© Nicholas Costa 2025

The original locations of the places which were ultimately relocated to the far west

Cosmas Indicopleustes was aware that the original locations had by his time been mistakenly shifted to the far west. He wrote:

“In like manner the philosopher Timaeus…supposes that there is to westward an island, Atlantis, lying out in the Ocean, in the direction of Gadeira… Both Plato and Aristotle praise this philosopher, and Proclus has written a commentary on him. He himself expresses views similar to our own with some modifications, transferring the scene of the events from the east to the west.”

(Cosmas Indicopleustes, Christian Topography, 341 -Flourished 6th century AD, Alexandria, c.501 – c.600. Cosmas notably was alive during another key catastrophic period centered upon the year 536 AD which medieval historian Michael McCormick declared was the worst year to be alive. )

Herodotus wrote that,“Herakles, driving the cattle of Geryones . . .  Geryones lived west of the Pontos, settled in the island called by the Greeks Erytheia, on the shore of Okeanos (Oceanus) near Gadeira, outside the pillars of Herakles.” (Histories 4. 8. 1)

The Pontos is generally interpreted as the Black Sea or a region within Anatolia on the southern coast of the Black Sea. The name was applied to the coastal region and its mountainous hinterland. So evidently the oceanus in question was not the Atlantic Ocean! Indeed the word Oceanus in its earliest usage referred to any large body of water! (HesiodTheog. 282 )

The classical references to Gadeira/ Gediz are inevitably nowadays associated with the city of Cadiz in the far west, yet none of the surviving descriptions actually match the geography of that region.

However, by the time the Suda Encyclopedia (c500 AD) was written the names Gadeira and Gades and Cadiz had become equivalent. Yet few now realise that the Greeks knew of the existence of Gadeira/Gades as locations in western Anatolia.

Gadeira

In Critias, Plato stated that the name of Atlas’s younger twin-brother, “who had for his portion the extremity of the island near the pillars of Heracles up to the part of the country now called Gadeira after the name of that region, was Eumelus in Greek, but in the native tongue Gadeirus”

Eumelus

The name Eumelus translates as eu/good +? milon/sheep, goat). (Plato, Critias, 114 – ca. 370 BCE ) The name is notably a parallel to that given in the tale of the stealing of Geryon’s cattle from Erythia by Heracles. As noted in an earlier section sheep, goats, cattle were in fact metaphors in antiquity for the common people. (Shepherds, Fathers, and Ships, Ancient Greek Leadership Metaphors and Some Consequences; Joël Christensen, 2022.)

The name Eumelus reappears in relation to a statement by John the Lydian (c AD 490 – c565). He was a Byzantine commentator who knew of a Titanomachy in addition to Hesiod’s. John stated that the unknown author of a lost 7th-century BCE epic poem had actually placed the birth of Zeus in Lydia rather than Crete. The poem was traditionally ascribed to a semi legendary bard known as Eumelus of Corinth. (Lydus, De mensibus 4.71.)

Erythia/ Gadira

Apollodourus states that Erythia “an island near the ocean; it is now called Gadira. This island was inhabited by Geryon, son of Chrysaor by Callirrhoe, daughter of Ocean” (Apollodorus, Library, 2.5.10)

Likewise Philostratus (c.170-c.247 AD) wrote of Hercules “fixing the frontier of the world at Gadira.” Although in his text he firmly places its location in the far west, he does link it directly to a major geological catastrophe stating that Heracles used “the mountains for pillars, and confining the ocean within its bounds” (Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana).

According to Strabo: “Pherecydes appears to have given to Gades the name of Erythia, the locality of the myths concerning Geryon: others suppose it to have been the island situated near to this city, and separated from it by a strait of merely one stadium” (Strabo, Geography, 3.5.4 )

Pherecydes

Pherecydes of Syros (fl. 7-6th century BC) notably was an ancient Greek mythographer and proto-philosopher. Little is known about his life although some ancient testimonies counted him among the Seven Sages of Greece (c.620-550 BC). Given that trade links with the far west were only just beginning at the time Pherecydes was writing, it is highly improbable that he ever referred to sites in the far west near the Atlantic Ocean. Of the little we know his geographical knowledge was focused upon the Aegean and the western seaboard of Anatolia, notably Ephesus.

Erythrai and Gediz

The ancient city of Erythrai (also spelled Erythrae) and the Gediz River are geographically related through their proximity to the Gulf of ?zmir and the Aegean coast of Turkey. Significantly the river flows into the northern part of the Gulf of ?zmir, near Foça, the ancient Phocaea which had been founded by people from Erythrai. Erythrai was an ancient Ionian city located on the Çe?me peninsula (known in antiquity as the Erythrai peninsula). The Gediz River’s delta and the surrounding area were key factors in the development of settlements such as Erythrai and other Ionian cities.

Herodotus’ statement therefore is actually an accurate description.

Gediz/ Cadys

The Gediz River and ancient Erythrai are both located in western Turkey, near the Aegean Sea. They are approximately 50 kilometers (31 miles) apart as the crow flies. The Greeks knew the river as the Hermus. The current Turkish name of the river as Gediz reflects its Lydian origins. The name, which appears in antiquity, is transcribed as Cadys. Cadys or Kadys was remembered as legendary prince of ancient Lydia (Nicolaus of Damascus fragment Universal History which was possibly based on the lost history of Xanthus of Lydia (mid-fifth century BC). There was also a town named Gediz near the river’s sources.

Seha River

Notably the Gediz river equates with the Hittite Seha River. It is remembered in Hittite texts as one of the locations of Piyamaradu’s exploits. The author believe that the historical Piyamaradu was in fact Heracles human alter ego.

Memories of Geryon

It is evident that by the time of Pausanias (c110 – c180 AD) local memories of Geryon were still maintained in the region.

Pausanias states : “There is a small city of upper Lydia called Temenou Thyrai (Doors of Temenos). There a hill ruptured in a storm, and there appeared bones the shape of which led one to suppose that they were human, but from their size one would never have thought it. At once the story spread among the multitude that it was the corpse of Geryon, the son of Chrysaor, and that the seat also was his. For there is a man’s seat carved on a rocky spur of the mountain. And a torrent they called the river Ocean, and they said that men ploughing met with the horns of cattle, for the story is that Geryon reared excellent cows.”(Description of Greece, 1.35. 7-8)

Pseudo- Apollodorus (Bibliotheca ) wrote in conformity:

§2.5.10  “Now Erythia was an island near the ocean; it is now called Gadira . This island was inhabited by Geryon, son of Chrysaor by Callirrhoe,”

Pausanias continued his account as follows:

§ 1.35.8 “And when I criticized the account and pointed out to them that Geryon is at Gadeira, where there is, not his tomb, but a tree showing different shapes, the guides of the Lydians related the true story, that the corpse is that of Hyllus, a son of Earth, from whom the river is named. They also said that Heracles from his sojourning with Omphale called his son Hyllus after the river.”

The Hyllus is a tributary of the Gediz/Hermus river.

Cotinusa/ Cotinousa

Ioannis Tzetzes (born c. 1110—died after 1180 AD) , a Byzantine author, introduces another name in the region, that of Cotinusa. He wrote thatGadeira, was formerly called the island of Cotinousa. (Tzetzes, Ad Lycophronem, 649)

In Chiliades he stated “Out of Erytheia, an island of the Ocean,Which now is called Gadeira, and was recently called Cotinousa…Heracles led away those cows after killing the dog Orthrus, And, indeed, Eurytion, the cowherd of Geryon, And Geryon with them, who, in pursuing Heracles, was shot by his bow.” (Chiliades Book 2 330).

Pliny the Elder in his assessment jumbled three place names into one location:

“Timaeus says, that the larger island used to be called Cotinusa, from its olives; the Romans call it Tartessos; the Carthaginians Gadir, that word in the Punic language signifying a hedge”(Natural History 1-11, 4.120).

Whilst the focus of these locations in the texts is on the far west in southern Spain it is highly probable as demonstrated with Gadeira, Geryon, and Erythia that the location of Cotinusa was also originally in Anatolia.

The name Cotinusa is reminiscent of the ancient female deity Cotys or Kotys. She was a Thracian deity who was an alter ego of the Phrygian goddess Cybele. The feminine usa ending of the word underlines this identification.

In Greek the name kótos meant hatred, whilst the word kotys is thought to signify war or slaughter (Orel, Vladimir. A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, 2003)

In antiquity a city and region in north western Anatolia was named after this goddess. It is now known as Kütahya. It was known as Kotiaeon/ Cotiaeum/ Cotyaion or Koti, the city of Cotys According to some Latin sources Æsop is said to have been born there. (Brill’s New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World 1:256.)

The city dates back to Hittite times. It lies on the Porsuk River, a tributary of the the Sakarya the third longest river in Turkey which runs through ancient Phrygia. In antiquity the Greeks knew the Sakarya river as the Sangarios. It is mentioned in both the Iliad and in the Theogony.

A Plague c1320 BC

Interestingly a research article published in the Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences draws attention to the fact that the region was subject to a catastrophic plague c1320-1318 BC:

“It is stated in the Egyptian records that the causative bacterium was used in the Hittite-Arzawa War as the first biological terror attack [2,17]. This war probably took place in the Inner Aegean Region, where the provinces of U?ak, Kütahya, and Manisa are located in the study area.

Background/aim: According to Egyptian records, tularemia emerged in the Canaan region, where it was first identified and spread to Anatolia over the Euphrates. It was used as an active biological weapon for the first time in the Hittite-Arzawa War in 1320–1318 BC.

This study aimed to investigate the seroprevalence of tularemia in the Inner Aegean Region, which is thought to be the region where this war was fought 3300 years ago.” (Tularemia seroprevalence in humans in the region of the Hittite-Arzawa War (Inner Aegean Region), where the first biological weapon was used 3300 years ago; ?smail Davaric et al 2022 ) The authors ascribe the plague to biological warfare via infected animals and do not take into consideration the Hittite and Ugarit records concerning air bursts.

The myth of Perseus encapsulates an earlier airburst which happened near the city of Ugarit. Jerome’s Chronicon (§ B1383) dates the event to c1383 BC. Modern archaeology dates the partial destruction of the city by tidal wave to c1380 BC coupled with a massive fire. This may have been the original source for the developments of the ensuing plague which spread westwards. This will be explored in more detail in a future article

Next: More mytholgical allusions to the airburst of c1327BC