EUROPE THE NAME OF A CONTINENT

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Azulejo, Obidos Palace, Lisbon 

When did we start to name our continent Europe? and who was the namegiver? Or, who decided to split the earth up in continents?

Erastosthenes, 276-196 BC, was during 40 year chancellor of the famous library and school of Alexandria.. In his opinion the Greeks named the three continents wrongly because they only looked at their own country and what lay directly opposite.

According to Pompeius Trogus from the beginning of our era, the country of Paeonia, west of the Thracian mountains Pelegonus reigned and on the east of these mountains the region was called Europe ruled by a king Europs.

Herodotus, 484-424 BC, mentions the Egyptian king Necos, who sent a number of Phoenician ships around Libya (Africa) starting from the Red Sea to the South and to return through the pillars of Heracles. After a voyage of three years they came home over the mediterrenean sea.

What did other civilizations call Europe and how did the continent’s name endure the centuries?