Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 64:2 (Jun 2021)
Article: Xenophon’s Cyaxares: Uncle Of Cyrus, Friend Of Daniel
Author: Rodger C. Young

JETS 64:2 (June 2021) p. 265

Xenophon’s Cyaxares: Uncle Of Cyrus, Friend Of Daniel

Rodger C. Young*

^* Rodger C. Young resides at 1115 Basswood Lane, St. Louis, MO 63132. He may be contacted at [email protected].

Abstract: The history of Cyrus the Great is mostly constructed from the Greek authors Herodotus and Xenophon. A major difference in their accounts is the existence or nonexistence of a king named Cyaxares who ruled over the Medes at the same time that Cyrus led the Persians. This king is not mentioned by Herodotus, whereas he plays a significant role in Xenophon’s Cyropaedia. The present article shows that the narrative of the Cyropaedia for the time of Cyrus is more consistent with the accounts in the biblical books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel than the narrative derived from Herodotus. It also shows that the current consensus that favors Herodotus is built on an insecure foundation, whereas accepting Xenophon’s account, in addition to its better agreement with Isaiah and Jeremiah, also provides an explanation of some difficult passages in the book of Daniel.

Key words: Cyrus the Great, Cyaxares II, Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, Book of Daniel, Medes and Persians, Darius the Mede, Belshazzar

The history of Cyrus the Great, the Persian conqueror who allowed the Jews to return from their Babylonian exile, is mostly constructed from the Greek authors Herodotus and Xenophon. Their accounts differ significantly. One major difference is the existence or nonexistence of a king named Cyaxares who ruled over the Medes at the same time that Cyrus led the Persians. This king is never mentioned in the Histories of Herodotus, and indeed there is no room for him in the sequence of events that Herodotus gives for the career of Cyrus. In contrast, Cyaxares plays a significant role, second only to that of Cyrus, in Xenophon’s Cyropaedia (“The Education of Cyrus”). The present article will show that what Xenophon wrote about the Persians, Medes, and Cyaxares for this time is more consistent with the accounts in the biblical books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel than is the overall picture given by Herodotus. It will also present a theory about why Herodotus omitted Cyaxares. In spite of this better agreement with the biblical texts, modern scholarship generally favors Herodotus over Xenophon in reconstructing the history of the Medes and Persians in the sixth century BC.

Herodotus lived from ca. 484 to ca. 425 BC. He wrote his Histories in about 430 BC. The alternate title, The Persian Wars, shows that he was primarily concerned with the wars between the Greeks and the Persians, starting with events related to the Trojan War and ending shortly after the Battles of Plataea and Mycale (479 B...