Achaemenes
Ἀχαιμένης
(Ἀχαιμένης).
1. The ancestor of the Persian kings, who founded the family of the Achaemenidae (Ἀχαιμενίδαι), which was the noblest family of the Pasargadae, the noblest of the Persian tribes. Achaemenes is said to have been brought up by an eagle. According to a genealogy given by Xerxes, the following was the order of the descent: Achaemenes, Teispes, Cambyses, Cyrus, Teispes, Ariaramnes, Arsames, Hystaspes, Darius, Xerxes. (Hdt. 1.125, 7.11; Aelian, Ael. NA 12.21.) The original seat of this family was Achaemenia in Persis. (Steph. s.v. Ἀχαιμενία.) The Roman poets use the adjective Achaemenius in the sense of Persian. (Hor. Carm. 3.1.44, 13.8; Ov. Ar. Am. 1.226, Met. 4.212.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.