Bochart thinks that the name both of Persis and Perseus was from פרס, Paras, an Horse: because the Persians were celebrated horsemen, and took great delight in that animal. But it must be considered that the name is very antient, and prior to this use of horses. P'aras, P'arez, and P'erez, however diversified, signify the Sun; and are of the same analogy as P'ur, P'urrhos, P'oros, which betoken fire. Every animal, which was in any degree appropriated to a Deity, was called by some sacred [809]title. Hence an horse was called P'arez: and the same name, but without the prefix, was given to a lion by many nations in the east. It was at first only a mark of reference, and betokened a solar animal, specifying the particular Deity to whom it was sacred. There were many nations, which were distinguished in the same manner; some of whom the Greeks styled Parrhasians. Hence the antient Arcadians, those Selenitæ, who were undoubtedly an Amonian colony, had this appellation. A people in Elis had the same. The Poets described the constellation of Helice, or the Bear, by the title of Parrhasis, Arctos, and Parrhasis Ursa. This asterism was confessedly first taken notice of by Perez or Perseus, by which is meant the Persians. [810] Versaque ab axe suo Parrhasis Arctos erat. In the east, where the worship of Arez greatly prevailed, there were to be found many nations called after this manner. Part of Media, according to [811]Polybius, had the name of Parrhasia. There were also Parrhasii and Parrhasini in [812]Sogdiana; and [813]the like near Caucasus: also a town named [814]Parasinum in the Tauric Chersonesus. The people styled [815]Parrhasians in Greece were the same as the Dorians and Heraclidæ; all alike Cuthites, as were the antient Persians. Hence it is truly said by Plato, that the Heraclidæ in Greece, and the Achæmenidæ among the Persians were of the same stock: [816]Το δε Ἡρακλεους τε γενος και το Αχαιμενεους εις Περσεα τον Διος αναφερεται. On this account [817]Herodotus makes Xerxes claim kindred with the Argives of Greece, as being equally of the posterity of Perses, the same as Perseus, the Sun: under which character the Persians described the patriarch, from whom they were descended. Perseus was the same as Mithras, whose sacred cavern was styled Perseüm. [818]Phœbe parens--seu te roseum Titana vocari Gentis Achæmeniæ ritu; seu præstat Osirin Frugiferum; seu Persëi sub rupibus antri Indignata sequi torquentem cornua Mithram. OF MYRINA, AND THE AMAZONIANS OF LIBYA.