Note 811 — ANTIENT HEROES.

In the east, where the worship of Arez greatly prevailed, there were to be found many nations called after this manner. Part of Media, according to [811]Polybius, had the name of Parrhasia. There were also Parrhasii and Parrhasini in [812]Sogdiana; and [813]the like near Caucasus: also a town named [814]Parasinum in the Tauric Chersonesus. The people styled [815]Parrhasians in Greece were the same as the Dorians and Heraclidæ; all alike Cuthites, as were the antient Persians. Hence it is truly said by Plato, that the Heraclidæ in Greece, and the Achæmenidæ among the Persians were of the same stock: [816]Το δε Ἡρακλεους τε γενος και το Αχαιμενεους εις Περσεα τον Διος αναφερεται. On this account [817]Herodotus makes Xerxes claim kindred with the Argives of Greece, as being equally of the posterity of Perses, the same as Perseus, the Sun: under which character the Persians described the patriarch, from whom they were descended. Perseus was the same as Mithras, whose sacred cavern was styled Perseüm.