Ταρτησσός

English (LSJ)

ὁ, Tartessos, Hdt.1.163, elsewhere ἡ:—a district of Spain at the mouth of the Baetis, the Tarshish of Scripture (Θαρσείς in LXX 3 Ki.10.22, al.), Hdt.l.c., Arist.Mir.844a17, Str.3.2.11, etc.: also the river Baetis, Stesich.5 (ap.Str.l.c.):—hence Ταρτήσσιος, α, ον, Tartessian, Hdt.4.192, Ar.Ra.475; Ταρτήσσιοι, οἱ, Hdt.1.163, etc.

French (Bailly abrégé)

οῦ (ὁ) :
Tartessos :
1 anc. v. d'Espagne, à l'embouchure du Bétis;
2 le fl. Bétis.

Greek (Liddell-Scott)

Ταρτησσός: ὁ, Ἡρόδ. 1. 163, ἀλλαχοῦ ἡ· ― πόλις τῆς Ἰβηρίας (Ἱσπανίας) παρὰ τὸ στόμιον τοῦ Βαίτιος (Γουαδαλκουϊβέρου), ἡ Θαρσεῖς, Tarshish τῆς Γραφῆς, Ἡρόδ. ἔνθ’ ἀνωτ., Ἀριστ. π. Θαυμασ. 135. Στραβ. 148· ― Ταρτήσσιος, α, ον, κάτοικος Ταρτησσοῦ, Ἡρόδ. 4. 192, Ἀριστοφ. Βάτρ. 475· Ταρτήσσιοι, οἱ Ἡρόδ. 1. 163, κλπ.

Russian (Dvoretsky)

Ταρτησσός: ὁ Тартесс
1 тж. ἡ, библейский Таршиш, город в устье нын. Гвадалкивира Her.;
2 древнее название Гвадалкивира, лат. Baetis, Arst.

Wikipedia EN

Tarshish (Phoenician: 𐤕𐤓𐤔𐤔‎ TRŠŠ, Hebrew: תַּרְשִׁישׁ Taršīš, Greek: Θαρσείς, Tharseis) occurs in the Hebrew Bible with several uncertain meanings, most frequently as a place (probably a large city or region) far across the sea from Phoenicia (modern Lebanon) and the Land of Israel. Tarshish was said to have exported vast quantities of important metals to Phoenicia and Israel. The same place-name occurs in the Akkadian inscriptions of Esarhaddon (the Assyrian king, d. 669 BC) and also on the Phoenician inscription of the Nora Stone in Sardinia; its precise location was never commonly known, and was eventually lost in antiquity. Legends grew up around it over time so that its identity has been the subject of scholarly research and commentary for more than two thousand years.

Its importance stems in part from the fact that Hebrew biblical passages tend to understand Tarshish as a source of King Solomon's great wealth in metals – especially silver, but also gold, tin, and iron (Ezekiel 27). The metals were reportedly obtained in partnership with King Hiram of Phoenician Tyre (Isaiah 23), and fleets of ships from Tarshish.

Tarshish is also the name of a modern village in the Mount Lebanon District of Lebanon, and Tharsis is a modern village in Southern Spain.

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Tartessos (Spanish: Tarteso) is, as defined by archaeological discoveries, a historical civilization settled in the region of Southern Spain characterized by its mixture of local Paleohispanic and Phoenician traits. It had a proper writing system, identified as Tartessian, that includes some 97 inscriptions in a Tartessian language. In the historical records Tartessos (Greek: Ταρτησσός) or Tartessus appears as a antecessor semi-mythical harbor city and the surrounding culture on the south coast of the Iberian Peninsula (in modern Andalusia, Spain), at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River. It appears in sources from Greece and the Near East starting during the first millennium BC. Herodotus, for example, describes it as beyond the Pillars of Heracles (Strait of Gibraltar). Roman authors tend to echo the earlier Greek sources but from around the end of the millennium there are indications that the name Tartessos had fallen out of use and the city may have been lost to flooding, though several authors attempt to identify it with cities of other names in the area.

The Tartessians were rich in metal. In the 4th century BC the historian Ephorus describes "a very prosperous market called Tartessos, with much tin carried by river, as well as gold and copper from Celtic lands". Trade in tin was very lucrative in the Bronze Age, since it is an essential component of bronze and is comparatively rare. Herodotus refers to a king of Tartessos, Arganthonios, presumably named for his wealth in silver.

Pausanias wrote that Myron, the tyrant of Sicyon, built a treasury, which was called the treasury of the Sicyonians, to commemorate a victory in the chariot-race at the Olympic games. In the treasury he made two chambers with two different styles, one Dorian and one Ionic, with bronze. The Eleans said that the bronze was Tartessian.

The people from Tartessos became important trading partners of the Phoenicians, whose presence in Iberia dates from the 8th century BC and who nearby built a harbor of their own, Gadir (Greek: Γάδειρα, Latin: Gades, present-day Cádiz).