User:Maitravaruna/Etymology of Hispania

In the ancient Latin sources the Iberian Peninsula is called Hispania (Greek writers used more often the term Iberia); but Hispania is not a term of Latin origin.

Pompeius Trogus.....

Most of former hypothesis have little documentary support. No doubt, in all Latin, Greek and later written sources, the name is derived from a mythical being called Hispano, Hispalo or Espan. The Spanish historian Roberto Matesanz Gascón argues, after analyzing the existing written sources, that Hispano or Espan is an ancient Semitic deity: B'l Spn ("the Lord of the Saphon", a mythical mount in the Phoenician mythology). There was a Mount Saphon near Gadir (Cádiz), the most important Phoenician center in the Iberian Peninsula, and the written sources consider to Hispano or Espan king of Cádiz, and fellow of Herakles (the Phoenician god Melkart, whose shrine in Gadir was well-known in all the Mediterranean world). According to Matesanz Gascón, the term "Hispania" meant in origin "Saphon's coast" or "Saphon's island", in allusion to the coastline of the Mount Saphon of Gadir, the first Spanish territory known by the Phoenician (and perhaps, Greek) sailors. As knowledge of the territory was expanding, the term was being applied to new territories of Iberia, until include all the Peninsula. This hypothesis explains the quotes to Hispano or Espan in the written sources, and integrates her with the Phoenician origin of the term Hispania, being until now by and large the most complete hypothesis formulated on the origin of the term "Hispania", because integrates the analysis of Latin, Greek and Mediaeval sources.