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HEINZ‐GÜNTHER NESSELRATH

University of Göttingen

Herodotus is the first known author to use the expression “Atlantic Sea” for the vast body of water lying to the west of the MEDITERRANEAN and beyond the PILLARS OF HERACLES. In this word combination, “Atlantic” derives from the Titan Atlas, who is supposed to hold up the sky “at the ends of the earth” near the sweet‐singing Hesperides (Hes. Theog. 517–20), i.e., in the westernmost SEA (see also Hom. Od. 1.52–54; Nesselrath 2006, 267). The adjective Atlantikos as a marker of far‐western regions is also found in two plays of Euripides (Hipp. 3, 1053; Heracl. 234–35), so it seems to have been current in Herodotus’ time. Some decades later, Plato established his famous “Atlantis” in the same SEA, but he playfully inverts the ETYMOLOGY of the name by claiming that the Atlas after whom the island and the surrounding sea was called was a son of POSEIDON and one of the first kings of Atlantis (Criti. 114a).

Later authors call the western sea both “Atlantic” and “Oceanus” (Polyb. 16.29.6; Arist. [Mund.] 393a16–7), but Herodotus uses “Oceanus” in this way only once (4.8.2), and he immediately adds that he very much doubts the common belief that it runs round the whole earth. He states this skepticism several times (2.21, 23; 4.36.2), and it is probably the reason that he introduces the expression “Atlantic Sea” in 1.202.4, where he recognizes its connection with the ERYTHRAEAN SEA (i.e., the sea to the south and east of Africa and ASIA) but carefully avoids bringing in the notion of a surrounding OCEAN (Nesselrath 2005, 155).

SEE ALSO: Atlantes; Atlas River; Geography; Libya