Elishah

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Not to be confused with Elisha.

Elishah was the son of Javan according to the Book of Genesis (10:4) as well as the mediaeval, rabbinic Book of Jasher (Hebrew transliteration: Sefer haYashar); he is said in Jasher to have been the ancestor of the "Almanim", possibly a reference to Germanic tribes (Alamanni). An older and more common traditions refers to him as a settler of Greece,[1] particularly Elis in the Peloponese. The Greek Septuagint of Genesis 10 lists Elisa not only as the son of Javan, but also among the sons of Japheth, possibly a copyist's error.

The Table of Nations according to the Bible

Lusitanian mythology traditionally makes Elishah (under the name Lysias/Lísias[2]) an ancestor and predecessor of Lusus (Elisha being older, having arrived accompanying his uncle Tubal founding Portalegre in 1900 BC under Iberian king Brigo),[3] Lysias' own supposed tomb (in Portalegre) claiming that he was the first "cultivator" of Lusitania.[4] Lusus' reign is traditionally placed in the sixteenth-fifteenth centuries BC, e.g., in the Livro Primeiro da Monarchia Lusitana.[5] All this is debated; Lusus has also been described as coming before Lysias, who would thus be too late to be Elishah[6] or vaguely at the same time, or even the same individual under different names.[7] Lusus is sometimes called a son of Baccus and of the lineage of Lysias, or the other way around, or even a mere companion.[8] The Portuguese orator and mythographer Father António Vieira (1608-1697) refers to Elishah (under his actual biblical name) as founder and eponym of Lisbon and Lusitania (when he came to the Iberia with his uncle Tubal), as well as the origin of the name of the mythological Elysium.[9][10] Vieira also identified Elisha's biblical brother Tarshish as the founder of Tartesos in Andalucia, implying both would have come to Iberia with Tubal (though this isn't the only theory on the identity of Tarshish[11]). Elishah in this Portuguese portrayal is identified with Bacchus' captain Lysias/Lísias, sometimes also with Lusus and Phoroneus[12] and is referred as the founder of Portalegre and being buried at the Ermida de São Cristovão (Chapel of Saint Christopher) inside the town.[13] A proposed resolution of these conflicting versions of the myth involves considering an early Lysias, Elishah (mythical founder of Portalegre in 1900 BC) and Lusus (having as mortal father king Siceleo of Iberia, grandson of Atlante/Atlas, founder of Atlantis,[14] to be a possible descendant of Elishah, but possibly Bacchus being his real and divine father), and later lived another Lysias, son of Bacchus (who in this version is clearly the son of Semele who conquered Iberia, not the son of Jupiter and Io who conquered India or the son of Jupiter and Proserpina who was an agrarian and herding culture hero[15]), who was of a different cast but with the similarity of name to the above was claimed by his father Bacchus to be their reincarnation to please the Lusitanians he subjected, becoming under his father the new separate king of the Lusitanians since Lusus.[16]

Judean historian Flavius Josephus related the descendants of Elishah with the Aeolians, one of the ancestral branches of the Greeks.[17]

Others[18] have identified Elishah with Cypriots as in ancient times the island or part of it was known as Alashiya.

See also

References

  1. ↑ A view of ancient geography and ancient history: Accompanied with an atlas of ten select maps, calculated for the use of seminaries, &c, Robert Mayo, Robert Mayo, Volume 340 Harvard social studies textbooks preservation microfilm project, Published and sold by John F. Watson, no. 51 Chestnut Street, A. Fagan Printer, 1813, Universidade de Michigan, p. 153
  2. ↑ Portugal Terra de Mistérios, Paulo Alexandre Loução, p.283
  3. ↑ see Portalegre, *** Carlos Leite Ribeiro *** Distritos e Concelhos de Portugal, Portalegre, distoedakilo, Portalegre.
  4. ↑ Dialogos de dom Frey Amador Arraiz Bispo de Portalegre, p. 21
  5. ↑ Frei Bernardo de Brito, Capítulo XV
  6. ↑ E.g., in Frei Bernardo de Brito's Livro Primeiro da Monarchia Lusitana, Capítulo XVIII, pg. 240, the Dialogos de dom Frey Amador Arraiz Bispo de Portalegre, p. 21, Defensam da monarchia Lvsitana, Volumes 1-2, Bernardino da Silva, pp. 36 - 37, and Ulyssipo, António de Sousa de Macedo, p. 29- 30,
  7. ↑ E.g., in Paulo Alexandre Loução's Portugal Terra de Mistérios, p. 283.
  8. ↑ For this discussion, see Livro Primeiro da Monarchia Lusitana, Frei Bernardo de Brito, pp. 242 - 243
  9. ↑ Cartas do padre Antonio Vieira - Volumes 1-4 de Cartas do padre Antonio Vieira, J.M.C. Seabra & T.Q. Antunes, 1854, p. 114
  10. ↑ Dicionário do nome das terras - origens,curiosidades e lendas das terras de portugal, João Fonseca, Cruz Quebrada/Casa das letras, 2007. Entry Lisboa
  11. ↑ Historiantes: Tarsis y Tartesos
  12. ↑ Portugal Terra de Mistérios, Paulo Alexandre Loução, p. 283
  13. ↑ Dialogos de dom Frey Amador Arraiz Bispo de Portalegre, p. 21
  14. ↑ A version appearing in Livro Primeiro da Monarchia Lusitana, Frei Bernardo de Brito, Capítulos XIV - XVII
  15. ↑ Livro Primeiro da Monarchia Lusitana, Frei Bernardo de Brito, p. 237 - 238
  16. ↑ Livro Primeiro da Monarchia Lusitana, Frei Bernardo de Brito, p. 240
  17. ↑ The works of Flavius Josephus: the learned and authentic Jewish historian and celebrated warrior, to which are added, three dissertations, concerning Jesus Christ, John the Baptist, James the Just, God's command to Abraham, etc. with an index to the whole, Volume 1, translated by William Whiston, Publisher Lackington, Allen and co., 1806, Princeton University
  18. ↑ The expansion of the Greek world, eighth to sixth centuries B.C., John Boardman, Volume 3 Cambridge Ancient History, Cambridge University Press, 1982, ISBN 0-521-23447-6, ISBN 978-0-521-23447-4
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