Zopyrus

Zopyrus from Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum

Zopyrus (/ˈzoʊpɪrəs/; Greek: Ζώπυρος) (ca. 500 BC) was a Persian nobleman mentioned in Herodotus' Histories.

He was son of Megabyzus, who helped Darius I in his ascension. According to Herodotus: When Babylon revolted against the rule of Darius I, Zopyrus devised a plan to regain control of the vital city. By cutting off his own nose and ears, and then having himself whipped, he arrived at the court of Darius. Upon presenting himself to Darius; the king stood up from his throne, shocked at the state of Zopyrus , and asked who had done this to him. Zopyrus then said that he had mutilated himself. Darius asked "Are you fool enough to think that the mutilation of your body can hasten our victory? When you did that to yourself you must have taken leave of your senses." At this Zopyrus explained his plan, he would go before the people of Babylon and proclaim himself an exile and deserter of the Persian army punished by Darius himself. Seeing that the mutilation had already been done, Darius agreed and so Zopyrus put his plan into action. The Babylonian soldiers allowed him passage into the city and brought him before the chief princes of Babylon. The Babylonians, seeing a man of his high rank mutilated took his contrived story as absolute fact. Gaining the Babylonians' trust, Zopyrus soon became commander-in-chief of their army, allowing him to weaken the city's defenses. He then led soldiers under his charge into an ambush where Darius slaughtered them. The gates undefended; Darius' armies victoriously reconquered the city. Zopyrus was made satrap and Darius "rewarded him with the highest honours, giving him every year the sort of gifts which are most prized amongst the Persians."^[1]

The veracity of the account is debatable. First, the story resembles Homer's description of Odysseus, who spied on Troy after mutilating himself. Second, no cuneiform sources mention Zopyrus as satrap of Babylon.^[2]

According to Herodotus: Zopyrus had a son named Megabyzus who "deserted from the Persian army and came to Athens"

References

↑ https://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/4142,"The story of Darius’ general Zopyros set during the siege to Babylon is one of the more spectacular ruses of the Histories, combining the extreme obedience of the Persian subject with a talent for cunning deceit. Determined to end the siege after having received a favourable omen, Zopyros crops his hair and flagellates and mutilates himself, cutting off his own nose and ears. With the initially shocked Darius, he makes a cruel and cunning plan: Zopyros will defect to the enemy, pretending to have been maltreated by Darius. After that, Darius will lead practically unarmed men to the walls of Babylon (‘except daggers; leave them these’), first 1000, then 2000, finally 4000 Persians ‘from the part of your army about which you will least care if it is lost’ (3.155.5). Zopyros will then slaughter them and so earn the trust of the Babylonians. The plan works, Zopyros becomes Babylonian commander-in-chief and guardian of the city wall. When Darius attacks from all four sides, he opens the gates and lets the Persians in; Darius razes the town and impales the leading men. At the end of the story and of the third book (160), Herodotus emphasises the greatness of Zopyros’ deed, which in the opinion of Darius had never been surpassed by any Persian except Cyrus and for which Zopyros was highly honoured in Persia. Still, the passage ends on a less enthusiastic note: Darius says he would have preferred Zopyros’ health to the possession of 20 Babylons—and in the last sentence, we get the punchline that Zopyros’ homonymous grandson has defected to the Athenians (3.160.2)—as if defection were a family tradition, regardless if pretended or real."
↑ https://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/4142,"The striking similarity of the story with the mythical ‘pattern of Sinon’ has already been recognised by Wolf Aly (1921:111). Even earlier attested than the actual Sinon-story is the tale of Odysseus spying on the Trojans, told by Helen to Telemachus Od. 4.234–264 as an example of his father’s heroism (element no. 7). Of course, this story is set during the siege of Troy (1). Odysseus infiltrates the enemy’s camp as a spy; he has flagellated himself (3b) to look like a Greek deserter. The Trojans do not notice anything suspicious (5). When returning, Odysseus kills four Trojans (4), which helps him escape and eventually leads to Greek victory over the Trojans. The actual opening of the city gates (6) is not part of the story, but immediately afterwards Menelaos takes over telling Telemachus of Odysseus’ function as a leader of men in the wooden horse (4.271–289)—a clear reference to the opening of Troy’s gates by the Greek heroes. An even closer parallel for Herodotus story of Zopyros is the tale of the pretended Greek renegade Sinon who fools the Trojans. The story is attested as early as the epic cycle [1] but mainly known from Vergil (A. 2.57–198) and Quintus Smyrnaeus (12.243–388). The parallels with Herodotus (differing according to source) run as follows: Sinon (by the way Odysseus’ cousin) decides to pretend being a renegade (2) during the siege of Troy (1). To make this more convincing, he defaces himself (3: Tzetzes ad Lyc. 344), or, according to Quintus, it is the Trojans who cut off his ears and nose (3a). This may be a reaction to Herodotus, but this, too, would confirm the similarity of the stories, having been noticed early on. Quintus also emphasizes Sinon’s enormous courage (7). The enemies trust the pretender (5), he is received in Troy and helps the Greeks to get into the town (6). In the meantime, the sceptical family of Laocoon are killed—a minor group on the way to the great victory (4). The obvious difference between the mythical characters and Herodotus’ Zopyros is that the former act independently—whereas Zopyros does everything as an overly faithful subject of the Persian king. Also, the severity of the self-mutilation is much more emphatic in Herodotus, and the fact that the group killed beforehand are the besiegers’ own people. This accentuates the context of monarchy in the Persian episode, spiced with Zopyros’ almost cynical comment on the daggers that the ‘cannon fodder’ will be given (‘leave them these’). The courage of Zopyros is put into perspective, too, as Darius himself is critical towards his self-mutilation, and as the story closes with the prominently placed anecdote of Zopyros the Younger having been a real deserter. Another more distant parallel shows the Sinon-pattern in connection with monarchy, too: the deceit of Peisistratos wounding himself (3) in the war between the Attic coast and inland factions and claiming bodyguards from the Athenians; when they believe him (5), he seizes power (1.59.6). The structure of the pretended deserter, and even its derivatives, are used by Herodotus only in the context of tyranny."

External links

Livius.org: Zopyrus

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] ttps://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/4142,"The story of Darius’ general Zopyros set during the siege to Babylon is one of the more spectacular ruses of the Histories, combining the extreme obedience of the Persian subject with a talent for cunning deceit. Determined to end the siege after having received a favourable omen, Zopyros crops his hair and flagellates and mutilates himself, cutting off his own nose and ears. With the initially shocked Darius, he makes a cruel and cunning plan: Zopyros will defect to the enemy, pretending to have been maltreated by Darius. After that, Darius will lead practically unarmed men to the walls of Babylon (‘except daggers; leave them these’), first 1000, then 2000, finally 4000 Persians ‘from the part of your army about which you will least care if it is lost’ (3.155.5). Zopyros will then slaughter them and so earn the trust of the Babylonians. The plan works, Zopyros becomes Babylonian commander-in-chief and guardian of the city wall. When Darius attacks from all four sides, he opens the gates and lets the Persians in; Darius razes the town and impales the leading men. At the end of the story and of the third book (160), Herodotus emphasises the greatness of Zopyros’ deed, which in the opinion of Darius had never been surpassed by any Persian except Cyrus and for which Zopyros was highly honoured in Persia. Still, the passage ends on a less enthusiastic note: Darius says he would have preferred Zopyros’ health to the possession of 20 Babylons—and in the last sentence, we get the punchline that Zopyros’ homonymous grandson has defected to the Athenians (3.160.2)—as if defection were a family tradition, regardless if pretended or real."

[2] ttps://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/4142,"The striking similarity of the story with the mythical ‘pattern of Sinon’ has already been recognised by Wolf Aly (1921:111). Even earlier attested than the actual Sinon-story is the tale of Odysseus spying on the Trojans, told by Helen to Telemachus Od. 4.234–264 as an example of his father’s heroism (element no. 7). Of course, this story is set during the siege of Troy (1). Odysseus infiltrates the enemy’s camp as a spy; he has flagellated himself (3b) to look like a Greek deserter. The Trojans do not notice anything suspicious (5). When returning, Odysseus kills four Trojans (4), which helps him escape and eventually leads to Greek victory over the Trojans. The actual opening of the city gates (6) is not part of the story, but immediately afterwards Menelaos takes over telling Telemachus of Odysseus’ function as a leader of men in the wooden horse (4.271–289)—a clear reference to the opening of Troy’s gates by the Greek heroes. An even closer parallel for Herodotus story of Zopyros is the tale of the pretended Greek renegade Sinon who fools the Trojans. The story is attested as early as the epic cycle [1] but mainly known from Vergil (A. 2.57–198) and Quintus Smyrnaeus (12.243–388). The parallels with Herodotus (differing according to source) run as follows: Sinon (by the way Odysseus’ cousin) decides to pretend being a renegade (2) during the siege of Troy (1). To make this more convincing, he defaces himself (3: Tzetzes ad Lyc. 344), or, according to Quintus, it is the Trojans who cut off his ears and nose (3a). This may be a reaction to Herodotus, but this, too, would confirm the similarity of the stories, having been noticed early on. Quintus also emphasizes Sinon’s enormous courage (7). The enemies trust the pretender (5), he is received in Troy and helps the Greeks to get into the town (6). In the meantime, the sceptical family of Laocoon are killed—a minor group on the way to the great victory (4). The obvious difference between the mythical characters and Herodotus’ Zopyros is that the former act independently—whereas Zopyros does everything as an overly faithful subject of the Persian king. Also, the severity of the self-mutilation is much more emphatic in Herodotus, and the fact that the group killed beforehand are the besiegers’ own people. This accentuates the context of monarchy in the Persian episode, spiced with Zopyros’ almost cynical comment on the daggers that the ‘cannon fodder’ will be given (‘leave them these’). The courage of Zopyros is put into perspective, too, as Darius himself is critical towards his self-mutilation, and as the story closes with the prominently placed anecdote of Zopyros the Younger having been a real deserter. Another more distant parallel shows the Sinon-pattern in connection with monarchy, too: the deceit of Peisistratos wounding himself (3) in the war between the Attic coast and inland factions and claiming bodyguards from the Athenians; when they believe him (5), he seizes power (1.59.6). The structure of the pretended deserter, and even its derivatives, are used by Herodotus only in the context of tyranny."