The Histories by Herodotus - 2 - Cyrus and the Persians
Book One (pages 45 - 94)
Quote
"The next task of this account of ours is to learn more about Cyrus, the man who destroyed Croesus' empire, and about how the Persians came to be the leading race in Asia. My version will be based on what certain Persians say, those who seek to tell the truth rather than exalt Cyrus' achievements."
Notes
- In Asia a line of kings arose among the people called the Medes. One of those kings is a man named Astyages.
- One night Astyages has a dream about his daughter, Mandane, where she urinates so much it fills the whole city and all of Asia. Later he has another dream where Mandane has a vine growing from her genitals that covers all of Asia. The Magi warn Astyages that these dreams mean his daughter's offspring will take over his kingship.
- Mandane marries a Persian man named Cambyses and together they have a son, Cyrus. Once Cyrus is born, Astyages has his most trusted relative, Harpagus, take the baby away to kill it. Harpagus doesn't want to kill the baby, so he hands it off to a herdsman and asks him to do it. But the herdsman and his wife decide to keep the baby and raise it as their own.
- Ten years later, Astyages finds out his grandson, Cyrus, is still alive. In his anger, he kills Harpagus's son and cooks him up. Then he invites Harpagus over for dinner and serves him his own son to eat. Harpagus is horrified and furious. He plots with Cyrus to kill Astyages and take over the kingdom. Cyrus is a natural born leader and he unites the Persians under him and they succeed in taking over.
- The Persians expand their empire taking over many surrounding cities. The Greeks grow concerned about Persia and work to form an alliance, but they are unsuccessful.
- One day Cyrus has a dream of his own where another man's son, a boy named Darius, grows large wings that cast a shadow over all of Asia and Europe. Cyrus becomes afraid that Darius is plotting to kill him. However, the real message of the dream, says Herodotus, is that Cyrus is about to die and his kingdom will devolve to Darius. And, in a subsequent battle with the Massagetans, Cyrus is killed.
Thoughts
The significance of dreams and oracles with these ancient peoples is quite interesting. It's hard to imagine political leaders today making important decisions based on their dreams, or after consulting with an oracle. However, Ronald Reagan, President of the U.S. during the 1980s, consulted often with an astrologer, Joan Quigley. And William Lyon Mackenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada in the 1930s and 1940s, regularly consulted with psychics and mediums during his time in office as well. So maybe not so hard to imagine after all...
Herodotus also goes into a lot of detail about the cultures of different cities that Persia conquered in this section. There's one practice in Babylon, for example, where all the women were gathered up and auctioned off to the men to be their wives, starting with the most attractive women first. Herodotus singles this practice out as being "most sensible," presumably because the money earned from auctioning the attractive women went to enticing other men into marrying the unattractive and handicapped women. So everyone got to get married. He also writes that this practice eventually was lost and most women and girls were forced into prostitution because of their poverty. Not a great time to be a woman.
Speaking of which, another practice in Babylon was that every woman at some point, as a duty to one of the goddesses, had to sit in one of the temples and have sex with a random man who picks her out among the rest. Herodotus writes about this that: "Women who are attractive and tall get to go home quickly, while the ugly ones wait for a long time without being able to do their duty. In fact, some of them wait three or four years."
I'm not sure why Herodotus includes details like these (or why I decided to highlight them here...), but these are the kinds of stories you get when reading this book.