Ostanes

Ostanes (from Greek Ὀστάνης), also spelled Osthanes, was the pen-name used by several pseudo-anonymous authors of Greek and Latin works from Hellenistic period onwards. Together with Pseudo-Zoroaster and Pseudo-Hystaspes, Ostanes belongs to the group of pseudepigraphical "Hellenistic Magians", that is, a long line of Greek and other Hellenistic writers who wrote under the name of famous "Magians". While Pseudo-Zoroaster was identified as the "inventor" of astrology, and Pseudo-Hystaspes was stereotyped as an apocalyptic prophet, Ostanes was imagined to be a master sorcerer.

Real Ostanes?

Unlike "Zoroaster" and "Hystaspes", which have well attested Iranian language counterparts, for "Ostanes" there is "no evidence of a figure of a similar name in Iranian tradition." In the Encyclopedia Iranica entry for Ostanes, Morton Smith cites Justi's Namensbuch for instances of the name which refer to real persons. Smith: "Which [of these references to] Ostanes (...), if any, gave rise to the legend of the magus is uncertain."

Ostanes (son of Darius II)

In Greek sources,Ostanes is given as the name of one of the sons of the Achaemenid Persian emperor Darius (II) Nothos, and the grandfather of Darius (III) Codomannos. Aside from the name and relationship to the rulers, the sources do not have any information about the person.

The sources are Diodorus 17.5.5 and Plutarch Artax. 1.1.5. The latter explicitly names Ctesias (the physician of Artaxerxes (II) Mnemon) as his source. Ctesias, however, names Artostes as the son of Darius II, and Ferdinand Justi suggests that the sources confused Artostes as Ostanes.

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