ἀρταῖοι <Iranian; Early Byzantine period>
👉 ἀρταῖοι (pl.) m. – a Persian word with the meaning of ἥρωες ‘heroes’ (Hsch. α 7473; Steph. Byz. p. 127.6-7 = Hellanic., fr. 60).
⚠ Hsch. α 7473: ἀρταῖοι· οἱ ἥρωες, παρὰ Πέρσαις – “artaioi: ‘the heroes’, among the Persians”; Steph. Byz. p. 127.6-7: ἀρταίους δὲ Πέρσαι, ὥσπερ οἱ ῞Ελληνες τοὺς παλαιοὺς ἀνθρώπους, ἥρωας καλοῦσι. – “The Persians use attaioi in the same way the Greeks use hērōes (‘heroes’) for people of past generations.”
🅔 Probably a Persian word, but it is difficult to indicate a similar Iranian word being a semantic equivalent of Greek ἥρως. Another problem concerns the relationship of ἀρταῖοι with the ethnonym Ἀρταῖοι ‘Persians’ (an older name of the Persians according to Hdt. 7.61; see also Steph. Byz. p. 127.4-6 = Hellanic., fr. 60) and Ἀρταία ‘Persia’ (Steph. Byz. p. 127.4 = Hellanic., fr. 60); these proper names do not go back to the name of the Aryans (Greek Ἄριοι), but probably represent a distorted name of Urartu (the Kingdom of Urartu existed in the 9th-7th c. BCE, partly on the territory of Iran). Cf. two attempts at explanation of ἀρταῖοι: 1. from the ethnonym Ἀρταῖοι; 2. from Old Persian r̥tāvan- (nom. sg. m. r̥tāva) ‘blessed’, literally ‘partaking of truth (about a worshipper of Ahura Mazda after death)’, Middle Persian ardā ‘righteous, truthful’, ardāw ‘just, righteous; used sometimes as a synonym for the Elect (in Manichaeism)’, Parthian ardāw ‘id.’; hence, ἀρταῖοι would be closely connected with ἀρτάδες.
📖 Ref.: cf. Brust 2008: 125-127; Kuiper 1976: 32.