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61Now those who served were as follows:—The Persians with this equipment:—about their heads they had soft[55] felt caps called tiaras, and about their body tunics of various colours with sleeves, presenting the appearance of iron scales like those of a fish,[56] and about the legs trousers; and instead of the ordinary shields they had shields of wicker-work,[57] under which hung quivers; and they had short spears and large bows and arrows of reed, and moreover daggers hanging by the right thigh from the girdle: and they acknowledged as their commander Otanes the father of Amestris the wife of Xerxes. Now these were called by the Hellenes in ancient time Kephenes; by themselves however and by their neighbours they were called Artaians: but when Perseus, the son of Danae and Zeus, came to Kepheus the son of Belos[58] and took to wife his daughter Andromeda, there was born to them a son to whom he gave the name Perses, and this son he left behind there, for it chanced that Kepheus had no male offspring: after him therefore this race was named.
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Notes
[55] {apageas}, i.e. not stiffly standing up; the opposite to {pepeguias} (ch. 64).
[56] {lepidos siderees opsin ikhthueideos}: many Editors suppose that some words have dropped out. The {kithon} spoken of may have been a coat of armour, but elsewhere the body armour {thorex} is clearly distinguished from the {kithon}, see ix. 22.
[57] {gerra}: cp. ix. 61 and 102.
[58] Cp. i. 7.