Note 809 — ANTIENT HEROES.

Bochart thinks that the name both of Persis and Perseus was from פרס, Paras, an Horse: because the Persians were celebrated horsemen, and took great delight in that animal. But it must be considered that the name is very antient, and prior to this use of horses. P'aras, P'arez, and P'erez, however diversified, signify the Sun; and are of the same analogy as P'ur, P'urrhos, P'oros, which betoken fire. Every animal, which was in any degree appropriated to a Deity, was called by some sacred [809]title. Hence an horse was called P'arez: and the same name, but without the prefix, was given to a lion by many nations in the east. It was at first only a mark of reference, and betokened a solar animal, specifying the particular Deity to whom it was sacred. There were many nations, which were distinguished in the same manner; some of whom the Greeks styled Parrhasians. Hence the antient Arcadians, those Selenitæ, who were undoubtedly an Amonian colony, had this appellation. A people in Elis had the same. The Poets described the constellation of Helice, or the Bear, by the title of Parrhasis, Arctos, and Parrhasis Ursa. This asterism was confessedly first taken notice of by Perez or Perseus, by which is meant the Persians.