Histories

There are many reasons why I will not kill him: because the child is related to me, and because Astyages is old and has no male children.

Now if the sovereignty passes to this daughter of his after his death, whose son he is now killing by means of me, what is left for me but the gravest of all dangers? For the sake of my safety this child has to die; but one of Astyages' own people has to be the murderer and not one of mine.”

So saying, he sent a messenger at once to one of Astyages' cowherds, who he knew pastured his herds in the likeliest spots and where the mountains were most infested with wild beasts. The man's name was Mitradates, and his wife was a slave like him; her name was in the Greek language Cyno, in the Median Spako: for “spax” is the Median word for dog.

The foothills of the mountains where this cowherd pastured his cattle are north of Hamadan [48.583,34.766] (inhabited place), Hamadan, Iran, Asia Ecbatana, towards the Black Sea [38,42] (sea)Euxine sea; for the rest of Media is everywhere a level plain, but here, on the side of the Saspires,[*](In the north-western part of Media: modern Azerbaijan [47.5,40.5] (nation), Asia Azerbaijan.) the land is very high and mountainous and covered with woods.

So when the cowherd came in haste at the summons, Harpagus said: “Astyages wants you to take this child and leave it in the most desolate part of the mountains so that it will perish as quickly as possible. And he wants me to tell you that if you do not kill it, but preserve it somehow, you will undergo the most harrowing death; and I am ordered to see it exposed.”