🔼The name Chios: Summary
- Meaning
- Snowy Place
- Etymology
- From χιων (chion), snow, from χειμα (cheima), winter.
🔼The name Chios in the Bible
The name Chios occurs only once in the Bible, namely in Acts 20:15. It belongs to a Greek island, close to the Anatolian mainland, what is now Turkey, about halfway its western coast. It's the sixth largest island of Greece and tenth largest in the entire Mediterranean. Paul and company passed this island on their way from Mitylene to Samos and Miletus and ultimately Jerusalem.
In deep antiquity, Chios was dominated by the Minoans from Crete, but notably, after the Bronze Age Collapse (12th century BC), the island appears to have stayed free from Phoenician domination. In the seventh century BCE, it became Ionic and one of the twelve founding members of the Ionic League. It pioneered the minting of coins (see our article on Adramyttium) and its signature emblem was a Greek sphinx — which differs from the Egyptian one in that it is feminine rather than masculine, and has wings like a Cherub or a δρακων (drakon), and devours whoever cannot answer her riddles (something comparable happens in the Samson cycle: Judges 14:19). The Greek sphynx was held to be a daughter of the monstrous Chimera.
From the sixth century on, Chios began to experiment with democracy (see our article on Athens). It fell to Persian domination in the latter half of that century, but freed itself in the first half of the fifth.
In the Roman period, Chios was famed for its marble. King Herod the Great was involved with and funded some building projects on the island, most notable a Stoa or colonnade, where people taught (the name Stoic comes from such a colonnade). Significantly, a strong and ancient tradition holds that the poet Homer was either born on Chios of lived there.
🔼Etymology of the name Chios
The name Chios comes from deep antiquity so we can only guess what the original name-givers had in mind. Popularly, our name was explained via the name via Chios (Χιος, Chios), son of Poseidon, who was born when snow was falling, or via any of the nymphs called Chione (Χιονη, Chione), from χιων (chion), snow, from χειμα (cheima), winter:
χειμα
The noun χειμα (cheima) means winter (the season), and thus winter weather, cold, frost and snow. This word is related to the term Χιμαιρα (Chimaira), which describes a fire-breathing monster, which was named after the noun χιμαιρα (chimaira), goat, a synonym of τραγος (tragos), also he-goat, from which comes the noun τραγωδια (tragodia), tragedy.
From the noun χειμα (cheima) comes the verb χειμαζω (cheimazo), to winter, the noun χειμων (cheimon), any winter phenomenon, and χιων (chion), snow. From the genitive of the latter comes χιονης (chiones), snowy or snow white (not used in the New Testament).
Note that in the Bible, snow is proverbial for whiteness, pureness and even sinlessness, whereas the signature purple of the Phoenicians had become synonymous with sin (Isaiah 1:18). Another Greek word for snow, namely νιφα (nipha), may have been noted as similar to νεφελη (nephele), cloud, and the verb νηφω (nepho), to be sober, to not be overwhelmed by alcohol but rather be self-contained, alert and wary. This verb is the opposite of μεθυω (methuo), to be drunk, from which comes the name Malta.
🔼Chios meaning
The name Chios means Snow, which may have been an epithet of a proverbially advanced civilization in terms of literature and democratic government, and subsequently a righteous society.