One of the three sons of Gomer, Japhet's son, i.e. of the Gomerian branch of the Japhetic division of the human race. Mentioned by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 51:27) in connection with Ararat and Minni, so that their locality then must have been the Armenan highland. (See ARARAT.) Their accompanying Cyrus to the siege of Babylon (588 B.C.) is there foretold. Probably a Cymric tribe. The name perhaps appears in Ascanias, a river in Asia Minor, and in Scandinavia. Knobel derives the German race from Ashkenaz, the name still given by the robbins to Germany. He derives the name from As (the original of As-ia) and genos, gens, "a race," our "kin." Hasse suggests a connection with Axenus, Euxine Sea.