurṓs) and the same word for “face”, which Frisk finds unconvincing.^[6][1][5] Chantraine asks whether the continent and the heroine are two different names, the continent's coming from the adjective εὐρωπός (eurōpós, “wide”).^[4] The LGPN, following Chantraine's dictionary, suggests ἐΰς (eǘs, “good”) and ῥώψ (rhṓps, “brushwood”), that is “with rich undergrowth”, a land full of game.^[7]

A Semitic origin has also been proposed: Lewy and Grimme compare Akkadian erēb šamši (“sunset”) and the Semitic word for “evening, west”, as in Phoenician 𐤏𐤓𐤁 (ʿrb, “evening”).^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest text with the name is Hesiod's Theogony (357), where Europa is one of the daughters of Ocean.^[8][3][9] As a place name it first appears in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (251), where it means central Greece, the mainland as opposed to the Peloponnese and the islands.^[2][10][5]

Semantic evolution

In myth Europa is the Phoenician princess whom Zeus, in the form of a bull, carried off to Crete, where she bore Minos, Rhadamanthys and Sarpedon, and Herodotus tells the story.^[2][4][11] Moschus says the continent was named after her.^[4]

As a geographical name it first meant the Greek mainland, then the Thracian and Macedonian north, and then, as the Greeks learned the shape of the Black Sea, all the land outside Asia; from Aeschylus and Herodotus on it is the continent opposed to Asia (and to Libya).^[10][2][5] Pindar uses the Doric form in apposition to “mainland”.^[2][8] Herodotus already discusses where its eastern border lies, on the Tanais or the Phasis.^[10] The adjectives are Εὐρωπήϊος (Eurōpḗïos) (Herodotus), Εὐρωπαῖος (Eurōpaîos) (Dionysius of Halicarnassus) and Εὐρώπειος (Eurṓpeios) (Dionysius Periegetes).^[4][5] It was also a woman's name, recorded about ten times from the 4th century BC, and the name of an Athenian trireme.^[7][12]

The Suda lists it both as a personal name and as the place, and Hesychius glosses it as the land of the west, or as “dark”.^[13][14] Modern Greek Ευρώπη (Evrópi) is a learned form of the ancient name, meaning the continent and, informally, the European Union.^[15]

Timeline

• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Theogony names Europa as a daughter of Ocean.^[8][3]
• 6th century BC – The Homeric Hymn to Apollo uses it for central Greece.^[2][10][9]
• 5th century BC – Pindar and Aeschylus use it for the continent, and Herodotus tells of the Phoenician princess and discusses the borders of Europe.^[3][2][10]
• 2nd century BC – Moschus calls the heroine Εὐρώπεια (Eurṓpeia) and derives the continent's name from hers.^[3][4]
• 1st century BC – Dionysius of Halicarnassus has the adjective Εὐρωπαῖος (Eurōpaîos).^[4][5]
• Modern Greek – Ευρώπη (Evrópi) is a learned word for the continent.^[15]

Meanings

Proper noun

1. (mythology) Europa, the Phoenician princess carried off to Crete by Zeus in the form of a bull; also an Oceanid in Hesiod.^[2][8][11]
2. Europe: first central and northern Greece, the mainland; then the continent, opposed to Asia (and Libya).^[2][3][10]
3. A woman's name.^[7][13]

Word family

• Εὐρωπαῖος (Eurōpaîos)
• Εὐρωπήϊος (Eurōpḗïos)

Related words

• εὐρύς (eurús)
• εὐρωπός (eurōpós)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ Bailly, Anatole (1901), Abrégé du dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b c LGPN-Ling: Etymology and Semantics of Ancient Greek Personal Names, ANHIMA/EPHE and Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, Oxford, https://lgpn-ling.huma-num.fr
8. ^ a b c d Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
9. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
10. ^ a b c d e f Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
11. ^ a b Smith, William, ed. (1873), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray
12. ^ Charbonnet, André (2025), Chæréphon, v4.7: supplement to Bailly from papyri, inscriptions and recent lexica
13. ^ a b Adler, Ada, ed. (1928–1938), Suidae Lexicon, 5 vols, Leipzig: Teubner
14. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
15. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki