Identifier: cu31924091762140 Title: History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia and Assyria Year: 1903 (1900s) Authors: Maspero, G. (Gaston), 1846-1916 Sayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry), 1845-1933 Subjects: Civilization, Ancient History, Ancient Publisher: London : Grolier Society Contributing Library: Cornell University Library Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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Text Appearing Before Image: flood not only Ecbatana, but the whole of Asia,and the interpreters, as much terrified as himself,counselled him not to give Mandane in marriage to a Mede. He there-fore bestowedher hand on aPersian noble ofthe race of theAchsemenids,named Camby-ses; but a seconddream soon trou-bled the securityinto which this union had lulled him : he saw issuing fromhis daughters womb a vine whose branches overshadowedAsia, and the interpreters, being once more consulted,predicted that a grandson was about to be born to himwhose ambition would cost him his crown. He thereforebade a certain nobleman of his court, named Harpagus—hewhose descendants preserved this version of the story ofCyrus—to seize the infant and put it to death as soon asits mother should give it birth; but the man, touched withpity, caused the child to be exposed in the woods byone of the royal shepherds. A bitch gave suck to the tinycreature, who, however, would soon have succumbed to Drawn by Boudier, from Coste and Flandin.

Text Appearing After Image: REMAINS OP THE PALACE OF ECBATANA. THE FALL OP THE MEDIAN EMPIRE 43 the inclemency of the weather, had not the shepherdswife, being lately delivered of a still-born son, persuadedher husband to rescue the infant, whom she nursed withthe same tenderness as if he had been her own child. Thedog was, as we know, a sacred animal among the Iranians :the incident of the bitch seems, then, to have beenregarded by them as an indication of divine intervention,but the Greeks were shocked by the idea, and invented anexplanation consonant with their own customs. Theysupposed that the woman had borne the name of Spak6:Spak6 signifying hitch in the language of Media.^ Cyrusgrew to boyhood, and being accepted by Mandane as herson, returned to the court; his grandfather consented tospare his life, but, to avenge himself on Harpagus, hecaused the limbs of the noblemans own son to be servedup to him at a feast. Thenceforth Harpagus had but oneidea, to overthrow the tyrant and transfer the crown to theyo

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