ERYTHRAS the forgotten son of perseus and andromeda
bro like deadass its wild that this random dude has SO MUCH lore compared to the other kids. honestly I would love to see a retelling that folds Perses, Erthras and the versions of perseus where he rules Persia all into one retelling where all the myths are attributed to Perses. HEAR ME OUT tho it is a cool idea if he travels WITH perses, and the two are a duo. anyway here are the myths and sources and cites if you want but tldr lions madness lions eat jorse guy builds rafts something persia "a Persian of the name of Erythras constructed a raft, and was the first person who crossed the sea to it; perceiving the island to be well adapted for inhabitants, he drove the herd back to Persia, and sent out colonists both to this and the other islands and to the coast. He [thus] gave his own name to the sea. But according to others, it was Erythras the son of Perseus who was the king of this country" -strabo
"The Greeks call the Red Sea the Erythra Thalassa either because it is that color or because Erythras ruled there as king. It is a stormy, rough sea, and deep; it has monsters to a greater extent than all the other seas///but Ogyris is more famous than all the others because the funerary monument of King Erythras is on it" -Pomponius Mela, Chorographia
" The sea then makes a two-fold indentations in the land upon these coasts, under the name of Rubrum or "Red," given to it by our countrymen; while the Greeks have called it Erythrum, from king Erythras, or, according to some writers, from its red colour,///Opposite to this place, in the main sea, lies the island of Ogyris, famous for being the burial-place of king Erythras/// ] Danaus "*(THE TIMELINE NOOO)" first came from Egypt to Greece by ship; before that time rafts were used for navigation, having been invented by King Erythras for use between the islands in the Red Sea." -pliny the elder
"Above the Pelusiac mouth is Arabia, which extends to the Red Sea. Varro says this sea was named Erythraeum not for the colour alone, but after king Erythras, son of Perseus and Andromeda" -Solinus, Polyhistor
"The author learned this from a Persian man. "Boxus," he said, was his name—someone who, Greek in both language and mind, left his homeland and lived in Athens. The Persian’s account was as follows:
There was once a man renowned for his boldness and wealth, named Erythras, a Persian by birth, son of Myozzus." *(hey that's not perseus! btw there's a part where the writer debates it being perseus but I dunno I lost the quote or something)" He owned a settlement not far from the sea, located opposite some islands, which are no longer deserted today but were so in the time of the Median Empire, when even Frythras (another figure) was known. Erythras used to spend the winters in Pasargadae, but in the spring he returned to his own estates—partly for practical reasons, partly to enjoy some pleasure in the change of surroundings.
One day, when lions attacked his rather large herd of mares, some of the horses were indeed killed, but the rest—still alive and frightened either by what they saw or driven by panic—ran toward the sea. As a strong wind happened to be blowing from the land at the time, they leapt into the waves out of fear. At first, they swam along the shore, but since the terror did not subside, they were soon swept away by the force of the waters and barely reached the opposite island. With them crossed one of the herdsmen, a young man of remarkable courage, who, now grabbing one horse, now another, held on by the bridle.
Erythras, searching for the mares that had vanished from sight, became the first man in that region to construct a raft—not large in size, but of very solid construction—and, catching a favorable and steady wind, he launched it into the strait. Quickly propelled by the water, he discovered both the horses and the herdsman.
Amazed by the island, he then built a town there, conveniently located by the harbor. He also brought over people from the mainland, who were suffering from poverty, to settle there. From that settlement, he went on to populate the rest of the nearby islands, which had been empty of inhabitants. He gained so much fame among the common people for these deeds that even to this day that vast sea is called the Erythraean Sea.
Therefore, the reasons given for the sea's name must be clearly distinguished (for there is a great difference between calling it the Erythraean Sea and the Red Sea—the former refers to the man who ruled over that sea, the latter to the supposed red color of the water). The explanation derived from the color is false (for the sea is not actually red); the correct explanation is the one that traces the name to the man who ruled there, as the Persian account confirms. ///Perseus, having set out to rescue the daughter of Cepheus, and from there having crossed over to the Persians, is said to have shared this name (Erythra) with some of the sons along with the Persians: namely, having begotten a son named Erythras, from whom the sea was named. Such, therefore, is also the Argive prophecy concerning the Erythraean Sea.///think Orthagoras should not be distinguished from Pythagoras, whose "Indus sayings" Rhlianus XVI, 35 mentions, and whom Strabo (p. 766) brings as witness together with Onesicritus concerning the Ogyride island in the Persian Gulf and the tomb of King Erythras,/// Agatharchides reports that a citizen of Echinos, a certain Boxus, [a Persian] by birth, recorded that a Persian of Erythra, a cavalryman, driven mad by a lioness’ madness, escaped up to the sea, and from there to an island, making a raft, and was the first to cross to the island; seeing it to be pleasantly habitable, he drove the herd to Persia again and sent away the stray ones to other islands and the coast, and named the sea after himself. That the Red Sea was said to be named after the son of Perseus Agatharchides attributes to fables."-Agatharchides, On the Erythraean Sea
