Zopyros I.
Zopyros ( Greek: Ζώπυρος; 6th century BC), son of Megabyzos , was a Persian nobleman in the Achaemenid Empire . He plays a central role in an episode of the historical work of Herodotus of Halicarnassus known as Histories .
Zopyros with Herodotus
On the change of ruler from Gaumata to Darius I in 522 BC. A rising of the population of Babylon followed , which saw the chance to shake off the Persian rule. The new great king occupied the city with a siege, which was unsuccessful even after twenty months. A Babylonian is said to have prophesied to the Persians from the city wall that they could only take the city as soon as one of their mules had a cub. This process, which is biologically impossible in itself, is said to have actually occurred after one of Zopyros' mules threw a young animal. This story continued in the later Roman proverb "cum mula pepererit" ("when a mule foals"), as an adjunct to an event that cannot possibly occur.
Zopyros then made the decision to sacrifice himself for the conquest of Babylon. He cut off his nose, ears and lips and let himself be flogged. In this way he went to the city as a defector, allegedly trying to fight the great king, by whom he had been so cruelly punished. To gain the trust of the defenders, he revealed an impending attack by the great king, which could so successfully be repulsed. This charade had already been agreed between the great king and Zopyros, who was now appointed by the Babylonians as their leader and received the keys to the city gates from them. When the opportune moment came, Zopyros opened two city gates through which the Persian warriors could penetrate the city and put down the resistance. Zopyros was rewarded for his efforts and appointed governor ( satrap ) of Babylon under lifelong tax exemption. His approach is said to have been disapproved of by the Great King Darius I, who would have preferred to see him unharmed than that twenty other cities like Babylon would be conquered by him.
Zopyros had a son named Megabyzos and a daughter who was not named and who was raped by Sataspes .
To what extent the Zopyros story corresponded to historical truth is difficult to verify. According to Homer's Odyssey , Helena of Sparta had already told a similar story, according to which Odysseus had been flogged in order to gain access to besieged Troy .
More ancient evidence and reception
Later, Ktesias also gave the story of the conquest of Babylon, but in a different temporal and historical context. According to Ktesias, Zopyros was born in 484 BC. Murdered by the Babylonians who rose up against the Persians after the change of ruler from Dareios I to Xerxes I. Then his son, Megabyzos, used this ruse to recapture the city for the great king. Diodorus provides a mixture of elements from Herodotus and Ktesias , the story was also received by Sextus Iulius Frontinus in his strategemata and by Plutarch in the Apophthegmata . Finally, Pompeius Trogus transmitted the Zopyrus motif into Roman literature . It was later included in Persian and Arabic literature , probably through oral tradition as a folk tale .
literature
- Karl Reinhardt : Herodotus Persergeschichten. In: Karl Reinhardt: Legacy of antiquity. Collected essays on philosophy and historiography. Published by Carl Becker . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1960, pp. 133-174.
- Franz-Christoph Muth: Zopyros among the Arabs: grazing lights on a Herodotus motif in Arabic literature. In: Oriens. 33, 1992, ISSN 0078-6527 , pp. 230-267, doi : 10.2307 / 1580606 .
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Zopyros I. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Ζώπυρος |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Persian nobleman and general |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 6th century BC Chr. |
| DATE OF DEATH | 6th century BC Chr. |