Sykes' History of Persia - Heritage Institute

XIII THE RISE OF PERSIA 151
criticism on several points.
For one thing, Herodotus was
not aware that Cyrus was (as will be shown later) King
of Anshan ; nor, it is to be presumed, would Astyages
have wished to murder his only descendant. The story,
too, of the woman Spaco obviously contains the Iranian
legend that their great king was suckled by
a bitch.
Herodotus would not be likely to know that dogs were
held in special honour by the tenets of Zoroastrianism.
The sacred bitch of the real legend is transformed through
the ignorance of the Greek historian into a woman named
Spaco. But this very mistake is a striking testimony to
his honesty and shows how truthful and accurate he strove
to be. Indeed, but for the " Father of History," there
would be many lacunae in our knowledge of this obscure
period.
Fresh Light on Persian History.— Until comparatively
recently the account just given was generally accepted :
but the discovery of the famous cylinders of Nabonidus
and of Cyrus has changed the whole situation ; and I
now propose to deal with the question in the light of these
important documents. It appears that, just as in the case
of Media, a strong man arose and welded the loose congeries
of tribes into a nation, although,
in the case of the
Persians, their remoteness from the civilized powers of
the Tigris and Euphrates hindered the process of organiza-
tion and development.
Achaemenes^ the Founder of the Royal Family.—The
founder of the Persian monarchy was Achaemenes, Prince
of the tribe of Pasargadae ; his capital was the city bear-
ing the same name, ruins of which, dating from the era of
Cyrus the Great, still exist. No definite acts can be traced
to Achaemenes, after whom the dynasty was named : but
the fact that his memory was highly revered, tends to
prove that he did in truth mould the tribes of rude
Persians into a nation before they stepped on to the stage
of history.^ His son Teispes took advantage of the defenceless
condition of Elam to occupy the district of
^ Achaemenes is held by some to be a semi-legendary figure fed, like Zal, by an
eagle during infancy : but I cannot help feeling that we are dealing with an historical
personage, as Achaemenes headed no long line, but, on the contrary, was only four
generations removed from Cyrus.