24 - Cyrus the Great

"O man, whoever you are and wherever you come from, for I know you will come, I am Cyrus who won the Persians their empire. Do not therefore begrudge me this bit of earth that covers my bones."
Epitaph of Cyrus from Plutarch's: The Life of Alexander

In this recently uncovered 4th century pixel art, we see a young prince Cyrus battling his grandfather Astyages for control of the kingdom. Gosh, things were so lifelike back then!
(source: Prince of Persia THE ORIGINAL OF COURSE)

We're mooooving right along with our next exciting chapter of podcast history! As we take a look at Cyrus' great life (see what I did there) you'll be sure to notice a theme in his birth - very similar to other kings like Oedipus and Romulus. Not that Cyrus is legendary mind you, but when the details of your birth are a bit of a mystery, you get to spread some pretty cool rumors and get away with it!


MP3 Download

Music Credits
http://persia.org/audio.html
Artist unknown! All I know it's a sample called KCD104.wav but it sounds like it came from a record. I hate using copyright risky music, but I love this sound so much!

Resources:
The four great empires post-Assyria
So you want to learn Old Persian? Harvard's got just what you need!
Myson Amphora - depicting Croesus about to be immolated
Great essay on Lydian coinage with a fantastically clear photo of an early Lydian gold coin.
Ooo neat Cyrus woodcuts!
The Cyrus Cylinder - a nice article from the Iran Chamber Society

~~~ The Cyrus Cylinder is coming to the US for 2013! ~~~

Cyrus' tomb: still standing today!
Engineering an Empire : The Persians (one of the BEST History Channel shows ever)

Queen Tomyris (Tahm-Rayish)
A very popular motif in art! Although I think her status as warlord is lessened a bit when she's made to wear an oversized poofy medieval dress.
Andrea del Castagno
Head of Cyrus Brought to Queen Tomyris - Peter Paul Rubens
The Revenge of Tomyris - Michiel Coxcie ($78,000? A steal!)
Tomyris - Alexander Zick (yeah! on the battlefield!)
Tomyris Medieval Woodcut (Johannes Zainer?) totally anachronistic but love it!