Elishah

Who is Elishah?

Elishah was the son of Javan according to the Book of Genesis as well as the mediaeval, rabbinic Book of Jasher; he is said in Jasher to have been the ancestor of the "Almanim", possibly a reference to Germanic tribes. An older and more common traditions refers to him as a settler of Greece, particularly Elis in the Peloponese. The Greek Septuagint of Genesis 10 lists Elisa not only as the son of Javan, but also among the sons of Japheth, possibly a copyist's error.

Lusitanian mythology traditionally makes Elishah an ancestor and predecessor of Lusus, Lysias' own supposed tomb claiming that he was the first "cultivator" of Lusitania. Lusus' reign is traditionally placed in the sixteenth-fifteenth centuries BC, e.g., in the Livro Primeiro da Monarchia Lusitana. All this is debated; Lusus has also been described as coming before Lysias, who would thus be too late to be Elishah or vaguely at the same time, or even the same individual under different names. Lusus is sometimes called a son of Baccus and of the lineage of Lysias, or the other way around, or even a mere companion.