Читать книгу The Herodotus Encyclopedia - Группа авторов - Страница 811

JOSEF WIESEHÖFER

University of Kiel

For Herodotus, Astyages is the last king of the MEDES, the son of CYAXARES and brother‐in‐law of the Lydian king CROESUS. Astyages’ grandson CYRUS (II) overthrows his rule (1.107–30). Originally, the Medes, who freed themselves from Assyrian rule (1.95.2), were given the chance to have a free form of government, but they quickly fell for the tyranny of DEIOCES (1.96.1). Under the latter’s successors, the Medes had, after initial expansionist successes, suffered setbacks due to Scythian invasions (1.103.3). A second expansion of Median power under Cyaxares, which even ASSYRIA could not resist, had been limited by the Lydians in the west, with whom the Medes had sought and found a settlement (political MARRIAGE between Astyages and ARYENIS, the daughter of ALYATTES and sister of Croesus: 1.74). However, both new partners—Astyages and Croesus—lose the power inherited from their fathers to the Persian Cyrus, the son of Astyages’ and Aryenis’ daughter MANDANE and the Persian vassal CAMBYSES (I).

Like his brother‐in‐law, Astyages contributes to his own downfall with sacrilegious deeds: he commits injustice by ordering his infant grandson Cyrus to be killed, when dream‐interpreters portray him as a future rival for power (1.108); he punishes Harpagus, who had not correctly executed the order, in an unimaginably cruel way by means of a “banquet of Atreus” (1.119); and finally he sanctions the MAGI who, like the king himself, had not fully grasped the import of the DREAMS that heralded Cyrus’ reign (1.128.2). It is these intrigues and the harshness of the despot Astyages that make Cyrus and the Persians become rebellious and persuade parts of the Medes to join them (1.125–27). Astyages is defeated in battle but spared by Cyrus. Later, the Medes are said to have regretted their alliance with the Persians and therefore to have revolted from DARIUS I (1.130).

If one takes the Near Eastern tradition into account, there is no evidence for the Median “vassalage” of the Persians. Herodotus’ political marriages, which connect the great powers of the Near East (Lydians, Babylonians, Medes) with each other, also remain a dead letter; they are, nevertheless, relevant to the structure of his work. Astyages (Babylonian Ištumēgu < OIr. *R&c.dotbl;šti‐vaiga‐, “Spear swinger”) is, however, mentioned in the so‐called Chronicle of Nabonidus from BABYLON (ABC 7 in Grayson 1975): in Nabonidus’ sixth year (10 March 550 to 28 March 549 BCE—a leap year with thirteen moons), the chronicle records Astyages’ fatal campaign against the Persians under Cyrus of Anshan, the desertion of Median troops, and the capture and looting of the royal city Ecbatana by Cyrus’ army. It is also worth mentioning that the later Median rebels against Darius (cf. the BISITUN inscription) do not refer back to Astyages, but to his successful predecessor Cyaxares.

SEE ALSO: Anthropophagy; Despotism; Ecbatana (Median); Harpagus the Mede; Labynetus; Lydia; Near Eastern History; Rebellion