CC 301 1st Edition Lecture 9Outline of Last Lecture I. An elaborate description of sculptures, paintings, statues and other Grecian art. Outline of Current Lecture II. The Medes III. Astayages vs OedipusIV. Cyrus the GreatV. Cambyses demise through ApisVI. The MagiVII. Spartan GovernmentCurrent LectureThe MedesHerodotus starts out his history in book 1, talking about the kingdom of Lydia. Lydia is kind ofan intermediate point, a transitional point between the Greek and Asian world. Originally the dominant groups in Persia were the Medes. They were the Northern branch of thePersians. They occupied the territory known as Southern Iran. The Medes were dominant and thePersians were subject to them. Atayages vs OedipusAstayages was the king of the Media’s in the early 6th century. He had a dream, narrated in partof book 1; two dreams actually about his pregnant daughter. In one dream she urinated soprofusely that the whole world turned into a swamp. The other dream was that a vine emergedout of her genitals and took over the whole world. These dreams were pretense that somethingvery strange would happen with the child she was pregnant with who would somehow come todominate the entire world. Mandane (daughter) was married to a Persian. The concern to the herfather was that if she gave birth to a male child who would dominate the world, then the Persianswould be dominant because of the father’s side, so he gave a word to Harpegas to kill the kid assoon as it was born. Harpegas did not really like this duty, so he just gave the child to a shepherdand told the shepherd to kill it. However, the shepherd’s wife who had just had a stillborn childsaid they should take this child and raise him as their own and pretend the corpse of their deadbaby was the child they had been assigned to kill. (This is a very common mythological tale,much like Oedipus). It was eventually discovered by Astayages that this child had not been killedbecause he was playing a game with some of the other village children about who would be king,and beat up another child that was noble and wouldn’t obey him. These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.Astayages relented but punished Harpegas because he couldn’t stand dishonesty. InvitesHarpegas to a dinner and unknown to Harpegas he has killed his two sons and cooks them asdinner. It’s a descendent of the myth about Pelops and his son Thyastes. The point being made isthat a lot of the motifs in Persian legends are very similar to motifs in Greek mythology. Somepeople would say Herodotus is making them up but more likely, they come out of a commonfolklore tradition. Harpegus is really resentful of Astayages at this time and plots to get revengeby recruiting the young Cyrus to start a rebellion among the Persians against the rule of KingAstayages. The real parallel to the Oedipus myth, is that by trying to forbid what would happenaccording to his dreams, he actually fulfills it. Cyrus the GreatCyrus becomes the next king and in a way it’s appropriate being the grandson, but his fatherCambiasis was a Persian so properly speaking Cyrus was a Persian king so the royalty linechanges. Cyrus was very ambitious and extended the Persian rule into Lydia, Anatolia, Babylon,Mesopotamia and even two areas to the east of Persian such as India. But that part was more ofwhat is now Pakistan. The story about his conquest of Lydia is interesting because King Cresuswho was also very wealthy and ambitious thought he would be able to defeat the Persians.Cresus went to the Delphic oracle for the a prophecy and she said that if he attacked a greatempire would be destroyed which he assumed to be Persia, but as so often these oracles areambiguous and what it really meant was that his own kingdom of Lydia would be destroyed.Cyrus ultimately meets his death in 530 after ruling 29 years, he meets his deathundertaking an exposition against Massagetae. Very flat plains with nomadic peoples. It wasreally unclear why Cyrus would have found it advantageous to go up there. His son, Cambisis(named after his father?). The Persians similar to the Greeks named kids after their grandfathers.Cambisis had his eyes on Egypt; he sent a message to the Pharoah of Egypt named Amasis, anddemanded the pharaohs daughter to be one of his concubines. But, the pharaoh of Egypt foundthat to be rather humiliating because she was not being made a proper wife. But then he sent thedaughter of the previous pharaoh disguised as his own daughter. The Egyptians were soaccustomed to deceit and trickery that they never supposed her to tell the truth; contrast to truthtelling Persians. Conflict of cultural values which leads to the conflict between Egypt and Persia.Civilizations committed to different world systems. Cambisis found out about the deceit givinghim another reason to call war on Egypt. Cambyses demise through Apis.During Cambisis’ campaign a cat was born in Egypt said to be the reincarnation of thegod Apis. Egyptians considered their gods to be partially animals: thereomorphic, just as greekreligion was anthromorphic in that the greeks considered their gods to have human form. This isall very much the opposite of Persian religion who had a very abstract notion of divinity. Non-corporeal concept. Wasn’t monotheistic necessarily but related to what Xenophanes said aboutthe gods. Cambisis was so against the Egyptians notion that to disprove the divinity of the cat, hestabbed it and it eventually died. Herodotus found it to be a great sacrilege because it was soinsulting and contemptuous of another religion. This is not inconsistent with the tradition ofcontempt for idols in Jewish tradition inherited into Christianity and Islam.After Cambisis stabbed the cat, he was afflicted with madness and started makingirrational decisions. Ultimately, a few years later, Cambisis has an accident stabbing himself withhis own sword when trying to get on his horse; stabbed in same place he stabbed the divine cat.Herodotus reasons that this is a type of divine retribution. Herodotus is a believer in religioustolerance; this is a mark of Persian arrogance mocking other people’s religion. Cambisis launceda number of expeditions that made no sense at all, against the Amonians who inhabited a desertOasis. Expedition