Aschenez
Aschenez is a legendary character to which the foundation of the town of Reggio of Calabria is allotted.
One identifies it with Achkénaze, quoted in the Bible (Genesis, 10,2-3), wire of Gomère, therefore great-grandson of Noah. According to the rabbinical tradition, the Ashkénazes, one of the two principal branches of the Jewish people, would go down from Achkénaze.
Indeed, the Jewish historian Flavius Josèphe affirms in the first book of the Jewish Antiquités that Aschenez, in truth, gave rise to the “Aschenazi” that the Greeks call today “Reggini” .
This was taken again by holy Jerome which, in Quaestiones hebraicae in Genesin , confirms that the “Reggini”, called thus by the Greeks, were well the direct descendants of Aschenez, therefore the Aschenazi .
Such sources fed the legend according to which the Greeks would have simply colonized the “urbs has diluvio condita”, the city based starting from the flood, by this Jewish merchant (also at the origin of the rowing boat), made on the shores of Italy three generations after the universal flood, i.e. when water which had submerged the mountains was drained. The city would have been founded in the 2000 year old neighborhoods before J-C. It is starting from this legend that the name of Aschenez was given to one streets of the center town.