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Isa_41:25
To contemplate the early life of such a man, therefore, becomes a matter of very peculiar interest, and we may well rejoice in the possession of sufficient materials for this purpose, in going through which we are continually struck by the occurrence not only of many signal providences, but by the repeated and distinct acknowledgment, on his own part and that of his heathen biographers, that a Divine providence watched over his early days, and preserved him from the many dangers to which he was exposed.
To bring out this important point, corroborative of the Divine nomination so emphatically announced by Isaiah, as well as because the story is in itself highly interesting, we shall glance over his early history, chiefly as recorded in the pages of Herodotus. It is not unknown to us that the authority of this account has been considered questionable, nor is it for us to maintain its accuracy in all its points. The time of the historian was, however, not so remote from that of Cyrus, as that the leading facts of the history, as learned by him in Persia, should have been forgotten or have become obscured; and it is certain that our enlarged acquaintance with the usages of the Eastern courts and with Oriental nations, has rather confirmed than weakened the authority of the narrative, by showing that it is at least truth-like, and hence the more probably true. That also it is not at variance with, but rather confirms and illustrates, the Scriptural intimations, is a circumstance greatly in its favor. Besides, it has now ceased to be the fashion to impugn the authority of Herodotus, as all modern discovery and research, in history, antiquities, and local usages, have tended in a remarkable degree, to restore the credit of the much-wronged “father of history.”
We shall, therefore, give the substance of this narrative in our own way, and then point out how the Scripture warrants the conclusions which even the heathens were constrained to deduce from it. Astyages, the reigning king of the Medes, was the son of Cyaxares, by whom the Assyian empire had been subdued, and the Median power consolidated. He had a daughter called Mandane, who had a dream which, as explained by the magi, the interpreters of dreams, filled her father with great alarm. She was then of marriageable age; but Astyages, fearing the presage, instead of uniting her to a Mede of condition suited to her high rank, gave her in marriage to a Persian named Cambyses, a man of quiet temper, and who, although of noble birth, was, as one of the tributary race, regarded by the king as inferior to the lowest of the Medes. All now seemed safe. But in the first year of the marriage, Astyages himself dreamed that a vine sprang from his daughter, which covered all Asia. Having again consulted the interpreter, he sent for his daughter from Persia, that the expected birth of her child might take place at home. When she arrived, the king, her father, kept her strictly guarded, having resolved that her offspring should not live; for the Magian interpreters had declared the dream to portend, that the son of Mandane should displace him from the throne. To prevent this, no sooner was the infant born than the king sent for Harpagus, a nobleman with whom he was intimate, and whom of all the Medes, he deemed most trustworthy, and who managed all his affairs “Harpagus,” said he, “I commit to you an affair in which, if you are remiss, or betray me by employing others, the consequences will inevitably fall upon yourself. Take, then, the infant son of Mundane, carry it home, and destroy and bury it in the way that seems best to you.” To hear was to obey, or at least to seem to do so. Harpagus loudly professed his devotedness, and took the child away with him. But in secret his heart revolted at the task imposed upon him, and the tears of deep compassion flowed fast before he reached his home. On his arrival there, he made known to his wife what had passed between him and the king. “And what,” asked she, “do you purpose to do?” “Not,” he replied, “to execute the command of Astyages. No; were he to become more mad and unreasonable than he is, I am not the man to yield to his will, or to make myself the instrument of such a crime. There are indeed many reasons why I should not destroy this babe, which is, in fact, allied to me: besides, Astyages is old, and has no son; and if, after his death, the sovereign authority should descend to his daughter, whose son he now wishes me to destroy, what can I expect but to incur great danger? Yet for my own safety,” he added, after a pause, “it is necessary that the boy should die: but some of the king’s own people, and not I or mine, shall perpetrate the murder.” He accordingly sent a messenger to bring to him one of the king’s herdsmen, whom he knew to feed his flock in a mountainous district infested by wild beasts, and therefore fit for the object he had in view. This man’s name was Mithridates, whose wife and fellow-servant was called by the Medes, Space, but in the Greek tongue Cyno. This herdsman kept his flock at the foot of a mountain Note: Now called Elburz. north of Ecbatana Note: Now called Hamadan.—this part of Media abounding in lofty mountains covered with forests. The man arrived without delay, and Harpagus said to him, “Astyages commands you to take this infant, and to expose it in the most solitary part of the mountains, where most speedily it may be destroyed; and he enjoins me to tell you, that if you fail to kill the babe, or suffer him to survive, you will subject yourself to the heaviest punishment.” Having heard these commands, and received the child, the herdsman set forth on his return, and soon reached his cottage. “It happened by a divine providence,” says the historian, “that a son was born to the man while absent in the city.” His wife and he were both at the same time anxious for each other’s fate—he for the safe delivery, and she for her husband’s return; for it was then, as now, a serious matter in the East for a peasant or other poor person to be sent for by a great man. When, therefore, beyond her hopes, her husband returned so speedily and uninjured, she eagerly questioned him respecting the business on which he had been so urgently summoned by Harpagus. He answered, “O wife, I have seen and heard in the city, things that ought not to be seen or to take place among our masters. The house of Harpagus was filled with weeping, and I, when I entered, felt my heart sick within me; for I beheld a babe lying on the floor, sobbing and crying, and dressed in many clothes, Note: This, no doubt, indicated him as a child nobly, if not royally born. The reader will remember how the brethren of Joseph envied him the “coat of many colors,” with which his father’s partiality distinguished him. embroidered with gold; and Harpagus, as soon as he saw me, commanded me instantly to take the infant, and, carrying him away, to expose him on some part of the mountains most infested with wild beasts, saying that Astyages laid these commands upon me, and adding many threats if I failed to fulfill them. I therefore took the child, and have brought him, supposing at first that he belonged to one of the servants, for I could not imagine from whence he really came; yet I was amazed at the gold and rich apparel, and in recollecting the grief apparent in the family of Harpagus. When, however, I was upon the road, accompanied by a servant who left the city with me, and who delivered the infant into my arms, I learned the truth; for he told me the child was the son of Mandane, the daughter of Astyages, and of Cambyses, and that Astyages had ordered him to be killed. This, then, is the whole affair.”
Having said this, the herdsman uncovered the infant, and the woman, seeing so fine and lovely a babe, clasped her husband’s knees, and with tears implored that it might by no means be slain. But he declared it could not be otherwise, for that persons would come from Harpagus to see the child’s corpse, and if he neglected the unpleasant duty which had been imposed upon him, his own life would be forfeited. Seeing that she could not thus prevail, the woman resorted to another argument. “Since I cannot dissuade you from exposing the child, and as one must of necessity be seen laid out, do thus: I have this day brought forth a son, but not a living one; expose this, therefore, and the son of the daughter of Astyages we will rear as one of our own: thus you will neither be caught wronging your masters, nor shall mischief be devised against us: the dead will obtain royal burial, and the living will not perish.” The humane herdsman eagerly caught at this expedient. He gave to his wife the child that was to have died, and, taking his own dead son, he placed it in the basket in which he had brought the other, together with all its rich habiliments. This he conveyed to a desolate part of the mountains, and left it there. Three days after he repaired to the city, leaving one of his servants in charge of the body. Presenting himself to Harpagus, he declared that he was ready to exhibit the dead infant. Harpagus therefore dispatched some of his most trusty attendants, and by them saw and interred the son of the herdsman. The woman therefore nursed him who was afterwards called Cyrus; for that was not the name she gave him.