27 Cyrus Becomes King (§§123-130)

Cyrus’s princely qualities made him beloved beyond others of his age. And when, some years later, Cyrus had grown to manhood, Harpa­gus, planning vengeance against Astyages, plied him with gifts. In addition, since Astyages was harsh even on the Medes, Harpagus met with nobles and urged them to depose Astyages and to establish Cyrus as king. Then, to enlist Cyrus, he sent him a message, a note concealed inside the belly of a hare, which a servant was to give to Cyrus as a gift of game. In this way the servant would escape the guards on the road (Deioces’s police state methods are still in effect).

In the note, Harpagus claims to have saved Cyrus’s life and urges him to be king of all Astyages’s empire. He also advises Cyrus to stir up a rebellion, assuring him that whether he or another Median noble is made general, the battle will go in his favor (124). Harpagus, of course, is less than candid, exaggerating his own role is saving Cyrus’s life, though it is of course true that he gave the baby to the herdsman.

Cyrus needs no further prompting and devises a plan to stir up the revolt. He sends word that he has been appointed general by Astyages and orders the three most important tribes of Persians to assemble on the next day with scythes. When they arrive, he commands them to clear a large field of brambles and thistles, then to come again the next day, having bathed. He gathers his father’s flocks and much wine; when the Persians come the next day, he provides a sumptuous feast. He asks them which day they liked better, the day of work or the day of feasting. When they give the expected answer, he promises them such days all the time if they will revolt from Astyages and become free men (125-26).

The Persians, chafing under the rule of the Medes, are easily persuaded. The appeal from Cyrus is monumentally crass: having worked them and fed them, he has placed the entire meaning of the revolt in the acquisition of external pleasures and the throwing off of work.^[1] Conquest is, of course, the easiest method for becoming luxuriously wealthy. Even when Cyrus urges the Persians to become free, freedom is defined as freedom from slavish work like that done on the day before. There is no appeal to loftier principles, no appeal to any inherent right on the part of Persians to rule. The ancients were no believers in the equality of all human beings. Perhaps one can see a certain moral basis for those who are superior to impose their will on those who are inferior. Whatever we may think of the view that there are natural slaves and natural rulers (and I, for one, think we should deplore it), those who believe it, those who have a sense that they are morally and intellectually fitted to rule can, at least to themselves, offer some justification for conquest. Thus, those who have taken upon themselves “the white man’s burden” are not wholly to be despised, despite their arrogance and ethnocentricity. But no such motive can be said to inspire the Persians here; they act out of pure cupidity. Perhaps Cyrus’s speech helps to show the kind of motive that stirs the hearts of Persians, the enemies of the Greeks. If the Persians succeed in their rebellion and conquer the Medes, then presumably the Medes will have to serve them. The world will differ only in terms of who are the slaves and who the masters. These kinds of considerations could not be going on in the minds of the Medes who have thrown in their lot with Harpagus; they must be assuming simply that things will be better under anyone but Astyages.

When the king learns what is afoot, he orders Cyrus to his presence. Cyrus replies that he’ll see Astyages sooner than he would wish. The king prepares for battle. Only the Medes who are not participating in the plot actually fight; most turn to flee (127).

His army beaten, Astyages sends his grandson a threatening letter. Then he impales the Magi who had told him that the dream was already fulfil­led. He clearly shows that he had higher expectations of their interpretive abilities than his own, for, as we recall, he had reached the same conclusion as they, that Cyrus’s puerile kingship fulfilled the prophecy. His killing of them is another of the actions that show him to be a cruel monarch. He then arms the young and old men of the city and leads them out against the Persians, the Persians, them to their deaths, himself into captivity (128).

This final attack is an act of suicidal madness. His impaling of the Magi shows that he believes the dream is coming to fulfillment in reality, not simply in play. Instead of admitting the ineluctability of his fate, he still tries to fight it. Old men and children are not fit warriors and stand no chance of success, but like Hitler in his last days, all Astyages cares for is a desperate attempt to keep power for himself.

Harpagus jeers at the captive king, “How is your slavery compared with your kingliness?” The question put to Astyages is the direct opposite of that put to the Persians in Cyrus’s plan, who first toiled as slaves, then reveled as banqueters. When Harpagus takes credit for what Cyrus has done, the ex-king rebukes him, calling him the stupidest of men for not seizing the crown for himself and the most unjust for making all the Medes slaves of the Persians; at least he ought to have chosen some Mede to replace Astyages (129). We are not told Harpagus’s response to the Astyages’s taunt, nor does it matter. Harpagus’s aim was to avenge the death of his own son, and this vengeance he has accomplished. Perhaps Harpagus sees that life under kings of one race or another brings the same hardships, and that what matters is not whether the king be Persian or Mede but rather his character. This liberal view has no evidence in the text; perhaps it occurred to Herodotus’s readers. We can assume that he saw the good qualities of the young Cyrus and that giving him the crown is part of the vengeance, for it represents a complete frustration of Astyages’s wishes and plans. Characterizing Harpagus as both unjust and stupid actually does more to confirm our low opinion of Astyages than to indicate a flash of insight. What distinguishes the tale of Astyages from that of Croesus is the complete failure to learn about the truth of prophetic pronouncements. Croesus, to be sure, learned this lesson when it was too late to be of any use to him; Astyages never learns it.

The tale of Cyrus’s ascension sums up the Median takeover of Persia. Here Herodotus states his own opinion that it was Astyages’s cruelty that led to his downfall. He also puts some stock in Astyages’s rebuke, for he tells us that in fact, in the time of Darius, the Medes did try to rebel, but they were defeated again. Cyrus, we are told, kept Astyages with him until the old tyrant’s death. Thus the story ends on the upbeat note of difference between Cyrus and his grandfather; Cyrus preserves the very kinsman who had sought his destruction. With what we have already learned from his conversations with Croesus, Cyrus is very sympathetically presented.^[2]