Histories

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.[*](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.)

The Medes in the army were equipped like the Persians; indeed, that fashion of armor is Median, not Persian. Their commander was Tigranes, an Achaemenid. The Medes were formerly called by everyone Arians,[*](Modern philology gives the name “Aryan” of course a very much wider extension; which indeed was beginning even in the time of Strabo.) but when the Colchian woman Medea came from Athens [23.733,38] (inhabited place), Perifereia Protevousis, Greece, EuropeAthens to the Arians they changed their name, like the Persians. This is the Medes' own account of themselves.