Epher

Epher (Punic: 𐤏𐤐𐤓 ʿAfir; Hebrew: עֵפֶר ʿĒp̄er) was a descendant of Abraham mentioned in the book of Genesis as the second son of Midian and, therefore, a grandson of Abraham through his wife Keturah.^[1]

According to the Antiquities of the Jews by the first-century Judean historian Flavius Josephus, the descendants of Epher migrated westward and eventually conquered present-day Northwest Africa. Josephus further reported that the name Africa itself was derived etymologically from the name Epher.^[2]

In another layer of post-biblical tradition, the Hellenistic Judean historian Cleodemus Malchus, whose work is preserved in fragments by later writers such as Alexander Polyhistor and Eusebius, claimed that Epher’s daughter married the mythological hero Heracles.^[3]