Arteans: Persian's Native Name. Persians, Perses, Perseus & Cephenes

Artaeans: Persians' Native Name & Cephenes
Herodotus Histories (7.61.2):
Translation by George Rawlinson: "...This people was known to the Greeks in ancient times by the name of Cephenians; but they called themselves and were called by their neighbours, Artaeans."
Translation by A. D. Godley: "...They were formerly called by the Greeks Cephenes, but by themselves and their neighbours Artaei."

Greek: καὶ ἄρχοντα παρείχοντο Ὀτάνεα τὸν Ἀμήστριος πατέρα τῆς Ξέρξεω γυναικός, ἐκαλέοντο δὲ πάλαι ὑπὸ μὲν Ἑλλήνων Κηφῆνες, ὑπὸ μέντοι σφέων αὐτῶν καὶ τῶν περιοίκων Ἀρταῖοι.

Transcription: kaí árchonta pareíchonto Otánea tón Amí̱strios patéra tí̱s Xérxeo̱ gynaikós, ekaléonto dé pálai ypó mén Ellí̱no̱n Ki̱fí̱nes, ypó méntoi sféo̱n a̓f̱tó̱n kaí tó̱n perioíko̱n Artaíoi..

Notes (Reginald Walter Macan) at Perseus:
Κηφῆνες: Strabo 42 οἱ δὲ πλάττοντες Ἐρεμβοὺς ἴδιόν τι ἔθνος Αἰθιοπικὸν καὶ ἄλλο Κηφήνων καὶ τρίτον Πυγμαίων καὶ ἄλλα μυρία ἦττον ἂν πιστεύοιντο, πρὸς τῷ μὴ άξιοπίστῳ καὶ σύγχυσίν τινα ἐμφαίνοντες τοῦ μυθικοῦ καὶ ἱστορικοῦ σχήματος. The ‘Kephenes’ (Cephenes) are here not in very good company. Andromeda is the daughter of Kepheus (c. 150 infra), and the ‘Kephenes’ are no doubt (as with Ovid, Metamorph. 5. 1, 97) the followers of Kepheus (or Kepheus is eponym of the Kephenes, irregularly, for why not Kepheioi, or Kephen?). Further items in the mythical pedigree are set forth c. 150 infra, 6. 53, 54 (cp. my notes ad ll.) and 1. 7. The pedigree here assumed does not, however, expressly contradict that in 1. 7 (as Stein suggests) but rather that in 6. 53. Rawlinson can discern “no ray of truth in the fables respecting Perseus”*; Blakesley observes that Hdt. is here drawing “not from Persian but from Greek sources” (Hekataios? cp. Introduction, § 10). Stein well explains all Hdt. means as being that the Kephenes known to old Greek story are to be identified with the people now known as Persians. Kepheus, however, certainly does not represent ‘Assyria’ (Ninos) any more than Babylonia (Belos): but why not the primitive, pre-Phoenician inhabitants of Canaan? (or Elam?) Steph. B. sub v. Ἰόπη has οἱ Ἔλληνες κακῶς φασιν: ἀφ᾽ οὖ Κηφῆνες οἱ Αἰθίοπες (i.e. ‘eastern Aethiopians’): again, sub v. Χαλδαῖοι: οἱ πρὸτερον Κηφῆνες. The authority for this was Hellanikos, in the first Book of his Persica, who thus differed from Hdt. on the point.

Ἀρταῖοι (Artaíoi) has a genuine ring about it, from its obvious connexion with arta — ἔσχε, ‘had to wife.’

αὐτοῦ, ‘on the spot’: but where was it? The Perseus-Andromeda myth laid the scene in Phoenicia (Steph. B. sub v. Ἰόπη), or perhaps in Babylon (Hellanikos?). The vagueness here is necessary, Hdt. not having courage to lay the scene actually in Persia.which appears in many Persian names: Artaios itself as a proper name cc. 22 supra, 66, 117 infra, and in the Ktesian list of Median kings (cp. Gilmore, Ktesias, p. 92). The most valuable gloss on the name is in Steph. Byz. Ἀρταῖα: Περσικὴ χώρα, τὴν ἐπόλισε Περσεύς (sic), ὸ Περσὲως καὶ Ἀνδρομέδας: Ἑλλάνικος ἐν Περσικῶν πρώτῃ. οἱ οἰκοῦντες Ἀρταῖοι. Ἀρταίοὺς δὲ Πέρσαι ὤσπερ οι<*> Ἔλληνες τοὺς παλαιοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἥρωας καλοῦσι, κτλ. This article shows a source common to Hdt. and Hellanikos. Rawlinson's “most probable account” of the word, connecting it with Afarti, “which is not an Arian name at all,” seems far-fetched. Ed. Meyer (ap. Pauly-Wissowa ii. 1303) sees in it a distortion of the ‘Arian’ name itself.

Persians from Perses
Herodotus Histories (7.61.3):
Translation by George Rawlinson: "It was not till Perseus, the son of Jove and Danae, visited Cepheus the son of Belus, and, marrying his daughter Andromeda, had by her a son called Perses (whom he left behind him in the country because Cepheus had no male offspring), that the nation took from this Perses the name of Persians."
Translation by A. D. Godley: "When Perseus son of Danae and Zeus had come to Cepheus son of Belus and married his daughter Andromeda, a son was born to him whom he called Perses, and he left him there; for Cepheus had no male offspring; it was from this Perses that the Persians took their name."

Godley's notes: Herodotus is always prone to base ethnological conclusions on Greek legends and the similarity of names; so in the next chapter Medea supplies the name of the Medes. But it is strange that Perseus, being commonly held great-grandfather of Heracles, is here made to marry the granddaughter of Belus, who in Hdt. 1.7, is Heracles' grandson.

Greek: ἐπεὶ δὲ Περσεὺς ὁ Δανάης τε καὶ Διὸς ἀπίκετο παρὰ Κηφέα τὸν Βήλου καὶ ἔσχε αὐτοῦ τὴν θυγατέρα Ἀνδρομέδην, γίνεται αὐτῷ παῖς τῷ οὔνομα ἔθετο Πέρσην, τοῦτον δὲ αὐτοῦ καταλείπει: ἐτύγχανε γὰρ ἄπαις ἐὼν ὁ Κηφεὺς ἔρσενος γόνου. ἐπὶ τούτου δὴ τὴν ἐπωνυμίην ἔσχον.

Transcription: epeí dé Persèf̱s o Danái̱s te kaí Diós apíketo pará Ki̱féa tón Ví̱lou kaí ésche a̓f̱toú tí̱n thygatéra Andromédi̱n, gínetai a̓f̱tó̱ país tó̱ oúnoma étheto Pérsi̱n, toúton dé a̓f̱toú kataleípei:̱ etýnchane gár ápais eó̱n o Ki̱fèf̱s érsenos gónou. epí toútou dí̱ tí̱n epo̱nymíi̱n éschon.