Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical co ...

, Perses (;

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

: Πέρσης) was the son of Andromeda and

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 ...

. Perses was left in

Cossaei Cossaei () were a warlike tribe inhabiting a mountainous district called Cossaea (Κοσσαία), likely related to the Kassites, on the borders of Susiana to the south, and of Media Magna to the north. They were a hill tribe, and were armed with ...

and with the

Oceanid In Greek mythology, the Oceanids or Oceanides (; grc, Ὠκεανίδες, Ōkeanídes, pl. of grc, Ὠκεανίς, Ōkeanís, label=none) are the nymphs who were the three thousand (a number interpreted as meaning "innumerable") daughters o ...

Perse fathered descendants. Greek mythology identified Perses as the ancestor of the

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

ns. Apparently the Persians knew the story as Xerxes tried to use it to bribe the Argives during his invasion of Greece, but ultimately failed to do so.Herodotus vii.150 The (Pseudo-)Platonic dialogue ''

First Alcibiades The ''First Alcibiades'', also referred to as ''Alcibiades Major'' and abbreviated as ''Alcibiades I'' ( el, Ἀλκιβιάδης αʹ), is a dialogue depicting Socrates in conversation with Alcibiades. It is ascribed to Plato, although scholars ...

'' (120e), written in the late 4th-century BC, identifies him with

Achaemenes Achaemenes ( peo, 𐏃𐎧𐎠𐎶𐎴𐎡𐏁 ; grc, Ἀχαιμένης ; la, Achaemenes) was the apical ancestor of the Achaemenid dynasty of rulers of Persia. Other than his role as an apical ancestor, nothing is known of his life or ac ...

as the hero-founder of the Persái, stating both Achaemenes and Heracles were sons of Perseus.

Notes

{{greek-myth-stub Perseid dynasty Characters in Greek mythology