Phemius, let acts of gods and heroes old,
What ancient bards in hall and bower have told,
Attemper'd to the lyre your voice employ,
Such the pleased ear will drink with silent joy.[85]
And this custom was preserved among the barbarians, as Dinon tells us in his history of Persia. Accordingly, the poets used to celebrate the valour of the elder Cyrus, and they foresaw the war which was going to be waged against Astyages. "For when," says he, "Cyrus had begun his march against the Persians, (and he had previously been the commander of the guards, and afterwards of the heavy-armed troops there, and then he left;) and while Astyages was sitting at a banquet with his friends, then a man, whose name was Angares, (and he was the most illustrious of his minstrels,) being called in, sang other things, such as were customary, and at last he said that—
A mighty monster is let loose at last
Into the marsh, fiercer than wildest boar;
And when once master of the neighbouring ground
It soon will fight with ease 'gainst numerous hosts.
And when Astyages asked him what monster he meant, he said—'Cyrus the Persian.' And so the king, thinking that his suspicions were well founded, sent people to recal Cyrus, but did not succeed in doing so."