Asia

== Etymology ==
[[File:Gulf5..JPG|thumb|Ptolemy's Asia]]

The term "Asia" is believed to originate in the [[Bronze Age]] placename ''[[Assuwa]]'' ({{lang-hit|𒀸𒋗𒉿|translit=aš-šu-wa|link=yes}}) which originally referred only to a portion of northwestern [[Anatolia]]. The term appears in [[Hittite texts|Hittite records]] recounting how a confederation of Assuwan states including [[Troy]] unsuccessfully rebelled against the Hittite king [[Tudhaliya I]] around 1400 BCE.<ref name="Jablonka-Bryce">{{cite encyclopedia |last=McMahon |first=Gregory |year=2011 |editor-last1=Steadman |editor-first1=Sharon | editor-last2=McMahon | editor-first2=Gregory |encyclopedia=The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia |title=The Land and Peoples of Anatolia through Ancient Eyes |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195376142.013.0002
|page=21}}</ref><ref>Bossert, Helmut T., ''Asia'', Istanbul, 1946.</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Rose |first=Charles Brian|year=2013|title=The Archaeology of Greek and Roman Troy|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-76207-6|pages=108–109}}</ref> Roughly contemporary [[Linear B]] documents contain the term ''aswia'' ({{lang-gmy|𐀀𐀯𐀹𐀊|translit=a-si-wi-ja|link=yes}}), seemingly in reference to captives from the same area.<ref>{{harvnb|Ventris|Chadwick|1973|pp=410,536}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Collins |first1=Billie Jean |last2=Bachvarova |first2=Mary R. |last3=Rutherford |first3=Ian |title=Anatolian Interfaces: Hittites, Greeks and their Neighbours |date=28 March 2010 |publisher=Oxbow Books |isbn=978-1-78297-475-8 |page=120 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7KemAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT146 |language=en |quote=assuwa pylos "aswia" = Linear B A-si-wi-ja |access-date=7 March 2023 |archive-date=4 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221204010301/https://books.google.com/books?id=7KemAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT146 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Roman Empire - Asia (125 AD).svg|thumb|The province of [[Asia (Roman province)|Asia]] highlighted (in red) within the Roman Empire]]

[[Herodotus]] used the term Ἀσία in reference to [[Anatolia]] and the territory of the [[Achaemenid Empire|Persian Empire]], in contrast to Greece and Egypt. He reports that Greeks assumed that Asia was named after the wife of [[Prometheus]], but that [[Lydia]]ns say it was named after ''Asies'', son of Cotys, who passed the name on to a tribe at [[Sardis]].<ref>Book IV, Article 45.</ref> In [[Greek mythology]], "Asia" (''Ἀσία'') or "Asie" (''Ἀσίη'') was the name of a "[[Nymph]] or [[Titan (mythology)|Titan]] goddess of Lydia".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NympheAsie.html |title=Asie |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia: Greek Gods, Spirits, Monsters |publisher=Theoi Greek Mythology, Exploring Mythology in Classical Literature and Art |date=2000–2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100604045105/http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NympheAsie.html |archive-date=4 June 2010}}</ref> The [[Iliad]] (attributed by the ancient Greeks to [[Homer]]) mentions two Phrygians in the [[Trojan War]] named [[Asius (mythology)|Asios]] (an adjective meaning "Asian");<ref>Μ95, Π717.</ref> and also a marsh or lowland containing a marsh in Lydia as {{lang|grc|ασιος}}.<ref>Β461.</ref>

The term was later adopted by the [[Roman people|Roman]]s, who used it in reference to the province of [[Asia (Roman province)|Asia]], located in western Anatolia.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D*%29asi%2Fa |title=Ἀσία |author=Henry George Liddell |author2=Robert Scott |author3=Henry Stuart Jones |author4=Roderick McKenzie |encyclopedia=A Greek-English Lexicon |year=2007 |location=Medford |publisher=Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University |orig-year=1940 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110427042823/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D*%29asi%2Fa |archive-date=27 April 2011}}</ref> One of the first writers to use Asia as a name of the whole continent was [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=Asia&allowed_in_frame=0|title=Asia – Origin and meaning of Asia by Online Etymology Dictionary|website=Etymonline.com|access-date=9 November 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525113914/http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=Asia&allowed_in_frame=0|archive-date=25 May 2017}}</ref>