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The History of Herodotus: Page 07
Volume One - Book I
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123. Then as Cyrus grew to be a man, being of all those of his age the
most courageous and the best beloved, Harpagos sought to become his
friend and sent him gifts, because he desired to take vengeance on
Astyages. For he saw not how from himself, who was in a private
station, punishment should come upon Astyages; but when he saw Cyrus
growing up, he endeavoured to make him an ally, finding a likeness
between the fortunes of Cyrus and his own. And even before that time
he had effected something: for Astyages being harsh towards the Medes,
Harpagos communicated severally with the chief men of the Medes, and
persuaded them that they must make Cyrus their leader and cause
Astyages to cease from being king. When he had effected this and when
all was ready, then Harpagos wishing to make known his design to
Cyrus, who lived among the Persians, could do it no other way, seeing
that the roads were watched, but devised a scheme as follows:--he made
ready a hare, and having cut open its belly but without pulling off
any of the fur, he put into it, just as it was, a piece of paper,
having written upon it that which he thought good; and then he sewed
up again the belly of the hare, and giving nets as if he were a hunter
to that one of his servants whom he trusted most, he sent him away to
the land of the Persians, enjoining him by word of mouth to give the
hare to Cyrus, and to tell him at the same time to open it with his
own hands and let no one else be present when he did so.
124. This
then was accomplished, and Cyrus having received from him the hare,
cut it open; and having found within it the paper he took and read it
over. And the writing said this: "Son of Cambyses, over thee the gods
keep guard, for otherwise thou wouldst never have come to so much good
fortune.
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Do thou therefore[133] take vengeance on Astyages who is thy
murderer, for so far as his will is concerned thou art dead, but by
the care of the gods and of me thou art still alive; and this I think
thou hast long ago learnt from first to last, both how it happened
about thyself, and also what things I have suffered from Astyages,
because I did not slay thee but gave thee to the herdsman. If
therefore thou wilt be guided by me, thou shalt be ruler of all that
land over which now Astyages is ruler. Persuade the Persians to
revolt, and march any army against the Medes: and whether I shall be
appointed leader of the army against thee, or any other of the Medes
who are in repute, thou hast what thou desirest; for these will be the
first to attempt to destroy Astyages, revolting from him and coming
over to thy party. Consider then that here at least all is ready, and
therefore do this and do it with speed."
125. Cyrus having heard this
began to consider in what manner he might most skilfully persuade the
Persians to revolt, and on consideration he found that this was the
most convenient way, and so in fact he did:--He wrote first on a paper
that which he desired to write, and he made an assembly of the
Persians. Then he unfolded the paper and reading from it said that
Astyages appointed him commander of the Persians; "and now, O
Persians," he continued, "I give you command to come to me each one
with a reaping-hook." Cyrus then proclaimed this command. (Now there
are of the Persians many tribes, and some of them Cyrus gathered
together and persuaded to revolt from the Medes, namely those, upon
which all the other Persians depend, the Pasargadai, the Maraphians
and the Maspians, and of these the Pasargadai are the most noble, of
whom also the Achaimenidai are a clan, whence are sprung the
Perseïd[134] kings. But other Persian tribes there are, as follows:--
the Panthaliaians, the Derusiaians and the Germanians, these are all
tillers of the soil; and the rest are nomad tribes, namely the Daoi,
Mardians, Dropicans and Sagartians.)
126. Now there was a certain
region of the Persian land which was overgrown with thorns, extending
some eighteen or twenty furlongs in each direction; and when all had
come with that which they had been before commanded to bring, Cyrus
bade them clear this region for cultivation within one day: and when
the Persians had achieved the task proposed, then he bade them come to
him on the next day bathed and clean. Meanwhile Cyrus, having gathered
together in one place all the flocks of goats and sheep and the herds
of cattle belonging to his father, slaughtered them and prepared with
them to entertain the host of the Persians, and moreover with wine and
other provisions of the most agreeable kind. So when the Persians came
on the next day, he made them recline in a meadow and feasted them.
And when they had finished dinner, Cyrus asked them whether that which
they had on the former day or that which they had now seemed to them
preferable. They said that the difference between them was great, for
the former day had for them nothing but evil, and the present day
nothing but good. Taking up this saying Cyrus proceeded to lay bare
his whole design, saying: "Men of the Persians, thus it is with you.
If ye will do as I say, ye have these and ten thousand other good
things, with no servile labour; but if ye will not do as I say, ye
have labours like that of yesterday innumerable. Now therefore do as I
say and make yourselves free: for I seem to myself to have been born
by providential fortune to take these matters in hand; and I think
that ye are not worse men than the Medes, either in other matters or
in those which have to do with war. Consider then that this is so, and
make revolt from Astyages forthwith."
127. So the Persians having obtained a leader willingly attempted to
set themselves free, since they had already for a long time been
indignant to be ruled by the Medes: but when Astyages heard that Cyrus
was acting thus, he sent a messenger and summoned him; and Cyrus bade
the messenger report to Astyages that he would be with him sooner than
he would himself desire. So Astyages hearing this armed all the Medes,
and blinded by divine providence he appointed Harpagos to be the
leader of the army, forgetting what he had done to him. Then when the
Medes had marched out and began to fight with the Persians, some of
them continued the battle, namely those who had not been made
partakers in the design, while others went over to the Persians; but
the greater number were wilfully slack and fled.
128. So when the
Median army had been shamefully dispersed, so soon as Astyages heard
of it he said, threatening Cyrus: "But not even so shall Cyrus at
least escape punishment." Thus having spoken he first impaled the
Magian interpreters of dreams who had persuaded him to let Cyrus go,
and then he armed those of the Medes, youths and old men, who had been
left behind in the city. These he led out and having engaged battle
with the Persians he was worsted, and Astyages himself was taken
alive, and he lost also those of the Medes whom he had led forth.
129.
Then when Astyages was a prisoner, Harpagos came and stood near him
and rejoiced over him and insulted him; and besides other things which
he said to grieve him, he asked him especially how it pleased him to
be a slave instead of a king, making reference to that dinner at which
Astyages had feasted him with the flesh of his own son.[135] He
looking at him asked him in return whether he claimed the work of
Cyrus as his own deed: and Harpagos said that since he had written the
letter, the deed was justly his. Then Astyages declared him to be at
the same time the most unskilful and the most unjust of men; the most
unskilful because, when it was in his power to become king (as it was,
if that which had now been done was really brought about by him), he
had conferred the chief power on another, and the most unjust, because
on account of that dinner he had reduced the Medes to slavery. For if
he must needs confer the kingdom on some other and not keep it
himself, it was more just to give this good thing to one of the Medes
rather than to one of the Persians; whereas now the Medes, who were
guiltless of this, had become slaves instead of masters, and the
Persians who formerly were slaves of the Medes had now become their
masters.
130. Astyages then, having been king for five-and-thirty
years, was thus caused to cease from being king; and the Medes stooped
under the yoke of the Persians because of his cruelty, after they had
ruled Asia above the river Halys for one hundred and twenty-eight
years, except during that period for which the Scythians had
rule.[136] Afterwards however it repented them that they had done
this, and they revolved from Dareios, and having revolted they were
subdued again, being conquered in a battle. At this time then, I say,
in the reign of Astyages, the Persians with Cyrus rose up against the
Medes and from that time forth were rulers of Asia: but as for
Astyages, Cyrus did no harm to him besides, but kept him with himself
until he died. Thus born and bred Cyrus became king; and after this he
subdued Crœsus, who was the first to begin the quarrel, as I have
before said; and having subdued him he then became ruler of all Asia.
*****
131. These are the customs, so far as I know, which the Persians practise:--Images and temples and altars they do not account it lawful
to erect, nay they even charge with folly those who do these things;
and this, as it seems to me, because they do not account the gods to
be in the likeness of men, as do the Hellenes. But it is their wont to
perform sacrifices to Zeus going up to the most lofty of the
mountains, and the whole circle of the heavens they call Zeus: and
they sacrifice to the Sun and the Moon and the Earth, to Fire and to
Water and to the Winds: these are the only gods to whom they have
sacrificed ever from the first; but they have learnt also to sacrifice
to Aphrodite Urania, having learnt it both from the Assyrians and the
Arabians; and the Assyrians call Aphrodite Mylitta, the Arabians
Alitta,[136a] and the Persians Mitra.
132. Now this is the manner of
sacrifice for the gods aforesaid which is established among the
Persians:--they make no altars neither do they kindle fire; and when
they mean to sacrifice they use no libation nor music of the pipe nor
chaplets[137] nor meal for sprinkling;[138] but when a man wishes to
sacrifice to any one of the gods, he leads the animal for sacrifice to
an unpolluted place and calls upon the god, having his /tiara/[138a]
wreathed round generally with a branch of myrtle. For himself alone
separately the man who sacrifices may not request good things in his
prayer, but he prays that it may be well with all the Persians and
with the king; for he himself also is included of course in the whole
body of Persians. And when he has cut up the victim into pieces and
boiled the flesh, he spreads a layer of the freshest grass and
especially clover, upon which he places forthwith all the pieces of
flesh; and when he has placed them in order, a Magian man stands by
them and chants over them a theogony (for of this nature they say that
their incantation is), seeing that without a Magian it is not lawful
for them to make sacrifices. Then after waiting a short time the
sacrificer carries away the flesh and uses it for whatever purpose he
pleases.
133. And of all days their wont is to honour most that on
which they were born, each one: on this they think it right to set out
a feast more liberal than on other days; and in this feast the
wealthier of them set upon the table an ox or a horse or a camel or an
ass, roasted whole in an oven, and the poor among them set out small
animals in the same way. They have few solid dishes,[139] but many
served up after as dessert, and these not in a single course; and for
this reason the Persians say that the Hellenes leave off dinner
hungry, because after dinner they have nothing worth mentioning served
up as dessert, whereas if any good dessert were served up they would
not stop eating so soon. To wine-drinking they are very much given,
and it is not permitted for a man to vomit or to make water in
presence of another. Thus do they provide against these things; and
they are wont to deliberate when drinking hard about the most
important of their affairs, and whatsoever conclusion has pleased them
in their deliberation, this on the next day, when they are sober, the
master of the house in which they happen to be when they deliberate
lays before them for discussion: and if it pleases them when they are
sober also, they adopt it, but if it does not please them, they let it
go: and that on which they have had the first deliberation when they
are sober, they consider again when they are drinking.
134. When they
meet one another in the roads, by this you may discern whether those
who meet are of equal rank,--for instead of greeting by words they
kiss one another on the mouth; but if one of them is a little inferior
to the other, they kiss one another on the cheeks, and if one is of
much less noble rank than the other, he falls down before him and does
worship to him.[140] And they honour of all most after themselves
those nations which dwell nearest to them, and next those which dwell
next nearest, and so they go on giving honour in proportion to
distance; and they hold least in honour those who dwell furthest off
from themselves, esteeming themselves to be by far the best of all the
human race on every point, and thinking that others possess merit
according to the proportion which is here stated,[141] and that those
who dwell furthest from themselves are the worst. And under the
supremacy of the Medes the various nations used also to govern one
another according to the same rule as the Persians observe in giving
honour,[142] the Medes governing the whole and in particular those who
dwelt nearest to themselves, and these having rule over those who
bordered upon them, and those again over the nations that were next to
them: for the race went forward thus ever from government by
themselves to government through others.
135. The Persians more than
any other men admit foreign usages; for they both wear the Median
dress judging it to be more comely than their own, and also for
fighting the Egyptian corslet: moreover they adopt all kinds of
luxuries when they hear of them, and in particular they have learnt
from the Hellenes to have commerce with boys. They marry each one
several lawful wives, and they get also a much larger number of
concubines.
136. It is established as a sign of manly excellence next
after excellence in fight, to be able to show many sons; and to those
who have most the king sends gifts every year: for they consider
number to be a source of strength. And they educate their children,
beginning at five years old and going on till twenty, in three things
only, in riding, in shooting, and in speaking the truth: but before
the boy is five years old he does not come into the presence of his
father, but lives with the women; and it is so done for this reason,
that if the child should die while he is being bred up, he may not be
the cause of any grief to his father.
137. I commend this custom of
theirs, and also the one which is next to be mentioned, namely that
neither the king himself shall put any to death for one cause alone,
nor any of the other Persians for one cause alone shall do hurt that
is irremediable to any of his own servants; but if after reckoning he
finds that the wrongs done are more in number and greater than the
services rendered,[143] then only he gives vent to his anger. Moreover
they say that no one ever killed his own father or mother, but
whatever deeds have been done which seemed to be of this nature, if
examined must necessarily, they say, be found to be due either to
changelings or to children of adulterous birth; for, say they, it is
not reasonable to suppose that the true parent would be killed by his
own son.
138. Whatever things it is not lawful for them to do, these
it is not lawful for them even to speak of: and the most disgraceful
thing in their estimation is to tell an lie, and next to this to owe
money, this last for many other reasons, but especially because it is
necessary, they say, for him who owes money, also sometimes to tell
lies: and whosoever of the men of the city has leprosy or whiteness of
skin, he does not come into a city nor mingle with the other Persians;
and they say that he has these diseases because he has offended in
some way against the Sun: but a stranger who is taken by these
diseases, in many regions[144] they drive out of the country
altogether, and also white doves, alleging against them the same
cause. And into a river they neither make water nor spit, neither do
they wash their hands in it, nor allow any other to do these things,
but they reverence rivers very greatly.
139. This moreover also has
chanced to them, which the Persians have themselves failed to notice
but I have not failed to do so:--their names, which are formed to
correspond with their bodily shapes or their magnificence of station,
end all with the same letter, that letter which the Dorians call /san/
and the Ionians /sigma/; with this you will find, if you examine the
matter, that all the Persian names end, not some with this and others
with other letters, but all alike.
140. So much I am able to say for certain from my own knowledge about
them: but what follows is reported about their dead as a secret
mystery and not with clearness, namely that the body of a Persian man
is not buried until it has been torn by a bird or a dog. (The Magians
I know for a certainty have this practice, for they do it openly.)
However that may be, the Persians cover the body with wax and then
bury it in the earth. Now the Magians are distinguished in many ways
from other men, as also from the priests in Egypt: for these last
esteem it a matter of purity to kill no living creature except the
animals which they sacrifice; but the Magians kill with their own
hands all creatures except dogs and men, and they even make this a
great end to aim at, killing both ants and serpents and all other
creeping and flying things. About this custom then be it as it was
from the first established; and I return now to the former
narrative.[145]
*****
141. The Ionians and Aiolians, as soon as the Lydians had been subdued
by the Persians, sent messengers to Cyrus at Sardis, desiring to be
his subjects on the same terms as they had been subjects of Crœsus.
And when he heard that which they proposed to him, he spoke to them a
fable, saying that a certain player on the pipe saw fishes in the sea
and played on his pipe, supposing that they would come out to land;
but being deceived in his expectation, he took a casting-net and
enclosed a great multitude of the fishes and drew them forth from the
water: and when he saw them leaping about, he said to the fishes:
"Stop dancing I pray you now, seeing that ye would not come out and
dance before when I piped." Cyrus spoke this fable to the Ionians and
Aiolians for this reason, because the Ionians had refused to comply
before, when Cyrus himself by a messenger requested them to revolt
from Crœsus, while now when the conquest had been made they were ready
to submit to Cyrus. Thus he said to them in anger, and the Ionians,
when they heard this answer brought back to their cities, put walls
round about them severally, and gathered together to the Panionion,
all except the men of Miletos, for with these alone Cyrus had sworn an
agreement on the same terms as the Lydians had granted. The rest of
the Ionians resolved by common consent to send messengers to Sparta,
to ask the Spartans to help the Ionians.
142. These Ionians to whom belongs the Panionion had the fortune to
build their cities in the most favourable position for climate and
seasons of any men whom we know: for neither the regions above Ionia
nor those below, neither those towards the East nor those towards the
West,[146] produce the same results as Ionia itself, the regions in
the one direction being oppressed by cold and moisture, and those in
the other by heat and drought. And these do not use all the same
speech, but have four different variations of language.[147] First of
their cities on the side of the South lies Miletos, and next to it
Myus and Priene. These are settlements made in Caria, and speak the
same language with one another; and the following are in Lydia,--
Ephesos, Colophon, Lebedos, Teos, Clazomenai, Phocaia: these cities
resemble not at all those mentioned before in the speech which they
use, but they agree one with another. There remain besides three
Ionian cities, of which two are established in the islands of Samos
and Chios, and one is built upon the mainland, namely Erythrai: now
the men of Chios and of Erythrai use the same form of language, but
the Samians have one for themselves alone. Thus there result four
separate forms of language.
143. Of these Ionians then those of Miletos were sheltered from
danger, since they had sworn an agreement; and those of them who lived
in islands had no cause for fear, for the Phenicians were not yet
subjects of the Persians and the Persians themselves were not sea-men.
Now these[148] were parted off from the other Ionians for no other
reason than this:--The whole Hellenic nation was at that time weak,
but of all its races the Ionian was much the weakest and of least
account: except Athens, indeed, it had no considerable city. Now the
other Ionians, and among them the Athenians, avoided the name, not
wishing to be called Ionians, nay even now I perceive that the greater
number of them are ashamed of the name: but these twelve cities not
only prided themselves on the name but established a temple of their
own, to which they gave the name of Panionion, and they made
resolution not to grant a share in it to any other Ionians (nor indeed
did any ask to share it except those of Smyrna); 144, just as the
Dorians of that district which is now called the Five Cities[149] but
was formerly called the Six Cities,[150] take care not to admit any of
the neighbouring Dorians to the temple of Triopion, and even exclude
from sharing in it those of their own body who commit any offence as
regards the temple. For example, in the games of the Triopian Apollo
they used formerly to set bronze tripods as prizes for the victors,
and the rule was that those who received them should not carry them
out of the temple but dedicate them then and there to the god. There
was a man then of Halicarnassos, whose name was Agasicles, who being a
victor paid no regard to this rule, but carried away the tripod to his
own house and hung it up there upon a nail. On this ground the other
five cities, Lindos, Ialysos and Cameiros, Cos and Cnidos, excluded
the sixth city Halicarnassos from sharing in the temple.
145. Upon
these they laid this penalty: but as for the Ionians, I think that the
reason why they made of themselves twelve cities and would not receive
any more into their body, was because when they dwelt in Peloponnesus
there were of them twelve divisions, just as now there are twelve
divisions of the Achaians who drove the Ionians out: for first,
(beginning from the side of Sikyon) comes Pellene, then Aigeira and
Aigai, in which last is the river Crathis with a perpetual flow
(whence the river of the same name in Italy received its name), and
Bura and Helike, to which the Ionians fled for refuge when they were
worsted by the Achaians in fight, and Aigion and Rhypes and Patreis
and Phareis and Olenos, where is the great river Peiros, and Dyme and
Tritaieis, of which the last alone has an inland position.[151] These
form now twelve divisions of the Achaians, and in former times they
were divisions of the Ionians.
146. For this reason then the Ionians
also made for themselves twelve cities; for at any rate to say that
these are any more Ionians than the other Ionians, or have at all a
nobler descent, is mere folly, considering that a large part of them
are Abantians from Eubœa, who have no share even in the name of Ionia,
and Minyai of Orchomenos have been mingled with them, and Cadmeians
and Dryopians and Phokians who seceded from their native State and
Molossians and Pelasgians of Arcadia and Dorians of Epidauros and many
other races have been mingled with them; and those of them who set
forth to their settlements from the City Hall of Athens and who esteem
themselves the most noble by descent of the Ionians, these, I say,
brought no women with them to their settlement, but took Carian women,
whose parents they slew: and on account of this slaughter these women
laid down for themselves a rule, imposing oaths on one another, and
handed it on to their daughters, that they should never eat with their
husbands, nor should a wife call her own husband by name, for this
reason, because the Ionians had slain their fathers and husbands and
children and then having done this had them to wife. This happened at
Miletos.
147. Moreover some of them set Lykian kings over them,
descendants of Glaucos and Hippolochos, while others were ruled by
Cauconians of Pylos, descendants of Codros the son of Melanthos, and
others again by princes of the two races combined. Since however these
hold on to the name more than the other Ionians, let them be called,
if they will, the Ionians of truly pure descent; but in fact all are
Ionians who have their descent from Athens and who keep the feast of
Apaturia; and this all keep except the men of Ephesos and Colophon:
for these alone of all the Ionians do not keep the Apaturia, and that
on the ground of some murder committed.
148. Now the Panionion is a
sacred place on the north side of Mycale, set apart by common
agreement of the Ionians for Poseidon of Helike[152]; and this Mycale
is a promontory of the mainland running out Westwards towards Samos,
where the Ionians gathering together from their cities used to hold a
festival which they called the Panionia. (And not only the feasts of
the Ionians but also those of all the Hellenes equally are subject to
this rule, that their names all end in the same letter, just like the
names of the Persians.)[153]
These then are the Ionian cities: 149, and those of Aiolia are as
follows:--Kyme, which is called Phriconis, Larisai, Neon-teichos,
Temnos, Killa, Notion, Aigiroëssa, Pitane, Aigaiai, Myrina, Gryneia;
these are the ancient cities of the Aiolians, eleven in number, since
one, Smyrna, was severed from them by the Ionians; for these cities,
that is those on the mainland, used also formerly to be twelve in
number. And these Aiolians had the fortune to settle in a land which
is more fertile than that of the Ionians but in respect of climate
less favoured.[154]
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