Velikovsky and those ‘Peleset’. Part Three: Through Prism of Greek Mythology: Perses

 

 

John R. Salverda,

 

commenting on this series, has written:

 

Dear Damien,

 

Your latest article entitled ”Velikovsky and those ‘Peleset’“ deserves serious consideration.  I personally have never doubted Velikovsky’s identification between the Persians and the Peleset. Looking at it, as I do, through the prism of Greek mythology. 

 

Consider the relationship between the Danaans and the Pelasgians and then compare this to the similar relationship between the Danites and the Philistines. It is clear to me that the Pelasgians were the Philistines. And then add this to the widespread notion, held by the ancient Greeks, who lived in the days of the Persians and learned directly from them, that the Persians were the descendants, and were named after the son of Perseus. 

The son of Perseus was named Perses he was the king of Joppa, the ancient capital and the seaport of the tribe of Dan, and located in the land of the Philistines.  The Greeks have been saying that the Persians originated from Palestine for thousands of years. -John

 

John has written many fascinating articles from the perspective of, mainly Greek, mythology.

 

Here is one relevant portion re Perses, son of Perseus, from his

Perseus Compared to Moses and the Danites of Jaffa

 

http://www.britam.org/salverda/perseuswandjoppa.html#Perseus

 

….

The Joppa episode of the Perseus myth has a much more historic flavor, for here we not only learn that the sons of Perseus, after sailing out of Joppa, became the Kings of, and fortified the cities of, Mycenae in Greece, which we will detail a little further on. (A partial list of royal families and heroes that were known to the Greeks to have been descended from Perseus were 1. The royal family of Mycenae, his sons King Alcaeus, King Electryon and King Sthenelus, grandson King Eurystheus, and great granddaughter Queen Clytemnestra 2. The royal family of Elis, his son King Heleius, and grandson King Augeias 3. The royal family of the Taphian Islands, Kings Taphos and Pterelaus 4. The royal family of Messenia, his daughter Queen Gorgophone, and grandsons King Aphareus and King Leucippus, and great-grandsons the heroes Idas and Lynceus 5. The royal family of Sparta, his daughter Queen Gorgophone, grandson King Tyndareus, and great-grandchildren (in fact or putatively) : the Dioskouroi and Queen Helene. 6. The kings of Persia, from his son Perses 7. Heracles, and his descendants, who eventually assumed power in the Peloponnese.) "They [the Persians] were formerly called by the Greeks Cephenes . . . When Perseus son of Danae and Zeus had come to Cepheus son of Belus and married his daughter Andromeda, a son was born to him whom he called Perses, and he left him there; for Cepheus had no male offspring; it was from this Perses that the Persians took their name." (Herodotus, Histories Book 7 Page 61) "Perseus, the son of Danae ' wanting to establish for himself his own kingdom, despised that of the Medes." (Suidas "Medusa") "There is a story told in Hellas that before Xerxes set forth on his march against Hellas, he sent a herald to Argos, who said on his coming (so the story goes), 'Men of Argos, this is the message to you from King Xerxes. Perses our forefather had, as we believe, Perseus son of Danae for his father, and Andromeda daughter of Cepheus for his mother; if that is so, then we are descended from your nation.' " (Herodotus, Histories Book 7 Page 150)

 

[End of quote]

 

And the ancient philosopher, Plato, identified Achaemenes of the Pasargadae tribe with Perses (http://www.geni.com/people/Achaemenes-king-of-Anshan/6000000006131105658):

 

As the eponymous ancestor of the clan, Achaemenes is very often held to be legendary. Achaemenes is generally known as the leader of one of the clans, known to the Greeks as the Pasargadae (although this identification may been due to a confusion with the Persian Imperial capital city Pasargadae begun by Cyrus the Great around 546 BC), that was one of the some ten to fifteen Persian tribes. Persian royal inscriptions such as the Behistun Inscription place him five generations before Darius the Great. Therefore, according to the Inscriptions, Achaemenes may have lived around 700 BC. The inscriptions do label him as a "king", which may mean that he was the first official king of the Persians.

Apart from Persian royal inscriptions, there are very limited historical sources on Achaemenes; therefore very little, if anything at all, is known for certain about him. It has been proposed that Achaemenes may merely have been a "mythical ancestor of the Persian royal house". The "Babylonian" Cyrus Cylinder, ascribed to Cyrus the Great, does not mention Achaemenes in an otherwise-detailed genealogy. Some historians hold that perhaps Achaemenes was a retrograde creation of Darius the Great, made in order to legitimize his connection with Cyrus the Great, after Darius rose to the position of Shah (i.e. King) of Persia in 522 BC (by killing the usurper Gaumata, the so-called "False Smerdis", who had proclaimed himself King upon the death of Darius' predecessor, Cambyses II; according to Darius, Gaumata was an impostor pretending to be Cambyses II's younger, deceased brother Bardiya). Darius certainly had much to gain in having an ancestor shared by Cyrus and himself, and may have felt the need for a stronger connection than that provided by his subsequent marriage to Cyrus' daughter Atossa. An inscription from Pasargadae, also ascribed to Cyrus, does mention Cyrus' descent from Achaemenes; however, historian Bruce Lincoln has suggested that these inscriptions of Cyrus in Pasargadae were engraved during the reign of Darius in c. 510.

In any case, the Persian royal dynasty from Darius onward revered Achaemenes and credited him as the founder of their dynasty. Very little, however, was remembered about his life or actions. Assuming he existed, Achaemenes was most likely a 7th-century BC warrior-chieftain, or the probable first king, who led the Persians, or a tribe of Persians, as a vassal of the Median Empire. An Assyrian inscription from the time of King Sennacherib in 691 BC, mentions that the Assyrian king almost repelled an attack by Parsuamash and Anzan, with the Medians and others on the city of Halule. Historians contend that if he existed, Achaemenes had to be one of the commanders, leading his Persians with the independent troops of Anshan, during the indecisive Battle of Halule in 691 BC.

Ancient Greek writers provide some legendary information about Achaemenes: they call his tribe the Pasargadae, and say that he was "raised by an eagle". Plato, when writing about the Persians, identified Achaemenes with Perses, ancestor of the Persians in Greek mythology. According to Plato, Achaemenes/Perses was the son of the Ethiopian queen Andromeda and the Greek hero Perseus, and a grandson of Zeus. Later writers believed that Achaemenes and Perses were different people, and that Perses was an ancestor of the king. ….