The horses are called Nesaean because there is in Media a wide plain of that name, where the great horses are bred.

Behind these ten horses was the place of the sacred chariot of Zeus,That is, of Ormuzd. drawn by eight white horses, with the charioteer following the horses on foot and holding the reins; for no mortal man may mount into that seat. After these came Xerxes himself in a chariot drawn by Nesaean horses; beside him was his charioteer, whose name was Patiramphes, the son of Otanes, a Persian.