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This article is about Achaemenes, legendary founder of the first Persian dynasty. For other uses of the name, see Achaemenes (disambiguation).
Achaemenēs (
Haxāmaniš "Friendly in Nature",
Hellenised as
Ἀχαιμένης, English /ə'kɛməni:z/) was the
eponymous ancestor of the
Achaemenid Dynasty, which ruled
Persia between 705 BC and 675 BC. As an eponymous ancestor of the clan, Achaemenes is very often held to be legendary. Persian royal inscriptions such as the
Behistun Inscription place him five generations before
Darius the Great; therefore, if Achaemenes was real, he'd have lived around
700 BC. Although inscriptions label him as a "king," the leaders of the Persians at that time were in reality tribal chieftains.
Due to the lack of historical sources on Achaemenes, there's no way to know anything about him for certain; there's even reason to doubt his existence. Darius the Great rose to the position of
Shah (king) in
522 BC by killing
Bardiya, son of the Persian conqueror
Cyrus the Great. Darius was able to claim legitimacy by pointing to his descent from Achaemenes. Consequently, Darius had much to gain by pointing to an ancestor shared by Cyrus and himself. It is sometimes contended then that Achaemenes is an invention of Darius.
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 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 mentions that the Assyrian king repelled a raid by the
Parsu, who may have been led by Achaemenes.
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.
Persian and Greek sources state that Achaemenes was succeeded by his son
Teispes, who would lead the Persians to conquer and settle in the
Elamite city of
Anshan in southern Iran. Teispes' great-grandson Cyrus conquered the Medes and established the Persian Empire. Teispes is referred to as a son of Achaemenes in the Old Persian texts at
Behistun.
Further Information
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