Erythraean Sea

The Erythraean Sea(: எரிதிரை கடல்; Erythirai kadal) (Greek: Ερυθρά Θάλασσα; Erythra Thalassa) is one of the names found in ancient cartography. This name may have derived from the seasonal blooms of the red-coloured Trichodesmium erythraeum near the water's surface,and it must be noted that such kind of algea was first found during 17th century on the research based so the botanical named after the sea. The word Erithraean gives a perfect meaning as Burning sea in Tamil language, where Ery(Burning) + Thraean(wave or a long sea), the word "thirai" used in similar words like "Thirai kadal" which Means a long wave of sea, as the Greek "Ερυθρά" actually means "red".

In the third century, Flavius Philostratus made this comment: "And they say that the sea called Erythra or "red" is of a deep blue colour, but that it was so named, as I said before, from a King Erythras, who gave his own name to the sea in question."