author:
M. Tatsu
#伊朗篇-25 #
Dear friends, thank you for your support along the way, follow the "All the World Museum" from
Ancient Civilization Series
Of Egypt, India, Greece, Mexico as well
European series
Russia has been all the way to
Asian Series
Singapore, Indonesia, Turkey, etc. Now, the highlight of 2019 —
Iran chapter
Ongoing... Speed onlookers!
(Pasargade Ruins)
The first powerful empire in The history of Iran —
Persian Empire
, founded by the Achaemenid dynasty. The founding father of the Achaemenid dynasty was Cyrus II, historically known as "
Cyrus the Great
”。
The Achaemenid dynasty had two famous ancient capitals:
Pasargard
and
Persepolis
。 Pasargad was the capital of Cyrus the Great, where he was eventually buried; Persepolis was the capital of Darius I, the fourth monarch of the Achaemenid dynasty (see Iran Chapters 17-23 for details). Both ancient capitals are now Iran's most famous tourist destinations, with a steady stream of visitors.
Today, Tatsukan will share with you: a famous stone carving on the ruins of the ancient capital of Pasargade -
Four-winged statue of Cyrus the Great
》。
Usually, most of the images of the gods (divine beasts) we see with the ability to reach the heavens have only two wings, while Cyrus the Great has four wings, why?
Let's look at it and say...
(The picture of this article was taken by the author,
All rights reserved
）
Cyrus became King of Persia
The Persians consisted of a combination of many tribes, of which the Pasargads were the most noble of them.
Of the Pasargad tribes, the Achaemenids were one of them. Later Persian kings came from this family.
In 559 BC, the Achaemenid family
Cyrus II
The unification of the Persian tribes became
King of Persia
。
Cyrus II (hereinafter referred to as "Cyrus"), who became the king of Persia, led the Persian army to the south and the north, swept through the western neighbors of Lydia, conquered Bactria in the Eastern State, and destroyed The New Babylon and Syria in Mesopotamia... Eventually, in 550 BC, Cyrus established a powerful empire spanning Europe, Asia and Africa.
(Remains of Pasargad Palace)
Cyrus, proclaimed himself empress, and took the capital of the empire to his stronghold of Pasargad (northeast of the Iranian city of Shiraz), where he built a grand imperial palace and an increasingly prosperous city.
In order to commemorate his great feats of invincibility and invincibility, Cyrus carved an incomparably magnificent inscription on the towering stone pillars of the palace:
"I, Cyrus, the King of the World, the Great King!"
To this day, these domineering texts are still deeply engraved on the huge stone pillars of the Pasargad site.
(Remains of the Gate of the Pasargard Palace)
《
》：
Pasargard, once the glorious place of Cyrus the Great, is now in ruins, and one can only imagine its former grandeur and magnificence through the relics that have survived.
At a glance, there are not many ruins in the entire Pasargad ruins that can still "stand", and only a few are particularly eye-catching, such as the gate at the entrance of the original palace (red circle above). Not only does the gate stand tall after 2,500 years of wind and rain, but most importantly, a stone statue of Cyrus the Great with four wings carved on it is still clearly visible, which makes future generations feel like a treasure.
(The Four-Winged Statue of Cyrus the Great)
According to research, the image of Cyrus's four wings is imitated from the protector of Assyria.
During the conquest of Assyria, Lydia, Mytia, Neo-Babylon and Egypt, the Persians constantly absorbed and absorbed each other's advanced cultures, and integrated them with Persian culture to form a new national culture with Persian cultural characteristics, for example, the image of the human head and the bird body in the "Four Wings of Cyrus" originated from the Image of the Assyrian Protector in Assyrian Culture.
The Assyrian protector has two images, the human-headed bird body and the eagle-headed bird body, some of which have four wings and some of which have double wings, which are the image of the unity of man and bird and the unity of man and god. When it is
The head of the bird
Images are often used as statues of emperors, and the four-winged statue of Cyrus belongs to this type of imperial statue.
Usually, most of the images of gods (divine beasts) with the ability to reach the heavens have only two wings, and the gods (divine beasts) with special divine powers are depicted as four wings. The ancient Persians designed the image of Cyrus as a four-winged figure, apparently to show that he possessed great divine power to conquer the four-sided world.
In addition, Cyrus in this stone statue wears three Egyptian crowns (crowns) and wears a rose-lace-encrusted Elam robe, which alludes to Cyrus's identity and status as the hegemon of Asia Minor. The Four-Winged Statue of Cyrus the Great, placed at the entrance of the palace, also contains the meaning that Cyrus, as a protector, always protected the Persian Empire and its people. To this day, Cyrus is still deeply loved by the Iranian people and is revered as the Father of the Nation.
(Cyrus wears three Egyptian crowns, partial)
Cyrus was a great warrior throughout his life, and in his later years, this brave "warrior" was still ambitious. In 530 BC, Cyrus personally led a Persian army against the Masaghtai tribe. They slashed the barriers and killed the fighting Prince Masagatai. The leader of the Masagatai was Queen Tomiris, and upon learning the bad news of her son's death in battle, the queen vowed: "Let the bloodthirsty Cyrus drink enough blood."
(Tomb of Cyrus, Pasargard)
The Persian-Masagatai Battle ended with the near total annihilation of the Persian army, and Cyrus was killed in this battle. Queen Tomiris, after receiving the news of Cyrus's death, personally went to the battlefield where the corpses were lying on the ground and found Cyrus's body in the pile of dead people. She cut off his head and threw it into a leather bag filled with blood, fulfilling her vow to let Cyrus drink blood.
The life of A generation of tyrants, Cyrus, thus ended with the tragic ending of "Ma Ge Shroud".
Later, Cyrus's son Cambyses recovered his father's body during a battle with the Masaghtai and buried him in his old capital, Pasargad (above).
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