I. Name
Thessalos (‘Thessalian’) is the eponymous hero of the Thessalians, the inhabitants of Thessaly in northern Greece. His name may be found in Thessalonike (modern Saloniki), the second city of modern Greece and already a place of importance by the time of Acts.
II. Identity
The Greeks often traced the beginnings of a tribe or a city to a significant person of mythic times (a ‘hero’; Heros) after whom that tribe or city was named (the ‘eponymous’ hero). The process is so old that some…