Κηφῆνες

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Κηφῆνες • (Kēphênes) m pl (genitive Κηφήνων); third declension

1. Cephenes, an old name of the Persians
   • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 7.61:

     καὶ ἄρχοντα παρείχοντο Ὀτάνεα τὸν Ἀμήστριος πατέρα τῆς Ξέρξεω γυναικός, ἐκαλέοντο δὲ πάλαι ὑπὸ μὲν Ἑλλήνων Κηφῆνες, ὑπὸ μέντοι σφέων αὐτῶν καὶ τῶν περιοίκων Ἀρταῖοι. ἐπεὶ δὲ Περσεὺς ὁ Δανάης τε καὶ Διὸς ἀπίκετο παρὰ Κηφέα τὸν Βήλου καὶ ἔσχε αὐτοῦ τὴν θυγατέρα Ἀνδρομέδην, γίνεται αὐτῷ παῖς τῷ οὔνομα ἔθετο Πέρσην, τοῦτον δὲ αὐτοῦ καταλείπει: ἐτύγχανε γὰρ ἄπαις ἐὼν ὁ Κηφεὺς ἔρσενος γόνου. ἐπὶ τούτου δὴ τὴν ἐπωνυμίην ἔσχον.

     kaì árkhonta pareíkhonto Otánea tòn Amḗstrios patéra tês Xérxeō gunaikós, ekaléonto dè pálai hupò mèn Hellḗnōn Kēphênes, hupò méntoi sphéōn autôn kaì tôn perioíkōn Artaîoi. epeì dè Perseùs ho Danáēs te kaì Diòs apíketo parà Kēphéa tòn Bḗlou kaì éskhe autoû tḕn thugatéra Andromédēn, gínetai autôi paîs tôi oúnoma étheto Pérsēn, toûton dè autoû kataleípei: etúnkhane gàr ápais eṑn ho Kēpheùs érsenos gónou. epì toútou dḕ tḕn epōnumíēn éskhon.

     • 1920 translation by Alfred Denis Godley

       Their commander was Otanes, son of Amestris and father of Xerxes’ wife. They were formerly called by the Greeks Cephenes, but by themselves and their neighbors Artaei. 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.

• “Κηφῆνες”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press