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CONTRARY apprehensions are made of the Erythræan or Red Sea; most apprehending a materiall rednesse therein, from whence they derive its common denomination; and some so lightly conceiving hereof, as if it had no rednesse at all, are faine to recurre unto other originalls of its appellation, wherein to deliver a distinct account, we first observe that without consideration of colour it is named the Arabian Gulph: The Hebrews who had best reason to remember it, doe call it Zuph, or the weedy Sea, because it was full of sedge, or they found it so in their passage; the Mahometans who are now Lords thereof doe know it by no other name then the Gulph of Mecha a City of Arabia.¹

The streame of Antiquity deriveth its name from King Erythrus; so slightly conceiving of the nominall deduction from Rednesse, that they plainly deny there is any such accident in it. The words of Curtius are plainly beyond evasion, Ab Erythro rege inditum est nomen, propter quod ignari rubere aquas credunt:² Of no more obscurity are the words of Philostratus, and of later times Sabellicus, Stulte persuasum est vulgo rubras alicubi esse maris aquas, quin ab Erythro rege nomen pelago inditum; of this opinion was Andræas Corsalius, Plinie, Solinus, Dio Cassius, who although they denyed not all rednesse, yet did they relye upon the originall from King Erythrus.³

Others have fallen upon the like, or perhaps the same conceit under another appellation; deducing its name not from King Erythrus but Esau or Edom whose habitation was upon the coasts thereof: Now Edom is as much as Erythrus,⁴ and the Red Sea no more then the Idumean; from whence the posterity of Edom removing towards the Mediterranean coast, according to their former nomination by the Greeks were called Phænicians or red men;⁵ and from a plantation and colony of theirs, an Island neere Spaine was by the Greek describers termed Erythra, as is declared by Strabo and Solinus.⁶

Very many omitting the nominall derivation doe rest in the grosse and literall conception thereof, apprehending a reall rednesse and constant colour of parts. Of which opinion are also they which hold the Sea receiveth a red and minious tincture from springs, wells, and currents, that fall into it:⁷ and of the same beliefe are probably many Christians who conceiving the passage of the Israelites through this Sea to have been the type of Baptisme, according to that of the Apostle,⁸ All were baptised unto Moses in the cloud, and in the Sea, for the better resemblance of the bloud of Christ, they willingly received it in the apprehension of rednesse, and a colour agreeable unto its mystery; according to that of Austen,⁹ Significat mare illud rubrum Baptismum Christi; unde nobis Baptismus Christi nisi sanguine Christi consecratus?

But divers Modernes not considering these conceptions, and appealing unto the Testimony of sense, have at last determined the point; concluding a rednesse herein, but not in the sense received. Sir Walter Raleigh from his owne¹⁰ and Portugall observations, doth place the rednesse of this Sea, in the reflexion from red Islands, and the rednesse of the earth at the bottome, wherein Corall grows very plentifully, and from whence in great abundance it is transported into Europe; the observations of Albuquerque, and Stephanus de Gama, as from Iohannes de Barros, Fernandius de Cordova relateth, derive this rednesse from the colour of the sand and argillous earth at the bottome; for being a shallow Sea, while it rouleth to and fro, there appeareth a rednesse upon the water, which is most discernible in sunny and windie weather. But that this is no more then a seeming rednesse,¹¹ he confirmeth by an experiment: for in the reddest part taking up a vessell of water of water, it differed not from the complexion of other Seas; nor is this colour discoverable in every place of that Sea; for as he also observeth, in some places it is very green, in others white and yellow, according to the colour of the earth or sand at the bottome. And so may Philostratus be made out when he saith, this Sea is blue; or Bellonius denying this rednesse, because he beheld not that colour about Sues; or when Corsalius at the mouth thereof could not discover the same.

Now although we have enquired the ground of rednesse in this Sea, yet are we not fully satisfied; for what is forgot by many, and knowne by few, there is another Red Sea whose name we pretend not to make out from these principles, that is the Persian Gulph or Bay, which divideth the Arabian and Persian shoare, as Plinie hath described it, Mare rubrum in duos dividitur sinus, is qui ab Oriente est Persicus appellatur; or as Solinus expresseth it, Qui ab Oriente est Persicus appellatur, ex adverso unde Arabia est, Arabicus; whereto assenteth Suidas, Ortelius, and many more; and therefore there is no absurdity in Strabo when he delivereth that Tigris and Euphrates doe fall into the Red Sea,¹² and Fernandius de Cordova, justly defendeth his Countriman Seneca in that expression,

Nor hath only the Persian Sea received the same name with the Arabian, but, what is strange, and much confounds the distinction, the name thereof is also derived from King Erythrus, who was conceived to be buried in an Island of this Sea, as Dionysius Afer, Curtius, and Suidas doe deliver, which were of no lesse probability then the other, if as with the same authors Strabo affirmeth, he was buried neare Caramania bordering upon the Persian Gulf; and if his tombe was seen by Nearchus, it was not so likely to be in the Arabian Gulph; for we read that from the River Indus he came unto Alexander at Babylon, some few dayes before his death. Now Babylon was seated upon the River Euphrates, which runnes into the Persian Gulph; and therefore however the Latine expresseth it in Strabo, that Nearchus suffered much in the Arabian Sinus, yet is the originall kolpoV persikoV, that is the Gulph of Persia.¹⁴

That therefore the Red Sea or Arabian Gulph received its name from personall derivation, though probable is but uncertaine; that both the Seas of one name should have one common denominator lesse probable; that there is a grosse and materiall rednesse in either not to be affirmed, that there is an emphaticall or appearing rednesse in one, not well to be denyed; and this is sufficient to make good the Allegory of the Christians; and in this distinction may we justifie the name of the Blacke Sea, given unto Pontus Euxinus, the name of Xanthus, or the Yellow River of Phrygia, and the name of Mar Vermeio, or the Red Sea in America.¹⁵

¹ [Wilkin notes: "Bruce however says that he never saw a weed in it: and attributed this name to the plants of coral with which it abounds.
"'Heb. xi. 29, commonly called the Red Sea. But this is a vulgar error, and the appellation rather arose from its proper name Mare Erythræum, which (the commentators say) was derived from king Erythrus, undoubtedly the same with Esau and Edom, who was a red man — so Grotius and others. It is called by Moses, at Exod. xv, 22, , the weedy sea, and such the accounts of modern tourists, as Niebuhr and others (see Huruen), testify it to be. But whether these weeds give a colour to it, so as to originate the name Red Sea, is, I think, very doubtful.' — Bloomfield Recensio Synoptica, in loc."
The Red Sea is usually a deep blue-green, but is red on occasion. The cause commonly cited today is the bloom of the algae Trichodesmium erythraeum.]

² [Q. Curti Historiarum Alexandri Magni Macedonis VIII.ix.14.]

³ [Pliny HN VI.xxviii.107, as is not uncommon with Pliny, reports several different causes without particularly favoring any; in Holland's translation (his Chapter XXIII): "Upon the marches of this realme the sea breaks into the land in two armes, which our countrymen call the red sea, and the Greekes Erythræum, of a king named Erythras: or as some thinke, because the sea by reason of the reflection and beating of the Sun beams, seemes of a reddish colour. There be that suppose this rednesse is occasioned of the sand and ground which is red: and others againe, that the very water is of the own nature so coloured."]

⁴ [In Genesis 25:30, Esau is called "Edom" (that is, red) because he eats red pottage, although as he was born red, this explanation falls a bit flat.]

⁵ [Although foinix seems to have meant a more purple red or crimson, hardly a color one would normally associate with even the reddest human, this is in fact the likeliest explanation of the name. It is said by some to derive from the Phoenician (or Tyrian) purple, in which they dealt largely, which would dispose nicely of at least one objection.]

⁶ More exactly hereof Bochartus and Mr. Dickinson. [In Geographia Sacra (1646) and Delphi Phoenicizantes (1655), respectively.]

⁷ [The Red Sea has no fresh-water tributaries. The water is supplied from the Indian Ocean.]

⁸ 1 Cor. 10.2. [With which cf. Exodus 13:21 ff.]

⁹ Aug. in Iohannem. [In Johannis Evangelium Tractatus (388).]

¹⁰ [He never saw the Red Sea.]

¹¹ [What's the difference between something that seems red and something that is red? Would it matter in the naming of the Red Sea?]

¹² [The Persian Gulf is extremely shallow and muddy, and is mostly a dull greyish color. The nomenclature for these bodies of water is now, and was in antiquity, both confused and confusing.]

¹³ [In his tragedy Troades. ]

¹⁴ [A correspondent writes of this passage: "Ptolemy lists Organa at 92°00 19N00. I'd have to draw the map to see clearly, but the rather reliable medieval map shows it where the modern Masira is, off the S coast of Oman: in the high seas in the sense it's not in a Gulf; but no more than 15 miles offshore from Arabia; 250 miles in a straight line from the nearest landfall on the Iranian coast (in Gedrosia not Carmania); 350 miles from the closest point in Carmania.
"Since both of those straight lines in fact cross land in Arabia, by sea it would be farther still; to say nothing of the peculiar idea of measuring the distance of this island from distant Carmania when it is right offshore from Arabia.
"Also, if Nearchos did what he said he did, he couldn't possibly have been there. He most likely hugged the coast, as ancient seafarers did; and was traveling from Pakistan: no way he would have crossed a large tract of open sea to Arabia and then double back."]

¹⁵ [The Gulf of California. We might add any number of Red Rivers and Colorado's to the list.]

Source:
Adapted from text digitized at the University of Chicago library.

This file is available at: https://www.webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/ref/Browne.html
Original source available at: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/pseudodoxia/pseudo69.html