A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

DAREUS or DARI'US (Δαρεῖος, Δαρειαῖος, Ctes., Heb. i. e. Daryavesh), the name of several kings of Persia. Like such names in general, it is no doubt a significant title. Herodotus (6.98) says that it means ἑρξείης; but the meaning of this Greek word is doubtful. Some take it to be a form fabricated by Herodotus himself, for ῥεξίας or πρηκτήρ, from the root ερψ (do), meaning the person who achieves great things; but it is more probably derived from ἑίρψω (restrain), in the sense of the ruler. In modern Persian Dara or Darab means lord, which approaches very near to the form seen in the Perscpolitan inscription, Dareush or Daryush (where the sh is no doubt an adjective termination), as well as to the Hebrew form. Precisely the same result is obtained from a passage of Strabo (xvi. p.785), who mentions, among the changes which names suffer in passing from one language to another, that Δαρεῖος is a corruption of Δαρειήκης, or, as Salmasius has corrected it, of Δαριαύης, that is Daryav. This view also explains the form Δαρειαῖος used by Ctesias. The introduction of the y sound after the r in these forms is explained by Grotefend. Some writers have fancied that Herodotus, in saying that Δαρεῖος means ἑρξείης, and that Ξέρξης means ἀρήϊος, was influenced in the choice of his words by their resemblance to the names; and they add, as if it were a matter of course, the simple fact, which contradicts their notion, that the order of correspondence must be inverted. (Bähr, Annot. ad loc. ) The matter is fully discussed in Grotefend's Beilage zu Hccren's Ideen (Asiatic Researches, vol. ii. Append. ii.)