ἀρτάδες <Iranian; Early Byzantine period>
👉 ἀρτάδες (pl.) m. – a word used by the magi in the meaning of οἱ δίκαιοι ‘the righteous’ (Hsch. α 7472). Cf. a doubtful reading τ̣ὰ̣[ς ἀ]ρ̣τά̣δ̣α̣[ς (acc. pl. f.) ‘the souls of the righteous’ (P.Derv. 6.1: 4th c. BCE; a proposal by F. Ferrari; cf. τ̣ὰ̣[ς ψυχὰς,] in the edition of Th. Kouremenos, G.M. Parássoglou and K. Tsantsanoglou).
⚠ Hsch. α 7472: ἀρτάδες· οἱ δίκαιοι, ὑπὸ Μάγων – “artades: the righteous, (used) by the magi”.
🅔 An Old Persian (or Early Middle Persian) word – 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.’; cf. Old Persian *r̥tā- (attested only in r̥tāvan- and in two personal names), Old and Young Avestan aša- (< *arra-) ‘asha, truth, righteousness’ and Young Avestan arəta- ‘id.’ (attested only in a compound), Middle Persian ardāyīh ‘righteousness, rectitude, justice; community of the righteous (i.e. the Manichaean church)’. It is not clear why the Persian word was adapted into Greek by means of the suffix -αδ-; cf. an unlikely hypothesis that *ἀρταδ- was a compound consisting of *r̥tā- ‘truth’ and dā ‘to give’ (the compound would originally have meant ‘giver of truth’).
📖 Data: AiW: 193 and 229-238; CPD: 11; DMMPP: 51f.; WAK: 240. Ref. cf. Brust 2008: 123-125.