1.111.3
and immediately I saw a child lying there struggling and crying, adorned in gold and embroidered clothing. And when Harpagus saw me, he told me to take the child in haste and bring it away and leave it where the mountains are the most infested with wild beasts. It was Astyages, he said, who enjoined this on me, and Harpagus threatened me grievously if I did not do it.
1.111.4
So I took him and brought him away, supposing him to be the child of one of the servants; for I could never have guessed whose he was. But I was amazed at seeing him adorned with gold and clothing, and at hearing, too, the evident sound of weeping in the house of Harpagus.
1.111.5
Very soon on the way I learned the whole story from the servant who brought me out of the city and gave the child into my custody: namely, that it was the son of Mandane the king's daughter and Cambyses the son of Cyrus, and that Astyages gave the command to kill him. And now, here he is.”
ch. 112
1.112.1
And as he said this the cowherd uncovered it and showed it. But when the woman saw how fine and fair the child was, she began to cry and laid hold of the man's knees and begged him by no means to expose him. But the husband said he could not do otherwise; for, he said, spies would be coming from Harpagus to see what was done, and he would have to die a terrible death if he did not obey.
1.112.2
Being unable to move her husband, the woman then said: “Since I cannot convince you not to expose it, then, if a child has to be seen exposed, do this: I too have borne a child, but I bore it dead.
1.112.3
Take this one and put it out, but the child of the daughter of Astyages let us raise as if it were our own; this way, you won't be caught disobeying our masters, and we will not have plotted badly. For the dead child will have royal burial, and the living will not lose his life.”
ch. 113
1.113.1
Thinking that his wife advised him excellently in his present strait, the cowherd immediately did as she said. He gave his wife the child whom he had brought to kill, and his own dead child he put into the chest in which he carried the other,
1.113.2
and dressed it with all the other child's finery and left it out in the most desolate part of the mountains. Then on the third day after leaving the child out, the cowherd left one of his herdsmen to watch it and went to the city, where he went to Harpagus' house and said he was ready to show the child's dead body.
1.113.3
Harpagus sent the most trusted of his bodyguard, and these saw for him and buried the cowherd's child. So it was buried: and the cowherd's wife kept and raised the boy who was afterwards named Cyrus; but she did not give him that name, but another.
ch. 114
1.114.1
Now when the boy was ten years old, the truth about him was revealed in some such way as this. He was playing in the village where these herdsmen's quarters were, playing in the road with others of his age. The boys while playing chose to be their king this one who was supposed to be the son of the cowherd.
1.114.2
Then he assigned some of them to the building of houses, some to be his bodyguard, one doubtless to be the King's Eye; to another he gave the right of bringing him messages; to each he gave his proper work.
1.114.3
Now one of these boys playing with him was the son of Artembares, a notable Mede; when he did not perform his assignment from Cyrus, Cyrus told the other boys to seize him, and when they did so he handled the boy very roughly and whipped him.
1.114.4
As soon as he was let go, very upset about the indignity he had suffered, he went down to his father in the city and complained of what he had received at the hands of the son of Astyages' cowherd—not calling him Cyrus, for that name had not yet been given.
1.114.5
Artembares, going just as angry as he was to Astyages and bringing his son along, announced that an impropriety had been committed, saying, “O King, by your slave, the son of a cowherd, we have been outraged thus”: and with that he bared his son's shoulders.
ch. 115
1.115.1
When Astyages heard and saw, he was ready to avenge the boy in view of Artembares' rank: so he sent for the cowherd and his son. When they were both present, Astyages said, fixing his eyes on Cyrus,
1.115.2
“Is it you, then, the child of one such as this, who have dared to lay hands on the son of the greatest of my courtiers?” Cyrus answered, “Master, what I did to him I did with justice. The boys of the village, of whom he was one, chose me while playing to be their king, for they thought me the most fit for this.
1.115.3
The other boys then did as assigned: but this one was disobedient and cared nothing for me, for which he got what he deserved. Now, if I deserve punishment for this, here I am to take it.”
