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No historical conclusions can be drawn from this confused jumble of myths and names. The Cephenes are a mythical people identified with the Eastern Ethiopians (Apollod. ii. 4. 3). Possibly H. means them to be Assyrians (vi. 54), and then by a further confusion connects the Assyrians with their successors in the lordship of Asia (cf. ch. 11. 4), the Medes and Persians. But the explanation of the whole matter is the likeness of the names Περσεύς and Πέρσης, which led the Greeks to make the eponymous Πέρσης son of Perseus (vii. 150. 2; cf. i. 125. 3; vii. 220. 4), and then, since Perses is related to Cepheus, to identify the Persians and the Cephenes. This genealogy is inconsistent with that given in i. 7, since Belus is grandfather (in-law) to Perseus, and Perseus great-grandfather to Heracles, and yet (in i. 7) Belus is grandson of Heracles. Cf. also vi. 54 n.

Ἀρταῖοι (a proper name; cf. 22. 2, 66. 2): derived from arta, high, noble, good. Cf. Artaxerxes (vi. 98. 3 n.), Artabanus, &c. Perhaps it is connected with Ἄριοι (E. Meyer in Pauly-Wissowa, ii. 1303). Hellanicus invented from it a region of Persia, Ἀρταία (Steph. Byz.).

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