Achaemenes ( peo,
𐏃𐎧𐎠𐎶𐎴𐎡𐏁 ; grc,
Ἀχαιμένης ; la,
Achaemenes) was the
apical ancestor of the
Achaemenid dynasty
The Achaemenid dynasty ( Old Persian: ; Persian: ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) was an ancient Persian royal dynasty that ruled the Achaemenid Empire, an Iranian empire that stretched from Egypt and Southeastern Europe in the west to the In ...
of rulers of
Persia.
Other than his role as an apical ancestor, nothing is known of his life or actions. It is quite possible that Achaemenes was only the mythical ancestor of the
Persian royal house, but if Achaemenes was a historical person, he would have lived around the end of the 8th century and the beginning of the 7th century BC.
[.]
Name
The name used in European languages ( grc-gre, Ἀχαιμένης ('), la, Achaemenes) ultimately derives from
Old Persian
Old Persian is one of the two directly attested Old Iranian languages (the other being Avestan language, Avestan) and is the ancestor of Middle Persian (the language of Sasanian Empire). Like other Old Iranian languages, it was known to its native ...
' (), as found together with
Elamite (''Ha-ak-ka-man-nu-iš'' or ''Hâkamannuiš'') and
Akkadian (''A-ḫa-ma-ni-iš-ʾ'') in the non-contemporaneous trilingual
Behistun Inscription of
Darius I
Darius I ( peo, 𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎺𐎢𐏁 ; grc-gre, Δαρεῖος ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was a Persian ruler who served as the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his ...
. The Old Persian proper name is traditionally derived from ' "friend" and ' "thinking power", yielding "having a friend's mind."
A more recent interpretation reads ' as "follower", giving "characterized by a follower's spirit."
[.] The name is spelled (''Haxâmaneš'') in
Modern Persian.
Historicity
In the
Behistun inscription (''c.'' 490 BC),
Darius I
Darius I ( peo, 𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎺𐎢𐏁 ; grc-gre, Δαρεῖος ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was a Persian ruler who served as the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his ...
portrays Achaemenes as the father of
Teispes, ancestor of
Cyrus II (Cyrus the Great) and
Darius I
Darius I ( peo, 𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎺𐎢𐏁 ; grc-gre, Δαρεῖος ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was a Persian ruler who served as the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his ...
.
The mid-5th century BC ''Histories'' (7.11) of Herodotus has essentially the same story, but fuses two parallel lines of descent from "Teispes son of Achaemenes". Beyond such brief mentions of the name, nothing is known of the figure behind it, neither from indigenous sources nor from historiographic ones. It may be that Achaemenes was just a mythical ancestor, not a historical one.
Many scholars believe he was a ruler of
Parsumash, a vassal state of the
Median Empire
The Medes (Old Persian: ; Akkadian: , ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) were an ancient Iranian people who spoke the Median language and who inhabited an area known as Media between western and northern Iran. Around the 11th century BC, the ...
, and that from there he led armies against the
Assyrian king
Sennacherib in 681 BC.
Behistun inscription
It may be that the
Behistun inscription's claim of descent from Achaemenes was an invention of Darius I, in order to justify the latter's seizure of the throne. Cyrus II does not mention Achaemenes at all in the detailed genealogy given in the
Cyrus cylinder.
While the patronym ''haxāmanišiya''—"of
he clan of
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
Achaemenes"—does appear in an inscription at
Pasargadae
Pasargadae (from Old Persian ''Pāθra-gadā'', "protective club" or "strong club"; Modern Persian: ''Pāsārgād'') was the capital of the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great (559–530 BC), who ordered its construction and the location of ...
attributed to Cyrus II, this inscription may have been written on the order of Darius I after Cyrus' death.
[ Bruce Lincoln. Religion, empire, and torture: the case of Achaemenian Persia, 2007, University of Chicago Press, Page 4–5] As such, Achaemenes could be a retrograde creation of Darius the Great,
made in order to legitimize a dynastic relationship to Cyrus the Great. Darius certainly had much to gain in having an ancestor shared by Cyrus and himself (however, Teispes was already one), and may have felt the need for a stronger connection than that provided by his subsequent marriage to Cyrus' daughter
Atossa.
Greek writers
The Greek writers of antiquity preserve several legends surrounding the figure:
[.] The Pseudo-Platonic dialogue ''
First Alcibiades'' (120e), written in the late 4th-century BC, portrays Achaemenes as the hero-founder of the Persái in the same way that the Greeks are descended from
Heracles, and that both Achaemenes and Hercules were sons of
Perseus
In Greek mythology, Perseus (Help:IPA/English, /ˈpɜːrsiəs, -sjuːs/; Greek language, Greek: Περσεύς, Romanization of Greek, translit. Perseús) is the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty. He was, alongside Cadmus ...
, son of
Zeus. Another version of the tale makes Achaemenes the son of
Aegeus, yet another founder-hero of legend. The 3rd-century
Aelianus (''De nat. anim.'' 12.21) says Achaemenes was bred by an eagle.
See also
*
Achaemenid family tree
References
{{Achaemenid rulers
7th-century BC Iranian people
7th-century BC rulers in Asia
Achaemenid dynasty
People whose existence is disputed