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" The Medes had an Ancient Iranian Religion (a form of pre-Zoroastrian Mazdaism or Mithra worshipping) with a priesthood named as "Magi". Later and during the reigns of the last Median kings, the reforms of Zarathustra spread in western Iran….."The Medes were an people of Indo-Iranian (Aryan) origin….By the 6th century BC (prior to the Persian invasion) the Medes were able to establish an empire that stretched from Aran (the modern-day Republic of Azerbaijan) to Central Asia and Balkh, Afghanistan. The language of the Medes is almost entirely unknown. It was most likely similar to the Avestan and Scythian languages.
Click on the map to enlarge......By 600 B.C., Egypt's sphere of influence has been reduced. Syria is under Babylonian (Chaldean) control, but the Medes control more than the lion's share of the Ancient near East....Public Domain. William Shepherd, Historical Atlas. 1911.
"According to the Histories of Herodotus, there were six Median tribes:…..Thus Deioces collected the Medes into a nation, and ruled over them alone. Now these are the tribes of which they consist: the Busae, the Paretaceni, the Struchates, the Arizanti, the Budii, and the Magi….Of the Median tribes, the Magi was a sort of sacred caste, which ministered to the spiritual needs of the Medes……
"The fifth tribe were the Budii, found also among the Black Sea Scythians as Budi-ni. Sakyamuni Buddha was of the tribe Saka (eastern Scythian) form of the name……The fifth group were the "Budii" found also amongst the Black Sea Scythians as Budi-ni as well as the eastern Saka. Budha was of the tribe "Budha"., which was also eastern Scythian "sakiya". The name was possibly related to BUDIN =people in turkic/mongol. Perhaps another meaning of this is related to Mongol Bahadur, Batur =brave, knight. Hungarian and ancient Turkic batur=brave. The root word may be the recently discussed terms BAD/BAT =beat, break, wreck, etc in Sumerian. The general meaning given for Budha however is "enlightenment"……Indo-Scythians is a term used to refer to Scythians (Sakas), who migrated into parts of Central Asia and northern South Asia (Sogdiana, Bactria, Arachosia, Gandhara, Sindh, Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, UP and Bihar.), from the middle of the 2nd century BCE to the 4th century CE. The first Saka king in India was Maues (Moga) (1st century BCE) who established Saka power in Gandhara and gradually extended supremacy over north-western India. Indo-Scythian rule in India ended with the last Western Satrap Rudrasimha III in 395 CE…….http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Scythians
The Indo-Aryan and Iranian tribes separated about 2000 BCE…..
"According to the Histories of Herodotus…..The Medes were called anciently by all people Aryans"…..
"On the east and southeast of Media, as described by the Assyrians, another land with the name of "Patušarra" appears. This land was located near a mountain range which the Assyrians call "Bikni" and describe as "Lapis Lazuli Mountain"……
Arbaces, who is said to have destroyed Nineveh about 880 BC….
"The list of Median rulers….Herodotus who calls them "kings" and associates them with the same family…..
Deioces (reign 700-647 BCE)….In Herodotus (book 1, chapters 95-130), Deioces is introduced as the founder of a centralized Median state. He had been known to Median people as "a just and incorruptible man" and when asked by Median people to solve their possible disputes he agreed and put the condition that they make him "king" and build a great city at Ecbatana as the capital of Median state….If the account of Herodotus may be trusted, the Medes' dynasty derived its origin from Deioces (Daiukku), a Mede chieftain in the Zagros, who was, along with his kinsmen, transported by Sargon to Hamath (Haniah) in Syria in 715 BC. This Daiukku seems to have originally been a governor of Mannae subject to Sargon, prior to his exile.
("According to the Histories of the Greek researcher Herodotus of Halicarnassus, Ecbatana was founded by Deioces, the legendary first king of the Medes. ….'Deioces bade them build for him a palace worthy of the royal dignity and strengthen him with a guard of spearmen. And the Medes did so: for they built him a large and strong palace in that part of the land which he told them….. He built large and strong walls, those which are now called Ecbatana, standing in circles one within the other. And this wall is so contrived that one circle is higher than the next by the height of the battlements alone. And to some extent, I suppose, the nature of the ground, seeing that it is on a hill, assists towards this end; but much more was it produced by art, since the circles are in all seven in number. And within the last circle are the royal palace and the treasure-houses. The largest of these walls is in size about equal to the circuit of the wall round Athens; and of the first circle the battlements are white, of the second black, of the third crimson, of the fourth blue, of the fifth red: thus are the battlements of all the circles colored with various tints, and the two last have their battlements one of them overlaid with silver and the other with gold. These walls then Deioces built for himself and round his own palace, and the people he commanded to dwell round about the wall. ….Herodotus, Histories 1.98-99…..the seven walls may in fact be a ziggurat, a kind of multi-storied temple tower that was common in the ancient Near East…..http://www.iranchamber.com/history/ecbatana/ecbatana.php
"The Greek historian Polybius of Megalopolis offers probably the best available description of the city (World history 10.27.5-13). He writes that the city was richer and more beautiful than all other cities in the world; although it had no town wall, the citadel had impressive fortifications. This confirms Herodotus' words that the Medes were 'to dwell round about the wall', but Polybius offers more plausible dimensions: the circumference of the citadel was 1,300 meters. He also states that the builders used cedar and cypress wood, which was covered with silver and gold. The roof tiles, columns and ceilings were plated with silver and gold….http://www.iranchamber.com/history/ecbatana/ecbatana.php
Greek sources mention temples dedicated to the goddess Aenê (probably Anahita) and the goddess of healing, which the Greeks called Asclepius. This shrine was destroyed by the Macedonian king Alexander the Great, who overthrew the Achaemenid empire, because the god had allowed his friend Hephaestion to die in Ecbatana (324 BCE).
Phraortes (reign 647-625 BCE)…Phraortès (Persan: Fravartish)
Scythian (reign 624-597 BCE)
Cyaxares (reign 624-585 BCE)……..son of Phraortès, Cyaxare (Persan: Ouvakhshatra)…Cyaxares was succeeded by his son Astyagēs (585–549), who was defeated and captured by his vassal Cyrus, king of the Persians, and from 549 the Persians became the ruling race.
Astyages (reign 585-549 BCE)….During the long reign of Astyage (585-550), which succeeded Cyaxare, the territories mèdes remain unchanged….The last king of the Medes was Astyages (585-550 B.C.); in 553 B.C., the kingdom was overthrown by Persia, its former vassal, under Cyrus……
Click on the map to enlarge.
"Median people spoke the Median language, which was an Old Iranian language. Strabo in his Geography (finished in the early 1st century AD) mentions the affinity of Median with other Iranian languages: "The name of Ariana is further extended to a part of Persia and of Media, as also to the Bactrians and Sogdians on the north; for these speak approximately the same language, but with slight variations"."…..Median literature is a part of the "Old Iranian literature" (including also Saka, Old Persian, Avestan)…..
Median Language…..čiθra-: "origin". The word appears in *čiθrabṛzana- (med.) "exalting his linage", *čiθramiθra- (med.) "having mithraic origin", *čiθraspāta- (med.) "having a brilliant army", etc.
Median Language…..Farnah: Divine glory; (Avestan: khvarənah)
It is also suggested that "Mithra" has a Median name and Medes may have practised Mithraism and had Mithra as their supreme deity.[Soudavar, Abolala (2003), The aura of kings: legitimacy and divine sanction in Iranian kingship, Mazda Publishers, ISBN 978-1-56859-109-4]…..
"The history of Medes, a people apparently of Indo-Iranian origin, is reflected in Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian and Greek documents….
Email....okarresearch@gmail.com
John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….August 2013
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