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ARTEMBARĒS, Greek form of an Old Iranian proper name * Ṛtam-para- (Lycian Arttumpara), meaning “who encourages the order.” 1) A noble Mede under Astyages (Herodotus 1.11-11 16). 2) A Persian who advised Cyrus II that the Persians should leave for a better country (Herodotus 9.122). 3) A Persian who perished…

ARTEMISIA (Gk. Artemisíā, Ion. -íē), queen (Pausanias, 3.11.3: ebasíleuse) of Halicarnassus in Caria, who as an ally of Xerxes I took part in the Persian expedition against Greece in 480 BC (Herodotus, 7.99.1). The daughter of one Lygdamis was Halicarnassian (not Ephesian, as the scholiast of Aristophanes, Lysistrata 675 has…

ARTEMITA IN APOLLONIATIS, city of the Parthian period in eastern Iraq. Artemita (Greek or Macedonian name), the principle city of the Arsacid province of Apolloniatis and the birthplace of the historian Apollodorus of Artemita, was located on the major route to Khorasan, between Seleucia and the Zagros. According to Isidore…

ARTĒŠTĀR (Middle Persian), a learned calque on and translation of the Avestan raθaēštā “warrior, war-hero” (Bartholomae, AirWb., col. 1506), which is a -tar formation, based on an original raθaēštā, literally: “in chariot standing, i.e. charioteer” (J. Kellens, Les noms racines de l’Avesta, Wiesbaden, 1974, pp. 231f.). This explanation of the…

ARTĒŠTĀRĀN SĀLĀR, “chief of the warriors,” a high-ranking title in Sasanian times (see Artēštār): The first reference to this office in the account derived from the Xwadāy-nāmag is in connection with Mihr-Narseh (the chief minister of Yazdegerd I), Wahrām I (Gōr), and Yazdegerd II in the first half of the…

ARTHROPODS (bandpāyān), or ARTHROPODA, largest and undoubtedly most diverse animal phylum, comprising an estimated seventy-five to eighty percent of all known species in the kingdom; representatives of both major extant subdivisions occur within Iran. The subphylum Chelicerata embraces spiders, ʿankabūtīān, scorpions, ʿaqrabhā, and their kin (Class Arachnida) (see Arachnids). More…

ARTOXARES, a Paphlagonian eunuch at the court of Artaxerxes I and satrap of Armenia. He helped Darius II to ascend the throne and sometime after 419 B.C. laid a plot to overthrow him and was put to death (see J. Gilmore, The Fragments of the Persika of Ktesias, London and…

ARTSRUNI, one of the most important princely families of Armenia, an offshoot of the Orontids, Achaemenian satraps and subsequently kings of Armenia, but claiming descent from Sennacherib of Assyria. Mithrobarzanes, or more correctly Mithrobuzanes, Tigranes the Great of Armenia’s viceroy of Sophene in 69 B.C. (Plutarch, Lucullus 25; Appian, Mithradatic…

ARTYPHIOS, or ARTYBIOS, Greek rendering of an Old Persian name *Ardifiya (or *Ardufiya; Elamite Ir-tap/tup-pi-ya); the variants Gk. Arziphos and Arzybios derive from the corresponding Median form *Rzifya attested in Aramaic ʾrzpy). The name, meaning “eagle” (cf. Av. ərəzifya-, AirWb., col. 354, Sanskrit rjipyà-, Mid. Pers. āluf, NPers. āloh), was…

ARTYSTONE, Persian female personal name, attested only in the Greek form Artystōnē (Herodotus 3.88.2 bis; 7.69.2; 7.72.2) and the Elamite form Ir-taš-du-na, Ir-da-iš-du-na (more than twenty occurrences; see R. T. Hallock, Persepolis Fortification Tablets, Chicago, 1969, p. 705a). These forms reflect an Old Persian *Ṛtastūnā “pillar of Ṛta, the deified…

ARUKKU (Assyrian A-ru-uk-ku), a son of Cyrus I, king of Parsumaš and grandfather of Cyrus the Great (Cyrus II). After the decisive victory of the Assyrians over Elam (ca. 643/2 B.C.), Cyrus I, as a proof of his obedience to Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria, sent his oldest son, Arukku, to…

ARVAND GUŠNASP, Sasanian marzbān of Georgia under Ḵosrow I. According to the Georgian passion of St. Eustace of Mtskheta, an anonymous hagiographical work of the late 6th century, Arvand Gušnasp was already in office during the 10th year of Ḵosrow’s reign (A.D. 540-541). He was transferred from Georgia six months…

ARVAND-RŪD, name given to the river Tigris in some passages in the Mid. Pers. books (Zātspram 6.20, 34.7; Pahlavi Vd. 1.19) and a verse in the Šāh-nāma (ed. Borūḵīm, I, p. 51, see below; see also Bahār, Asāṭīr, p. 211). The use of this name to designate the Šaṭṭ al-ʿArab…

ARYA, an ethnic epithet in the Achaemenid inscriptions and in the Zoroastrian Avestan tradition. It is used in the Avesta of members of an ethnic group and contrasts with other named groups (Tūirya, Sairima, Dāha, Sāinu or Sāini) and with the outer world of the An-airya “non-Arya.” Old Persian ariya-…