THE MEDIAN AND THE CYROPAEDIA OP XENOPHON. 17 



the gods, and even the heroes who were considered to be the 

 tutelary deities of particular countries, show, of course, that the 

 religious view which he held was that each country had particular 

 deities guarding it ; and that it was right to treat such deities 

 with due respect ; and to pray to them to be propitious, especially 

 when crossing the frontiers of their country. At the same time, 

 however, far greater than these local divinities, he believed in one 

 supreme god whom, after the habit of the Greek writers, Xenophon 

 calls Zeus," and who is to be supremely worshipped and by 

 whom he swears. 



And this, surely, is the view of the religion of Cyrus which seems 

 to be implied in the Inscriptions. In the Cylinder Inscription of 

 Cyrus, for example, we find that when he was in Babylonia he 

 reverenced the gods of North and South Babylonia, of Sumer and 

 Akkad, and Bel and Nabu. He says in the Cylinder Inscription : 



" And the gods of Sumer and Akkad which Nabonidus 

 to the anger of the gods had brought into Babylon ; at the 

 word of Marduk the great lord in their entirety, in their 

 own shrines did I cause to take up the habitation of (their) 

 hearts' delight. May all the gods whom I have brought 

 into their own cities, daily before Bel and Nabu for the 

 lengthening of my days pray ; let them speak the word for 

 my good fortune, and unto Marduk my lord let them say, 

 ' May Cyrus the king that feareth thee and Cambyses his 

 son (have prosperity (?)).' " 



But whilst Cyrus reverences these lesser divinities of Babylonia 

 — the gods of Sumer and Akkad, and Bel and Nabu — it is evident 

 that there is one supreme great lord god who is above all, to whom, 

 being in the land of Babylon, he gives the name under which he 

 was worshipped as supreme in Babylon — Marduk, or Merodach. 



It can readily be seen that this is just the same picture of the 

 religion of Cyrus as is brought before us by Xenophon in the 

 Cyropaedia. 



And just the same view of the religion of Cyrus is brought 

 before us in the Old Testament Scriptures. The first words of 

 the Book of Ezra are : — 



" Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the 

 word of the Lord by the mouth of J eremiah might be fulfilled,, 

 the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, 

 that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom 



B 



