Where was Cerne? © Nicholas Costa 2025

Pliny(23–79 AD) in his Natural History (Book VI) demonstrates the confused state of affairs that existed in his time as to where Cerne was. There were conflicting reports as to its location. The Periplus of Hanno located a place which they named Cerne in the Atlantic near Senegal.

Whilst Cerne was mentioned in earlier accounts, Strabo (c64 BC – c24 AD) actually questioned its very existence, given that the sources in his time disagreed. He even suggested that it might be a fictional place or more astutely that it was based on misinterpretations of other locations.

Pliny (23/24 – 79 AD) stated that:

“An island opposite the Persian Gulf and lying off Ethiopia is named Cerne; neither its size nor its distance from the mainland has been ascertained, but it is reported to be inhabited solely by Ethiopian tribes.” Later in the same passage he includes a contradictory statement: “Polybius (200 – c118 BC) informs us that Cerne lies at the extremity of Mauretania, over against Mount Atlas, a mile from the coast;”

Atlas

By Pliny’s time the mountain range stretching across what are now Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, were known as the Atlas mountains with no specific mountain pointed out as Mount Atlas. Alternatively it was identified with Jebal Musa, part of the Rif mountain chain in north Morocco.

Pliny’s statement associates a Mount Atlas with Cerne, yet in addition to not knowing precisely where Mount Atlas was, nobody as noted seemed to know where Cerne was located. However, in the author’s current reconstruction the original Mount Atlas was located in the far west of Anatolia, within the Kos-Nisyros-Yali volcanic field.

Hittite texts speak of a mountain named Tudhaliya. A number of their rulers adopted this name as their throne name. At its core it was a volcanic metaphor. In Hittite records one finds references to mountains that moved, and mountains that gave birth (Towards an understanding of the Gendered Hittite Landscape: What does it mean when mountains give birth? Mary R. Bachvarova, 2019).

Tudhaliya and Atlas- Volcanic Metaphors

Whilst the two words Tudhaliya and Atlas are not etymologically connected, the Greek name would have be a phonological adaptation or a folk-etymology substitution of the Hittite word, by means of which the receiving language fits the foreign name into a native word it already knows, even if there’s no etymological link. For example, a good example is Pharao in Greek, from Egyptian Per-aa or Great House. The Greeks weren’t translating the meaning — they just reshaped the sound into something pronounceable and meaningful for them.

Luwia is Ethiopia

Notably Cerne is always associated with either the western part of Libya or with a region referred to as Ethiopia . As explained elsewhere Libya is in fact a corruption of Luwia which was the region in which the airburst of c1327 BC occurred. Given the scale of the disaster it was jokingly referred to in the Greek myths as Ethiopia -land of the burnt faces!

Cernos

Likewise the name of cerne is descriptive. In Greek, cernos/ kernos refers to an earthen dish or type of offering vessel used in religious rites. The kernos was used primarily in the cults of Demeter and Kore, and of Cybele and Attis (Phillippe Borgeaud, Mother of the Gods: From Cybele to the Virgin Mary, 1996). Interestingly the deities Cybele and Artemis were syncretised, particularly in Ephesus. The name therefore is a doubly metaphorical. The shape of the religious vessel cernos acting as an allusion to the geography of the region: a flat plain surrounded by mountains.

Cerne is Ephesus

In Diodorus Siculus can be found the story of Myrina who after the takeover of Cerne and the Atlanteans renames the city in her name. The author has determined in accordance with the text of the myth, that the true location of Cerne was Ephesus on the west coast of Anatolia. (See Myrina’s Journey to Atlantis, Nicholas Costa 2024)

In conformity with this Strabo wrote:

“the Ephesians were fellow-inhabitants of the Smyrnaeans in ancient times, when Ephesus was also called Smyrna” (Geography, 14.1.4)

Notably Pliny quotes Polybius?(c200 – c118 BC) as saying:

“that Cerne lies …a mile (1.6 km) from the coast;”

Today, the archaeological site of Ephesus is about 5-6 kilometers (3 -3.7 miles) inland from the modern coastline. Whilst in Roman times, Ephesus was located approximately 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) inland from the Aegean Sea. Given the silting in the region, the mile from the coast quote would evidently relate to a much earlier time.

Island or Mainland?

Whilst some sources designate it as being an island in the modern sense of the word, one should not forget that in antiquity the word could equally refer to an area of land surrounded by sea, a river, or merely a promontory. Both Dionysius of Alexandria, c125 AD and Dionysius Scytobrachion specifically gave it a terrestrial location.

The former stating “In the remote corners of the continent feed the furthermost Ethiopians, by the Ocean itself, beside the vales of farthest Cerne.”(Guide to the Inhabited World § 21)

Notably he locates Cerne near the Asbystae. The name is redolent of the Greek words ‘a sbynno’, meaning the unquenchable or something the cannot be put out – a suitable metaphor for a volcano.

A look at the map showing the silting of the valley over the course of time demonstrates that in fact all the sources are correct!

Two Ethiopias!

Dionysius of Alexandria located Cerne in the far west. As revealed in Atlantis, the Amazons, and the Birth of Athene it is a mistake to automatically interpret references to Ethiopia as referring to the region south of Egypt. Indeed the ancient texts reveal allusions to distinctly different locations for Ethiopia, one in the east and one in ‘far west’. Neither of the mythological ones had anything to do with the region south of Egypt!

In Roman times the region in the west was interpreted as Mauretania (black land) in north Africa. However as noted in my book the Memnon from ‘Ethiopia’ who fought at Troy was actually remembered or commemorated in Lydia and neighbouring Mysia to the north, locations far removed from the region now known as Ethiopia south of Egypt. His daughter was remembered as mother of the Ephesian Cercopes.

Strabo states: “About . . .1 stadia above the outlet of the Aesepus River is a hill, where is shown the tomb of Memnon, son of Tithonus ; and near by is the village of Memnon. The Granicus River flows between.” (Geography 13 1 11.) The Aesepus was situated in Mysia the region directly north of Lydia.

Memnon

The name is an epithet. It is commonly thought to mean steadfast or unwavering. This shall be explored in a later section.

Mythology remembers him as the son of Tithonus the son of Laomedon king of Troy. St. Jerome dates Laomedon’s rule to 1389 -1349 BC (Chronicon § B1389)

He would therefore be the brother of Hesione who was rescued by Heracles from a sea monster (tsunami). In other words, the events were linked.

Tsunami

That a tsunami really occured at this time, c1300 BC in the region is supported by modern academia. See for example: Two large tsunamis in the prehistory of the Aegean Sea: the Minoan tsunami (~17th century BC) and the Troy tsunami (~13th century BC); Gerassimos A. Papadopoulos, 2005

Airburst at Dawn

Memnon’s mother was none other than Eos, goddess of the dawn- yet another memory of the timing of the incoming bolide. As noted, he was referred to as Ethiopian or burnt face, a metaphorical description relating to the airburst over Ephesus c1327 BC!

This date is far removed from the traditional date for the fall of Troy of 1184 BC. Thus the Memnon killed by Achilles is of a later generation. In this context the latter was remembered as coming from Persia with thousands of troops!

Hittite Memories?

Pausanias states:

“… Mem­non was king of the Ethiopian na­tion. He came to Troy, how­ever, not from Ethiopia, but from Susa in Per­sia and from the river Choaspes, hav­ing sub­dued all the peo­ples that lived be­tween these and Troy. The Phry­gians still point out the road through which he led his army, pick­ing out the short­est routes. The road is di­vided up by halt­ing-places (Description of Greece 10.31.5-7).

This reference seems to be a garbled memory of the Hittites rather than of the Persians. In other places they are referred to as Assyrians.

Memories of two Hittite rulers encapsulated in the myths of Memnon?

It is important to remember that the Greek myths were a system of mnemonics and metaphors designed to retain memories of key events, presented in the form of families.

Mursili II and his Aphasia

Memnon is evidently a metaphor for two entirely different but linked events relating to the northwest Anatolian region. In his first incarnation he may indeed have been a metaphorical allusion to the Hittite ruler Mursili II. He reigned c1330–1295 BC (middle chronology) or 1321–1295 BC (short chronology). It is known Mursili experienced a period of what had been described as aphasia, a loss or impairment of language, following a traumatic event involving a ‘thunderstorm’ and the Storm-god. The event, along with Mursili’s subsequent actions and rituals, is documented in a Hittite text known as “Mursili’s Aphasia” (CTH 486). The text details how Mursili’s speech became difficult and how he interpreted the event as divine punishment, leading to elaborate rituals and sacrifices to appease the Storm-god.

Suppiluliuma II

Whilst the second phase would relate to Suppiluliuma II the last certain great king of the New Kingdom of the Hittite Empire. He was a contemporary of Tukulti-Ninurta I of the Middle Assyrian Empire. His reign began around 1207 BC (short chronology) and ended at an unknown later date. By the end of his reign the Hittite kingdom had collapsed, or undergone an irreversible negative transformation.

Gold

“The Kernaeans are an Ethiopian race, and live on the island Kerne outside the Pillars of Heracles, and they till the part of Libya by the Anno river straight past Carthage, and there is a lot of gold” (Palaephatus, On Unbelievable Things, 31 ca. 300 BC).

The account is notably garbled since there is no Anno river, and Carthage is some 1438.41 km / 893.78 mi from the Strait of Gibraltar! However there might be a kernel of truth in the opening statement if one bears Ephesus in mind and the common transcription from ancient Luwia/ Lydia and Libya as explained in my book.

Pactolus River the River of Gold

The Pactolus River in Lydia was very famous for its electrum deposits. It is now known as the Sart Cay?. Electrum is a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver found in the river’s sediments. They were a key factor in the region’s wealth and the development of coinage. Pseudo-Plutarch in the De fluviis writes that the river was initially called the Chrysorrhoas (streaming with gold) because according to the legend, Chrysorrhoas (the son of Apollo) threw himself into the river. (Pseudo-Plutarch, De fluviis, 7). The city of Sardis was located on the banks of the river some 97 km/ 60 miles inland from Ephesus and Smyrna.

Ancient Vessels Creeping Along the Coast

Strabo in a putdown concerning the writings of Damastes of Sigeum, who lived it is thought in the fifth century BC states in the context of errors Damastes made concerning the Pontus Euxinus or Black Sea region:

“he cannot refrain from similar romancing, and gives credit to many strange narrations concerning what lies beyond the Pillars of Hercules, informing us of an Isle of Kerne there, and other places now nowhere to be found, which we shall speak of presently. Having remarked that the ancients, whether out on piratical excursions, or for the purposes of commerce, never ventured into the high seas, but crept along the coast…”

So whilst Strabo is dismissive of Damastes the geographer, Eratosthenes was happy to make use of his now lost work. (Eratosthenes of Cyrene was a Greek mathematician, geographer, astronomer, and music theorist who lived from 276 to 194 BC). Notably Strabo’s dismissive statement concerning ancient vessels creeping along the coast, acts as a confirmation of the author’s interpretation that the Myrina/ Atlantis narratives of Dionysius Scytobrachion and Plato are coastal narratives, and that Cerne/Ephesus lay inland ‘beyond the Pillars of Heracles’.

Next more mythical allusions to the airburst above Ephesus c1327 BC