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Libya

Some say that the name of Libya comes from Epaphus, son of Jupiter/Zeus and king of Egypt who built Memphis, and who conceived Libya, from which we get the name of the continent Libya, with his wife, Cassiopeia.

This Cassiopeia is said to have also been a queen of Ethiopia, and there the Ethiopian regnal list did record her existence as a queen between 1890 and 1871 BC.

Of course, what we are talking about as Libya also has another, more famous name, that being Africa. This name is said to come from a son of Abraham and Cethura(Keturah), Abraham's second wife, whose name may have been "Afer". Others also say it may come from the adjective "apricus, -a", which means sunny. So, "aprica" becomes "Africa".


Africa is located beteween the Atlantic ocean to the West, and Egypt to the East - which is often considered a part of Asia. Similarily, right below the straits of Gibraltar, dividing Libya from Spain, there is Mauretania Tingitania, modern day northern Morroco, which is sometimes also assigned to Spain.

To make things simple, we're going to use the typical delimitation of the continents, but just remember, sometimes these two places are administratively assigned as part of another area.

To the North is the Mediterranean Sea, the "Great Sea", and to the south it is believed that there is a fourth continent, which remains ungleamable to us - in the 7th century.


This continent is inhabitted by the legendary "Antipodes", a word literally meaning "anti", and "podes" from "pedes", so "those that have their feet opposite our feet", on the opposite side of the globe.

The border with this continent is in the mythical lands of West Aethiopia, in what is today actually called Mauritania, and East Aethiopia, on the other side of the continent, below the Nile river.

We will discuss the Ethiopias, and the lands in-between, in the next two sections.

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