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Μῆδοι δέ answers Πέρσαι μέν, c. 61.
Μηδικὴ γάρ: cp. 6. 112.
Τιγράνην ἄνδρα Ἀχαιμενίδην: son of Artabanos, 8. 26 infra, commanded and fell at Mykale, 9. 96, 102.
Ἄριοι: the title not of ‘Medes’ alone, but of all the Aryan, or Iranian conquering stocks: so Strabo 724 ἐπεκτείνεται τοὔνομα τῆς Ἀριανῆς μέχρι μέρους τινὸς καὶ Περσῶν καὶ Μήδων καὶ ἔτι τῶν πρὸς ἄρκτον Βακτρίων καὶ Σογδιανῶν. Sanskr. ârya, old Persian ariya. Dareios, on his tomb at Naksh-i-Rustam, describes himself as “Achaimenid, Persian, son of a Persian, Arian, of Arian seed,” so Stein: only the first three designations appear in H. F. Talbot's translation, Records of the Past, v. 151. It seems a paradox to say that the title has nothing to do with Ἄρειοι, c. 66 infra, q. v. ἀπικομένης δὲ Μηδείης κτλ.: the story is given more fully in Pausanias, 2. 3, 8; the connexion of Medeia with Aigeus is “old-Attic prae-Euripidean” saga: Hitzig-Bluemner, after Wilamowitz, Hermes, xv. 481 ff. The statement that the Arians changed their name to Medes in consequence of the advent of Medeia among them is here expressly assigned by Hdt. to Median authority; αὐτοὶ περὶ σφέων ὦδε λέγουσι Μῆδοι, a truly incredible assertion, bearing the impress of an Hellenic fabrication, and irreconcilable with the fact that the real name of the Medes was Mada. A hellenized Mede or Persian, now and then, may have been persuaded to accept such Greek fictions; but this confident assertion of Hdt.'s is a good illustration of the illusory character of his Quellenangaben. Cp. Introduction, § 10
Κίσσιοι: undoubtedly the inhabitants of Susiana, or Kissia, that is Elam, forming with the Persians and Medes the élite of the imperial army, cp. c. 210 infra; 5. 49, 52, 6. 119 (with my notes ad ll.); cp. also 3. 91 ἀπὸ Σούσων δὲ καὶ τῆς ἄλλης Κισσίων χώρης κτλ. Kissia formed a separate satrapy, perhaps embarrassed by containing one of the royal residences (its acquisition for the Persian dynasty dated probably from the days of Teispes; cp. c. 11 supra).
ἀντὶ δὲ τῶν πίλων μιτρηφόροι. The equipment of the Elamites differed from that of the Medes and Persians in but one respect; instead of the (Median?) fez they wore a (Babylonian?), ‘fillet’ or head-band. Is not this the head-dress of the guards upon the Susan frieze, verily, a bit of local colour! (Cp. Maspero, iii. 516.) A μίτρα is worn by the Kypriote princes, c. 90 infra, as by the Babylonians, 1. 195. It was something more than a fillet, and less than a turban, but was to a Greek the mark of effeminacy; ep. Aristoph. Thesm. 898. But the word is good Greek apparently, known to Homer as the warrior's girdle, Il. 4. 137, distinct from the ζωστήρ.
Ἀνάφης ὁ Ὀτάνεω is unknown to fame; but he was presumably the king's brother-in-law, cp. cc. 40, 61 supra. When Hdt. wrote Bk. 7 he knew perhaps of only one Otanes, the greatest of the name, though without knowing his patronymic. When he came to write Bks. 1-6 he learnt the existence of a second Otanes, and the patronymics of both. The non-occurrence of the patronymic of Otanes in this book is at least as significant, for the problem of composition, as the occurrence of patronymics in other cases; cp. cc. 1, 3, 5, etc. supra, and Introduction, § 7. Ὑρκάνιοι: not enumerated in the list of satrapies (in Bk. 3), and only once elsewhere mentioned in Hdt. (3. 117). Hyrcania was better known in Roman than in Greek times, probably because it was of more account in the Parthian than in the Persian empire; its position is indicated in Hdt. l.c., and more exactly by Strabo, 507 ff., et al., as lying between the Kaspian Sea and Parthia, to the east of Media. The Kaspian was also known as the Hyrcanian sea (Propert. 2. 30, 20). Strabo describes Hyrkania as σφόδρα εὐδαίμων ... καὶ τὸ πλέον πεδιὰς πόλεσί τε ἀξιολόγοις διειλημμένη—but a great part of the country must have been mountainous and rough, and the Hyrcani are still a gens valida in the days of Nero (cp. Tac. Ann. 15. 1, etc.). Abicht says that Vehrkâna is the Zend form, O.P. Varkâna, and that it means Wolf's-land (Hyrcanae tigres, Verg. Aen. 4. 367). The form Ὑρκανοί ap. Steph. B.
ἐσεσάχατο: the pluperfect appears to have little special force; the word, or formula, recurs cc. 70, 73, 86 infra; otherwise the word σάττω habet sua fata apud Hdt. Cp. 5. 34 (with my note) and 3. 7, where σάξαντες is a conjecture. ἡγεμόνα=ἄρχοντα. Μεγάπανον: as satrap (ἐπίτροπος） of Babylon, a great man; did he precede, or succeed, Tritantaichmes? Cp. c. 82 infra.
Hdt.'s ὕστερον τούτων is rather indefinite; the ταῦτα might refer to the Hyrkanian command, or more vaguely to the Persian war; the length of the interval is not specified, nor whether his promotion was connected with his services in the war.
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