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Hermes’ Portal
Issue #13
Hermes’ Portal
Issue n° 13
November 2004
by Alexander White
by Andrew Gronosky
by Michaël de Verteuil
by Erik Dahl
by Jarkman
Hermes’ portal
Publisher: Hermes’ Portal
Contributors: David Chart, Erik Dahl, Andrew Gronosky, Jarkman, Michaël de Verteuil, Alexander White
Editorial and proofreading help: Sheila Thomas
Illustrations: Scott Beattie (p. 24, 26, 28, 32, 34, 35), Radja Sauperamaniane (back), Angela Taylor (cover, border & p. 4, 6, 8, 10, 16),
Alexander White (p. 20, 21, 36, 37, 38, 39)
Layout: Eric Kouris
Thanks: All the people who submitted ideas, texts, illustrations or helped in the production of this issue.
Hermes’ Portal is an independent publication dedicated to Ars Magica players. Hermes’ Portal is available through email only.
Hermes’ Portal is not affiliated with Atlas Games or White Wolf Gaming Studio. References to trademarks of those companies are not
intended to infringe upon the rights of those parties. Ars Magica was created by Jonathan Tweet and Mark Rhein Hagen.
Hermes’ Portal # 13, Copyright ©2004, Hermes’ Portal. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this work is allowed for personal use only.
Contacting Hermes’ Portal
Email: Hermes.Portal@wanadoo.fr
Web site: www.hermesportal.fr.st
Who’s who
Scott Beattie
Scott calls himself an illustrator because he is in
denial about his day-job. As Scobie, he self-publishes
his Wuxia minicomic “The Seven Swords” and has
provided illustrations for the On the Edge card game
and for Werewolf. He has recently finished writing
and illustrating “Casefile: ZODIAC”, a 1970s weird
espionage roleplaying game, soon to be available
online. Real soon, promise.
http://www.livejournal.com/~scobie
Jarkman
Jarkman (not really a forger, just a bit derivative at
times) and his wife recently moved to Melbourne,
Australia. He started playing RPGs over fifteen years
ago and never thought that medieval history would
be interesting or that Latin would ever come in
handy. He has spent a year telling people they have
leukaemia and then trying to almost kill them with
chemotherapy in order to make them better. Only
some of them got better. Now he spends half his
time looking after his one year old son and getting
back to dreaming up articles for RPGs; the other half
is spent working out ways to almost kill people with
brain lymphoma in order to make them better — he
much prefers the former.
News from the Line
Editor: November 2004
The biggest news for the line right now is, of
course, that Fifth Edition is now out. I very much
doubt that there are any Hermes Portal subscribers
who didn’t already know that, though, and there
probably aren’t many of you who don’t already have
copies. (If you don’t have a copy yet, remember that
the promotional price is only available until the end
of December.)
Personally, I’m very pleased with the way that the
book has turned out, both visually, and in terms of
actual content. Naturally, the BerkList has already
started arguing about what they want to change, but
that’s only natural. I think I’d be happy playing ArM5
exactly as written, but given the nature of role-play-
ers it’s a bit too much to expect that such people will
be widespread.
So, what can you expect in the future? The first
supplement, Calebais Revised, came out simultaneous-
ly with the new edition, so you doubtless have that
already.
Guardians of the Forests: The Rhine Tribunal should
be out in January, as announced. This book will serve
as the model Tribunal for ArM5, and includes a
worked-out setting for a beginning saga. On the oth-
er hand, we don’t plan to produce a lot of Tribunal
books for the new edition, and certainly not for a
while.
Houses of Hermes: True Lineages, covering Bonisa-
gus, Guernicus, Mercere, and Tremere is currently on
schedule for its April release date. You’ll get more
background details on the Houses, new rules and
abilities to play with, and lots of ideas for playing the
magi of those Houses. We plan to produce one of
these books every year for the first three years,
replacing the old Houses of Hermes book.
After that, things are a little more vague. Realms of
Power: The Divine is well along, and should provide the
solid treatment of religion and divine powers that the
game has needed since, well, ArM1. I currently have
three more books at earlier stages of preparation,
and I’ll say more about them as more happens with
them. At any rate, the pipeline of new supplements
is moving along nicely.
On the subject of supplements, we are currently
running an Open Call for vis sources for the new
Covenants book. (One of the three in earlier stages
of preparation.) Details should be available from the
Atlas web site by the time you read this. The deadline
is February 15th, and if you’ve always wanted to
write for Ars Magica, this is your chance to show me
that you can.
Publisher’s corner
“Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!”
Well, this time I’m really late! At least by a
month… I could say I’ve been busy, my job is taking
up too much of my time (or should I say, wasting too
much of my time?), I didn’t put enough pressure on
the authors to follow the deadline — I could find
numerous lame excuses… But I won’t because I have
the ultimate lame excuse: I was waiting for the Fifth
Edition release! You have before your eyes the last
Fourth Edition publication and the only one to have
been published after the Fifth Edition release!
While I was not working on this issue, I didn’t
lose all my time to wondering how to teach division
to 11 year old children who don’t understand how to
multiply by ten (no kidding) or how to add fractions
to 13 year old kids who can’t calculate 1 – 3 (still no
kidding… one day, I should look for a real job,
instead of pretending to be a math teacher); I took
the time to read a proposal for an Ars Magica book.
I found it very interesting so I decided to publish it.
It will be released in the same way I publish HP, but
it will be a bit thicker than an HP issue (the current
version reaches 80 pages without illustrations). I still
have to decide the cover price with the author. I’ll
give you all the information when the book is ready.
“… but, when the Rabbit actually took a watch out
of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hur-
ried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across
her mind that she had never seen before a rabbit with
either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it,
and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field
after it, and was just in time to see it pop down a large
rabbit-hole under the edge.” (Lewis Carroll, Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland)
3
W
hile magic undoubtedly had its origin
invaluable, advice. Again, thanks to my troupe, past
and present, for participating in my saga and being
the mother of my inspiration. Acknowledgements to
David Chart’s Numismancy article in Mythic Perspectives
#10 for the idea of Magian Numismancy, and the
BerkList debate on coin minting.
with the sage Zoroaster, it was his
pupil, Osthanes (known in Persian as
Vishtana) who wrote the first book on
magic, and the tribe of Magians that lent the world
the word ‘mage’.
Western history has little to say about Osthanes
other than that he was responsible for bringing mag-
ic into Greece and aiding the Persian army to invade
Greece. A few sources tell of prolific authorship of
magical texts. Some mystic texts remember Osthan-
es’ placation and control of gods, spirits and ghosts.
Pliny the Elder’s Natural History condemns Osthanes
as being the hated source of superstition and magical
books. Tertullian, the Christian writer, in De Anima
attributes the categorisation of the restless dead to
Osthanes. Apuleius in his Apologia, describes him as a
philosopher who mapped out the workings of uni-
versal providence. In Persia, Osthanes is best known
for his pivotal role in the triumph of Magianism, the
orthodox branch of Zoroastrianism, which stressed
religious wisdom as the highest principle of meta-
physical theosophy. Osthanes is mentioned in con-
nection with the reign of Alexander the Great. Dur-
ing this time he further spread his magical arts into
the West.
The Magians were the guardians of Zoroastrian
orthodoxy, a sacerdotal Median tribe who had guid-
ed innumerable empires in their religious faith. With
the rise of the Persian Empire, the Magians em-
braced Zoroastrianism and came to characterise its
priesthood entirely. Under the Sasanid Empire,
Magian priests introduced complex dogmatic edicts,
purging most of the original syncretic aspects of
Zoroastrianism — paganism, Zurvanism and Maz-
dakitism. During this time, they repressed and ulti-
mately scattered the Manichaean heretics. Their
spread into the West brought an explosion of mysti-
cal practice, and these practices became so analogous
with the Magians that their name came to be syn-
onymous with magic.
This article is aimed at giving a ‘Mythic’ biogra-
phy of Osthanes and the Magians, both of whom are
important, if opaque, magical figures. It includes the
biography of Osthanes, and details the Magians, their
role within the Middle East, their relations with the
Cult of Mercury and the Order of Solomon. Some
familiarity with the principles of Zoroastrianism is
recommended due to the number of unfamiliar
terms, titles and names (see HP#9).
Since so little is known for sure about Osthanes
(such as whether he existed at all), I have taken a
great deal of liberty with the sources. If anyone has
any (concrete) sources, please let me know, either on
the BerkList or directly at aw@vurt.net.
Thanks to Niall Christie for early insightful com-
ments and proofreading. Thanks also to Michaël de
Verteuil for his sometimes severe, but always
4
Prince of Magi
by Alexander White
With Ars Magica Fifth Edition imminent, I can
only hope that mysteries are not only integrated into
the cloth of Ars, but that mystae groups designed
under ArM4 are easily translatable to the new edition.
Terminology Note: ‘Magi’ and ‘Magian’ is used
throughout this article to refer to the tribe of Medi-
ans known as ‘the Magi’. When non-Magian mages
are referred too, attempts have been made to label
them specifically (as ‘Hermetic mages’, for example),
or to use other terms, such as ‘wizard’, ‘sorcerer’, etc.
‘Magoi’ refers expressly to the Zoroastrian mystery
group detailed in HP#9.
Prince of Magi
Unrecorded Centuries
Osthanes was a prince of the sacerdotal tribe of
Magi (or Magians), one of the six Median tribes.
Before his conversion by Zoroaster, he was the high
priest of Vishtaspa, greatest of the Iranian kings.
Originally sceptical of Zoroaster, he was overcome
by awe after witnessing many miracles and wonders
and not only converted to the new monotheistic
faith, but also convinced his liege-lord to do likewise.
As Vishtaspa waged war on his diabolically deluded
neighbours, Osthanes accompanied Zoroaster on his
many journeys, recording his words, sayings and
hymns, and formulating the first Mazdean scriptures.
The early Mazdeans had little organisation and few
holy sites, apart from the scattered agiari (‘fire tem-
ples’) founded by Zoroaster. Osthanes worked to
fight the followers of the Druj (‘Lie’) and to establish
the new faith. Despite his many attempts however, his
own people, the Medians, denied Ahura Mazda. In
614BCE, the Medes overthrew the Assyrian Empire
with the help of Babylon. A great number of
Mazdeans came under their sway. Missionaries
amongst the Mazdeans helped undermine the Median
Empire, reinforced by hostage royal believers living at
the Median court.
The Achaemenian Golden Age
One such Zoroastrian prince was Cyrus the
Great, son-in-law of the reigning Median king. In
549BCE, Cyrus rebelled and overthrew the Medes,
establishing his own Achaemenian dynasty that ruled
Asia Minor, Babylonia and finally all of Eastern Iran.
His celebrated victory over the Lydian king Croesus,
demonstrated his wisdom and bravery. Upon captur-
ing Babylon, Cyrus showed that he possessed mercy
as well as might, and repatriated many of the subject
peoples, including the Jews. As he was close to Vish-
taspa, so too was Osthanes close to Cyrus, offering
him religious advice and presiding over rituals and
ceremonies.
With the reign of Cyrus, the Median tribe of the
Magians finally accepted Mazdeanism. As they had
done with so many other kings and empires, they
stepped up as the sacerdotal caste of the new Achae-
menian Empire, quickly receiving the Mazdean doc-
trines and observances. The sacred script of the
Magians — Avestan — was adopted as the official
religious alphabet to be used for royal inscriptions,
and to record the hitherto orally transmitted Avesta
(Sacred Scriptures). Cyrus was so pleased with
Osthanes that he granted the sage the perpetual title
of ‘Prince of the Magi’, symbolising eternal lordship
over his once recalcitrant people.
At various times over the course of the Achae-
menian period, Osthanes would be given the tribal
homeland of the Magians and the Medes as his per-
sonal fiefdom; eventually the Magians would consid-
er those lands to belong to the Mazdean priesthood
itself.
The Achaemenians thrived under the guidance of
the Magians. Mazdeanism was spread to every corner
Prophecy of Cyrus
Cyrus’ coming was greatly prophesied. The most
famous of the prophetic visions was that of his
grandfather, Astyages, heir to the Median Empire.
He had two dreams. In the first his daughter Man-
dane urinated so much that she not only flooded
Babylon, but the whole of Persia. Astyages, after
consulting with the Magians, promptly married her
to a socially inferior Persian noble called Cambyses.
A few months later, he had another dream in which
a vine grew from Mandane’s genitals and overshad-
owed all of Asia. Magian dream-interpreters advised
him to send Mandane away from Persia. He had her
watched, and planned to kill her child when it was
born, since the Magians interpreted the dream to
mean that her child would rule in his place.
When Cyrus was born, Astyages called his trust-
ed friend Harpargus to take the baby into the wilder-
ness and slay it. Harpargus gave the child to the
herdsman Mitradates with orders to expose the child
in the hills. It happened that Mitradates’ wife was in
labour while the herdsman was receiving his orders.
When she saw the child, she begged her husband not
to expose the child, since their own had been still-
born. Instead, they swapped the babies, and adopted
Cyrus.
Upon his tenth birthday, Cyrus’ identity was
revealed. His natural kingliness and bearing singled
him out, and before very long, he came to the aged
Astyages’ attention. The Median Emperor consulted
his Magian advisors, the chief of whom was
Osthanes. Osthanes, seeing a grand future for
Mazdeanism under Cyrus, convinced the Emperor
to keep the boy alive. As revenge for being dis-
obeyed however, Astyages killed Harpargus’ son
and, in a banquet, fed the corpse to him in a stew.
Under the guidance of Osthanes and the venge-
ful Harpargus, Cyrus eventually incited the Persian
army of the Emperor to rebel. After killing the few
remaining Mazdean Magians still in his court (the
others had fled to the banner of Cyrus), Astyages
led a force out to fight Cyrus. He was defeated and
captured. Cyrus became the King of kings and start-
ed the Golden Age of Zoroastrianism.
5
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Hermes’ Portal
Issue #13
Hermes’ Portal
Issue n° 13
November 2004
by Alexander White
by Andrew Gronosky
by Michaël de Verteuil
by Erik Dahl
by Jarkman
Hermes’ portal
Publisher: Hermes’ Portal
Contributors: David Chart, Erik Dahl, Andrew Gronosky, Jarkman, Michaël de Verteuil, Alexander White
Editorial and proofreading help: Sheila Thomas
Illustrations: Scott Beattie (p. 24, 26, 28, 32, 34, 35), Radja Sauperamaniane (back), Angela Taylor (cover, border & p. 4, 6, 8, 10, 16),
Alexander White (p. 20, 21, 36, 37, 38, 39)
Layout: Eric Kouris
Thanks: All the people who submitted ideas, texts, illustrations or helped in the production of this issue.
Hermes’ Portal is an independent publication dedicated to Ars Magica players. Hermes’ Portal is available through email only.
Hermes’ Portal is not affiliated with Atlas Games or White Wolf Gaming Studio. References to trademarks of those companies are not
intended to infringe upon the rights of those parties. Ars Magica was created by Jonathan Tweet and Mark Rhein Hagen.
Hermes’ Portal # 13, Copyright ©2004, Hermes’ Portal. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this work is allowed for personal use only.
Contacting Hermes’ Portal
Email: Hermes.Portal@wanadoo.fr
Web site: www.hermesportal.fr.st
Who’s who
Scott Beattie
Scott calls himself an illustrator because he is in
denial about his day-job. As Scobie, he self-publishes
his Wuxia minicomic “The Seven Swords” and has
provided illustrations for the On the Edge card game
and for Werewolf. He has recently finished writing
and illustrating “Casefile: ZODIAC”, a 1970s weird
espionage roleplaying game, soon to be available
online. Real soon, promise.
http://www.livejournal.com/~scobie
Jarkman
Jarkman (not really a forger, just a bit derivative at
times) and his wife recently moved to Melbourne,
Australia. He started playing RPGs over fifteen years
ago and never thought that medieval history would
be interesting or that Latin would ever come in
handy. He has spent a year telling people they have
leukaemia and then trying to almost kill them with
chemotherapy in order to make them better. Only
some of them got better. Now he spends half his
time looking after his one year old son and getting
back to dreaming up articles for RPGs; the other half
is spent working out ways to almost kill people with
brain lymphoma in order to make them better — he
much prefers the former.
News from the Line
Editor: November 2004
The biggest news for the line right now is, of
course, that Fifth Edition is now out. I very much
doubt that there are any Hermes Portal subscribers
who didn’t already know that, though, and there
probably aren’t many of you who don’t already have
copies. (If you don’t have a copy yet, remember that
the promotional price is only available until the end
of December.)
Personally, I’m very pleased with the way that the
book has turned out, both visually, and in terms of
actual content. Naturally, the BerkList has already
started arguing about what they want to change, but
that’s only natural. I think I’d be happy playing ArM5
exactly as written, but given the nature of role-play-
ers it’s a bit too much to expect that such people will
be widespread.
So, what can you expect in the future? The first
supplement, Calebais Revised, came out simultaneous-
ly with the new edition, so you doubtless have that
already.
Guardians of the Forests: The Rhine Tribunal should
be out in January, as announced. This book will serve
as the model Tribunal for ArM5, and includes a
worked-out setting for a beginning saga. On the oth-
er hand, we don’t plan to produce a lot of Tribunal
books for the new edition, and certainly not for a
while.
Houses of Hermes: True Lineages, covering Bonisa-
gus, Guernicus, Mercere, and Tremere is currently on
schedule for its April release date. You’ll get more
background details on the Houses, new rules and
abilities to play with, and lots of ideas for playing the
magi of those Houses. We plan to produce one of
these books every year for the first three years,
replacing the old Houses of Hermes book.
After that, things are a little more vague. Realms of
Power: The Divine is well along, and should provide the
solid treatment of religion and divine powers that the
game has needed since, well, ArM1. I currently have
three more books at earlier stages of preparation,
and I’ll say more about them as more happens with
them. At any rate, the pipeline of new supplements
is moving along nicely.
On the subject of supplements, we are currently
running an Open Call for vis sources for the new
Covenants book. (One of the three in earlier stages
of preparation.) Details should be available from the
Atlas web site by the time you read this. The deadline
is February 15th, and if you’ve always wanted to
write for Ars Magica, this is your chance to show me
that you can.
Publisher’s corner
“Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!”
Well, this time I’m really late! At least by a
month… I could say I’ve been busy, my job is taking
up too much of my time (or should I say, wasting too
much of my time?), I didn’t put enough pressure on
the authors to follow the deadline — I could find
numerous lame excuses… But I won’t because I have
the ultimate lame excuse: I was waiting for the Fifth
Edition release! You have before your eyes the last
Fourth Edition publication and the only one to have
been published after the Fifth Edition release!
While I was not working on this issue, I didn’t
lose all my time to wondering how to teach division
to 11 year old children who don’t understand how to
multiply by ten (no kidding) or how to add fractions
to 13 year old kids who can’t calculate 1 – 3 (still no
kidding… one day, I should look for a real job,
instead of pretending to be a math teacher); I took
the time to read a proposal for an Ars Magica book.
I found it very interesting so I decided to publish it.
It will be released in the same way I publish HP, but
it will be a bit thicker than an HP issue (the current
version reaches 80 pages without illustrations). I still
have to decide the cover price with the author. I’ll
give you all the information when the book is ready.
“… but, when the Rabbit actually took a watch out
of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hur-
ried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across
her mind that she had never seen before a rabbit with
either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it,
and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field
after it, and was just in time to see it pop down a large
rabbit-hole under the edge.” (Lewis Carroll, Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland)
3
W
hile magic undoubtedly had its origin
invaluable, advice. Again, thanks to my troupe, past
and present, for participating in my saga and being
the mother of my inspiration. Acknowledgements to
David Chart’s Numismancy article in Mythic Perspectives
#10 for the idea of Magian Numismancy, and the
BerkList debate on coin minting.
with the sage Zoroaster, it was his
pupil, Osthanes (known in Persian as
Vishtana) who wrote the first book on
magic, and the tribe of Magians that lent the world
the word ‘mage’.
Western history has little to say about Osthanes
other than that he was responsible for bringing mag-
ic into Greece and aiding the Persian army to invade
Greece. A few sources tell of prolific authorship of
magical texts. Some mystic texts remember Osthan-
es’ placation and control of gods, spirits and ghosts.
Pliny the Elder’s Natural History condemns Osthanes
as being the hated source of superstition and magical
books. Tertullian, the Christian writer, in De Anima
attributes the categorisation of the restless dead to
Osthanes. Apuleius in his Apologia, describes him as a
philosopher who mapped out the workings of uni-
versal providence. In Persia, Osthanes is best known
for his pivotal role in the triumph of Magianism, the
orthodox branch of Zoroastrianism, which stressed
religious wisdom as the highest principle of meta-
physical theosophy. Osthanes is mentioned in con-
nection with the reign of Alexander the Great. Dur-
ing this time he further spread his magical arts into
the West.
The Magians were the guardians of Zoroastrian
orthodoxy, a sacerdotal Median tribe who had guid-
ed innumerable empires in their religious faith. With
the rise of the Persian Empire, the Magians em-
braced Zoroastrianism and came to characterise its
priesthood entirely. Under the Sasanid Empire,
Magian priests introduced complex dogmatic edicts,
purging most of the original syncretic aspects of
Zoroastrianism — paganism, Zurvanism and Maz-
dakitism. During this time, they repressed and ulti-
mately scattered the Manichaean heretics. Their
spread into the West brought an explosion of mysti-
cal practice, and these practices became so analogous
with the Magians that their name came to be syn-
onymous with magic.
This article is aimed at giving a ‘Mythic’ biogra-
phy of Osthanes and the Magians, both of whom are
important, if opaque, magical figures. It includes the
biography of Osthanes, and details the Magians, their
role within the Middle East, their relations with the
Cult of Mercury and the Order of Solomon. Some
familiarity with the principles of Zoroastrianism is
recommended due to the number of unfamiliar
terms, titles and names (see HP#9).
Since so little is known for sure about Osthanes
(such as whether he existed at all), I have taken a
great deal of liberty with the sources. If anyone has
any (concrete) sources, please let me know, either on
the BerkList or directly at aw@vurt.net.
Thanks to Niall Christie for early insightful com-
ments and proofreading. Thanks also to Michaël de
Verteuil for his sometimes severe, but always
4
Prince of Magi
by Alexander White
With Ars Magica Fifth Edition imminent, I can
only hope that mysteries are not only integrated into
the cloth of Ars, but that mystae groups designed
under ArM4 are easily translatable to the new edition.
Terminology Note: ‘Magi’ and ‘Magian’ is used
throughout this article to refer to the tribe of Medi-
ans known as ‘the Magi’. When non-Magian mages
are referred too, attempts have been made to label
them specifically (as ‘Hermetic mages’, for example),
or to use other terms, such as ‘wizard’, ‘sorcerer’, etc.
‘Magoi’ refers expressly to the Zoroastrian mystery
group detailed in HP#9.
Prince of Magi
Unrecorded Centuries
Osthanes was a prince of the sacerdotal tribe of
Magi (or Magians), one of the six Median tribes.
Before his conversion by Zoroaster, he was the high
priest of Vishtaspa, greatest of the Iranian kings.
Originally sceptical of Zoroaster, he was overcome
by awe after witnessing many miracles and wonders
and not only converted to the new monotheistic
faith, but also convinced his liege-lord to do likewise.
As Vishtaspa waged war on his diabolically deluded
neighbours, Osthanes accompanied Zoroaster on his
many journeys, recording his words, sayings and
hymns, and formulating the first Mazdean scriptures.
The early Mazdeans had little organisation and few
holy sites, apart from the scattered agiari (‘fire tem-
ples’) founded by Zoroaster. Osthanes worked to
fight the followers of the Druj (‘Lie’) and to establish
the new faith. Despite his many attempts however, his
own people, the Medians, denied Ahura Mazda. In
614BCE, the Medes overthrew the Assyrian Empire
with the help of Babylon. A great number of
Mazdeans came under their sway. Missionaries
amongst the Mazdeans helped undermine the Median
Empire, reinforced by hostage royal believers living at
the Median court.
The Achaemenian Golden Age
One such Zoroastrian prince was Cyrus the
Great, son-in-law of the reigning Median king. In
549BCE, Cyrus rebelled and overthrew the Medes,
establishing his own Achaemenian dynasty that ruled
Asia Minor, Babylonia and finally all of Eastern Iran.
His celebrated victory over the Lydian king Croesus,
demonstrated his wisdom and bravery. Upon captur-
ing Babylon, Cyrus showed that he possessed mercy
as well as might, and repatriated many of the subject
peoples, including the Jews. As he was close to Vish-
taspa, so too was Osthanes close to Cyrus, offering
him religious advice and presiding over rituals and
ceremonies.
With the reign of Cyrus, the Median tribe of the
Magians finally accepted Mazdeanism. As they had
done with so many other kings and empires, they
stepped up as the sacerdotal caste of the new Achae-
menian Empire, quickly receiving the Mazdean doc-
trines and observances. The sacred script of the
Magians — Avestan — was adopted as the official
religious alphabet to be used for royal inscriptions,
and to record the hitherto orally transmitted Avesta
(Sacred Scriptures). Cyrus was so pleased with
Osthanes that he granted the sage the perpetual title
of ‘Prince of the Magi’, symbolising eternal lordship
over his once recalcitrant people.
At various times over the course of the Achae-
menian period, Osthanes would be given the tribal
homeland of the Magians and the Medes as his per-
sonal fiefdom; eventually the Magians would consid-
er those lands to belong to the Mazdean priesthood
itself.
The Achaemenians thrived under the guidance of
the Magians. Mazdeanism was spread to every corner
Prophecy of Cyrus
Cyrus’ coming was greatly prophesied. The most
famous of the prophetic visions was that of his
grandfather, Astyages, heir to the Median Empire.
He had two dreams. In the first his daughter Man-
dane urinated so much that she not only flooded
Babylon, but the whole of Persia. Astyages, after
consulting with the Magians, promptly married her
to a socially inferior Persian noble called Cambyses.
A few months later, he had another dream in which
a vine grew from Mandane’s genitals and overshad-
owed all of Asia. Magian dream-interpreters advised
him to send Mandane away from Persia. He had her
watched, and planned to kill her child when it was
born, since the Magians interpreted the dream to
mean that her child would rule in his place.
When Cyrus was born, Astyages called his trust-
ed friend Harpargus to take the baby into the wilder-
ness and slay it. Harpargus gave the child to the
herdsman Mitradates with orders to expose the child
in the hills. It happened that Mitradates’ wife was in
labour while the herdsman was receiving his orders.
When she saw the child, she begged her husband not
to expose the child, since their own had been still-
born. Instead, they swapped the babies, and adopted
Cyrus.
Upon his tenth birthday, Cyrus’ identity was
revealed. His natural kingliness and bearing singled
him out, and before very long, he came to the aged
Astyages’ attention. The Median Emperor consulted
his Magian advisors, the chief of whom was
Osthanes. Osthanes, seeing a grand future for
Mazdeanism under Cyrus, convinced the Emperor
to keep the boy alive. As revenge for being dis-
obeyed however, Astyages killed Harpargus’ son
and, in a banquet, fed the corpse to him in a stew.
Under the guidance of Osthanes and the venge-
ful Harpargus, Cyrus eventually incited the Persian
army of the Emperor to rebel. After killing the few
remaining Mazdean Magians still in his court (the
others had fled to the banner of Cyrus), Astyages
led a force out to fight Cyrus. He was defeated and
captured. Cyrus became the King of kings and start-
ed the Golden Age of Zoroastrianism.
5
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