In Greek mythology, Perses is one of the Perseids, a son of the hero Perseus and Andromeda. According to the tradition he was left behind in the East and, with an Oceanid, fathered a line of descendants. Greek mythology identifies him as the ancestor of the Persians, an identification the Persians themselves seem to have known: Xerxes I invoked it in an attempt to win over the Argives during his invasion of Greece. He is to be distinguished from the Titan Perses, the son of Crius.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Perses (son of Perseus)" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Family
Perses is counted among the Perseids as a son of Perseus and Andromeda, and so belongs to the great Argive royal line that issued from Perseus' union with the rescued Ethiopian princess.
In the tradition recorded by Wikipedia, Perses is left in Cossaei, and there, with an Oceanid, he fathers descendants. His maternal Oceanid wife is not named in the article, and his offspring are described only collectively as the line that springs from him.
II.Mythology
Greek mythology identifies Perses as the ancestor of the Persians. The story was evidently known to the Persians themselves: during his invasion of Greece, Xerxes I tried to use this supposed kinship to bribe the Argives into neutrality, though he ultimately failed to do so.
The (Pseudo-)Platonic dialogue First Alcibiades (120e), written in the late 4th century BC, identifies Perses with Achaemenes as the hero who founded the Persái. The dialogue states that both Achaemenes and Heracles were sons of Perseus, linking the legendary founder of the Persian royal house to the same Perseid stock.
III.Other figures of the name
The name Perses is borne by several distinct figures in Greek mythology and should not be conflated with this Perseid. The most prominent is the Titan Perses, son of Crius and Eurybia, who married Asteria and became the father of the goddess Hecate.
Other bearers of the name include Perses the brother of Aeetes, deposed and later killed at Colchis, and Perses the son of Helios. The name also appears outside myth as that of the brother whom Hesiod addresses in the Works and Days. This article concerns specifically the son of Perseus and Andromeda, the eponymous ancestor of the Persians.