The sequel of this apparently more primitive report agrees essentially with the relation of Herodotus.
An altogether different version of the Kyros myth is extant in the report of a contemporary of Herodotus, Ktesias, the original of which has been lost, but is replaced by a fragment of Nikolaos of Damaskos. [48] This fragment from Nikolaos summarizes the narrative of Ktesias, which comprised more than an entire book in his Persian history. Astyages is said to have been the worthiest king of the Medes, after Abakes. Under his rule occurred the great transmutation through which the rulership passed from the Medes to the Persians, through the following cause: The Medes had a law that a poor man who went to a rich man for his support, and surrendered himself to him, had to be fed and clothed and kept like a slave by the rich man, or in case the latter refused to do so, the poor man was at liberty to go elsewhere. In this way a boy by name of Kyros, a Mard by birth, came to the king’s servant who was at the head of the palace sweepers. Kyros was the son of Atradates, whose poverty made him live as a robber, and whose wife, Argoste, Kyros’ mother, made her living by tending the goats. Kyros surrendered himself for the sake of his daily bread, and helped to clean the palace. As he was diligent, the foreman gave him better clothing, and advanced him from the outside sweepers to those who cleaned the interior of the king’s palace, placing him under their superintendent. This man was severe, however, and often whipped Kyros. He left him and went to the lamp-lighter, who liked Kyros, and approached him to the king, by placing him among the royal torch bearers. As Kyros distinguished himself also in his new position, he came to Artembares, who was at the head of the cup bearers, and himself presented the cup to the king. Artembares gladly accepted Kyros, and bade him pour the wine for the guests at the king’s table. Not long afterwards, Astyages noticed the dexterity and nimbleness of Kyros’ service, and his graceful presentation of the wine cup, so that he asked of Artembares whence this youth had come who was so skillful a cup bearer. “O Lord,” spake he, “this boy is thy slave, of Persian parentage, from the tribe of the Mards, who has surrendered himself to me to make a living.” Artembares was old, and once on being attacked by a fever, he prayed the king to let him stay at home until he had recovered. “In my stead, the youth whom thou hast praised will pour the wine, and if he should please thee, the king, as a cup bearer, I, who am an eunuch, will adopt him as my son.” Astyages consented, but the other confided in many ways in Kyros as in a son. Kyros thus stood at the king’s side, and poured his wine by day and by night, showing great ability and cleverness. Astyages conferred upon him the income of Artembares, as if he had been his son, adding many presents, and Kyros became a great man whose name was heard everywhere.
Astyages had a very noble and beautiful daughter, [49] whom he gave to the Mede Spitamas, adding all Media as her dowry. Then Kyros sent for his father and mother, in the land of the Medes, and they rejoiced in the good fortune of their son, and his mother told him the dream which she had at the time that she was bearing him, while asleep in the sanctuary as she was tending the goats. So much water passed away from her that it became as a large stream, inundating all Asia, and flowing as far as the sea. When the father heard this, he ordered the dream to be placed before the Chaldeans in Babylon. Kyros summoned the wisest among them, and communicated the dream to him. He declared that the dream foretold great good fortune to Kyros, and the highest dignity in Asia; but Astyages must not learn of it, “for else he would disgracefully kill thee, as well as myself the interpreter,” said the Babylonian. They swore to each other to tell no one of this great and incomparable vision. Kyros later on rose to still higher dignities, created his father a Satrap of Persia, and raised his mother to the highest rank and possessions among the Persian women. But when the Babylonian was killed soon afterwards by Oebares, the confidant of Kyros, his wife betrayed the fateful dream to the king, when she learned of Kyros’ expedition to Persia, which he had undertaken in preparation of the revolt. The king sent his horsemen after Kyros, with the command to deliver him dead or alive. But Kyros escaped them by a ruse. Finally a combat took place, terminating in the defeat of the Medes. Kyros also conquered Egbatana, and here the daughter of Astyages and her husband Spitamas, with their two sons, were taken prisoners. But Astyages himself could not be found, for Amytis and Spitamas had concealed him in the palace, under the rafters of the roof. Kyros then ordered that Amytis, her husband, and the children should be tortured until they revealed the hiding place of Astyages, but he came out voluntarily, that his relatives might not be tortured on his account. Kyros commanded the execution of Spitamas, because he had lied in affirming to be in ignorance of Astyages’ hiding place; but Amytis became the wife of Kyros. He removed the fetters of Astyages, with which Oebares had bound him, honored him as a father, and made him a Satrap of the Barkanians.
A great similarity to Herodotus’ version of the Kyros myth is found in the early history of the Iranese royal hero, Kaikhosrav, as related by Firdusi, in the Sâh-nâme. This myth is most extensively rendered by Spiegel (Eranische Altertumskunde, I, 581 et seq.). During the warfare of King Kaikaus of Baktria and Iran, against King Afrâsiâb of Turan, Kaikaus fell out with his son, Siâvaksh, who applied to Afrâsiâb for protection and assistance. He was kindly received by Afrâsiâb, who gave him his daughter Feringis to wife, on the persuasion of his Wesir, Pirân, although he had received the prophecy that the son to be born of this union would bring great misfortune upon him. Garsevaz, the king’s brother, and a near relative of Siâvaksh, calumniates the son-in-law, and Afrâsiâb leads an army against him. Before the birth of his son, Siâvaksh is warned by a dream, which foretold destruction and death to himself, but royalty to his offspring. He therefore flies from Afrâsiâb, but is taken prisoner and killed, on the command of the Sâh. His wife, who is pregnant, is saved by Pirân from the hands of the murderers. On condition of announcing at once the delivery of Feringis to the king, Pirân is granted permission to keep her in his house. The shade of the murdered Siâvaksh once comes to him in a dream, and tells him that an avenger has been born, and Pirân actually finds in the room of Feringis a newborn boy, whom he names Kaikhosrav. Afrâsiâb no longer insisted upon the killing of the boy, but he ordered Pirân to surrender the child with a nurse to the herders, who were to raise him in ignorance of his origin. But his royal descent is promptly revealed in his courage and his demeanor; and as Pirân takes the boy back into his home, Afrâsiâb becomes distrustful, and orders the boy to be led before him. Instructed by Pirân, Kaikhosvrav plays the fool, [50] and reassured as to his harmlessness, the Sâh dismisses him to his mother, Feringis. Finally, Kaikhosvrav is crowned as king by his grandfather, Kaikaus. After prolonged, complicated, and tedious combats, Afrâsiâb is at last taken prisoner, with divine assistance. Kaikhosvrav strikes his head off, and also causes Garsivaz to be decapitated.
A certain resemblance, although more remote, to the preceding saga, is presented by the Iranese myth of Feridun, as told by Firdusi in his “Persian Hero-Myths” (translated by Schack). Zohâk, [51] the king of Iran, once sees in a dream three men of royal tribe. Two of them are bent with age, but between them is a younger man who holds a club, with a bull’s head, in his right hand; this man steps up to him, and fells him with his club to the ground. The dream interpreters declared to the king that the young hero who will dethrone him is Feridun, a scion of the tribe of Dschemschid. Zohâk at once sets out to look for the tracks of his dreaded enemy. Feridun is the son of Abtin, a grandson of Dschemschid. His father hides from the pursuit of the tyrant, but he is seized and killed. Feridun himself, a boy of tender age, is saved by his mother Firânek, who escapes with him and entrusts him to the care of the guardian of a distant forest. Here he is suckled by the cow Purmâje. For three years he remains in this place, but then his mother no longer believes him safe, and she carries him to a hermit on the mountain Alburs. Soon afterwards Zohâk comes to the forest, and kills the guardian as well as the cow.
When Feridun was sixteen years old, he came down from Mount Alburs, learned of his origin through his mother, and swore to avenge the death of his father and of his nurse. On the expedition against Zohâk he is accompanied by his two older brothers, Purmâje and Kayânuseh. He orders a club to be forged for his use, and ornaments it with the bull’s head, in memory of his foster mother the cow. With this club he smites Zohâk, as foretold by the dream.
Tristan
The argument of the Feridun story is pursued in the Tristan saga, as related in the epic poem by Gottfried of Strassburg. This is especially evident in the prologue of the Tristan-saga, which is repeated later on in the adventures of the hero himself (duplication). Riwalin, king in the land of the Parmenians, in an expedition to the court of Marke, king of Kurnewal and England, had become acquainted with the latter’s beautiful sister, Blancheflure, and his heart was aflame with love for her. While assisting Marke in a campaign, Riwalin was mortally wounded and was carried to Tintajole. Blancheflure, disguised as a beggar maid, hastened to his sick bed, and her devoted love saved the king’s life. She fled with her lover to his native land (obstacles) and was there proclaimed as his consort. But Morgan attacked Riwalin’s country, for the sake of Blancheflure, whom the king entrusted to his faithful retainer Rual, because she was carrying a child. Rual placed the queen for safekeeping in the castle of Kaneel. Here she gave birth to a son and died, while her husband fell in the battle against Morgan. In order to protect the king’s offspring from Morgan’s pursuits, Rual spread the rumor that the infant had been born dead. The boy was named Tristan, because he had been conceived and born in sorrow. Under the care of his foster-parents, Tristan grew up, equally straight in body and mind, until his fourteenth year, when he was kidnapped by Norwegian merchants, who put him ashore in Kurnewal, because they feared the wrath of the gods. Here the boy was found by the soldiers of King Marke, who was so well pleased with the brave and handsome youth that he promptly made him his master of the chase (career), and held him in great affection. Meanwhile, faithful Rual had set forth to seek his abducted foster son, whom he found at last in Kurnewal, where Rual had come begging his way. Rual revealed Tristan’s descent to the king, who was delighted to see in him the son of his beloved sister, and raised him to the rank of a knight. In order to avenge his father, Tristan proceeded with Rual to Parmenia, vanquished Morgan, the usurper, and gave the country to Rual as a liege, while he himself returned to his uncle Marke. (After Chop: Erläuterungen zu Wagner’s Tristan, Reclam Bibl.)
The actual Tristan saga goes on with a repetition of the principal themes. In the service of Marke, Tristan kills Morald, the bridegroom of Isolde, and being wounded unto death, he is saved by Isolde. He asks her hand in marriage, for his uncle Marke, fulfils the condition of killing a dragon, and she follows him reluctantly to Kurnewal, where they travel by ship. On the journey they partake unwittingly of the disastrous love potion, which binds them together in frenzied passion. They betray the king, Marke, and on the wedding night Isolde’s faithful serving maid, Brangäne, represents the queen, and sacrifices her virginity to the king. Next follows the banishment of Tristan, his several attempts to regain his beloved, although he had meanwhile married Isolde Whitehand, who resembled her. At last he is again wounded unto death, and Isolde arrives too late to save him. [52]
A plainer version of the Tristan-saga, in the sense of the characteristic features of the myth of the birth of the hero, is found in the fairy tale, “The True Bride,” quoted by Riklin (“Wunscherfüllung und Symbolik im Märchen,” p. 56) [53] from Rittershaus’ collection of fairy tales (XXVII, p. 113). A royal pair have no children. The king having threatened to kill his wife, unless she bears a child by the time of his return from his sea-voyage, she is brought to him during his journey, by his zealous maid-servant, as the fairest of three promenading ladies, and he takes her into his tent without recognizing her. [54] She returns home without having been discovered, gives birth to a daughter, Isol, and dies. Isol later on finds a most beautiful little boy in a box by the seaside, whose name is Tristram, and she raises him to become engaged to him. The subsequent story, which contains the motive of the true bride, is noteworthy for present purposes only in as far as here again occur the draught of oblivion, and two Isoldes. The king’s second wife gives a potion to Tristram, which causes him to forget the fair Isol entirely, so that he wishes to marry the black Isota. Ultimately he discovers the deception, however, and becomes united with Isol.