THIRAS (Hebr. Tīrās). — The seventh of the sons of Iapheth in the table of the peoples (Gen. 10:2). Like the names of his brothers, e.g. Iavan, Madai, etc., it indicates some western people, perhaps Indo-European.
An association has been proposed with the “Thracians,” Θρᾶξες (the Vergānlu transcribe T. with targī); with the river Τύρας (Herodotus, IV, 11), that is, the Dniester; with the Τυραγνῶ, or Τυραγνῶ, the “Tyrrhenians,” or “Etruscans”; and with the Egyptian name trv-rw-š'.
BIBL.: M. Burchardi, Die altbamian. Fremdw. und Eigenw. im Aegypt., Berlino 1910, pp. 11–12.
Giovanni Rinaldi