Why are the people of Troy called Trojans?

[Theodosius the Great]

A better one: why is America called America, when it was Columbus who discover it? Ok, i know it was Americo Vespucci who said that the land discovered by Columbus wasn't asia (and some other guy gave the name of America in is map and everebody copied that), but it still seems unfair

Yes, but what's "fair" got to do with it ? :wink:

Actually, the Greeks and Romans seem to be the only ones who named continents, so we inherited their designations. "Europa" originally refered only to mainland Greece but was later expanded to include the whole continent. "Afri" refers to some (Berber ?) tribe in the Latin, or in the Greek means "without cold." Actually, the Greeks may have refered to Africa as "Libya." So, all three continents were named after mythological women.

Austrailia comes from Latin meaning "South" and Antartica is Greek for "opposite the Arctic."

I forget the name of the Greek who described the known world and subdivided it according to five races : Greeks, Persians, Libyans, Egyptians, and Barbarians. Or maybe the Persians were covered by "Barbarians." Hmm...someone will let us know momentarily I'm sure :wink:



Theo