THARSIS. - A maritime city (or region) frequently mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, located in the far West (Is. 66, 19), in the direction of the "islands" (Ps. 71, 13).

The Hebrew Tartīš is identified with Ταρτήσσος, the Ταρσήβον of Polybius (III, 24, 2), in Spain: Tartessus on the Baetis or Guadalquivir (Herodotus, I, 163; IV, 152). It was a wealthy colony of Tyre (Is. 23; Ez. 27, 12), famous for its commerce (ibid. 38, 13); silver was extracted there (Ier. 10, 9). Often in the Old Testament there is mention of "ships of T.", large ships used for long voyages (I Reg. 10, 22; 22, 49; Is. 2, 16; Ez. 27, 25; Ps. 48, 8). In the table of nations, T. appears among the sons of Javan (Gen. 10, 4; I Par. 1, 7): "Ionians" of Greece and Asia Minor. The Greek version of the Septuagint, as a rule, transcribes the Hebrew term; in Ez. 27, 12, 25; Is. 23 it renders it as Καρχηδών (= Carthage).

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: S. De Auseyo, El problema de Tartessos, in Sefarad, 2 (1942), pp. 171-91; F. Spadafora, Ezechiele, 2nd ed., Turin 1951, pp. 212, 215.

Francesco Spadafora

@incollection{ec12_tharsis, author = {Spadafora, Francesco}, title = {Tharsis}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XII}, pages = {43}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1954}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/tharsis} }

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