o him: "Now, therefore,
what is it in thy mind to do?" and he made answer: "Not according as
Astyages enjoined: for not even if he shall come to be yet more out
of his senses and more mad than he now is, will I agree to his will or
serve him in such a murder as this. And for many reasons I will not slay
the child; first because he is a kin to me, and then because Astyages is
old and without male issue, and if after he is dead the power shall come
through me, does not the greatest of dangers then await me? To secure
me, this child must die; but one of the servants of Astyages must be the
slayer of it, and not one of mine."

110. Thus he spoke, and straightway sent a messenger to that one of the
herdsmen of Astyages who he knew fed his herds on the pastures which
were most suitable for his purpose, and on the mountains most haunted by
wild beasts. The name of this man was Mitradates, and he was married to
one who was his fellow-slave; and the name of the woman to whom he was
married was Kyno in the tongue of the Hellenes and in the Median tongue
Spaco, for what the Hellenes call kyna (bitch) the Medes call spaca.
Now, it was on the skirts of the mountains that this herdsman had his
cattle-pastures, from Agbatana towards the North Wind and towards the
Euxine Sea. For here in the direction of the Saspeirians the Median land
is very mountainous and lofty and thickly covered with forests; but
the rest of the land of Media is all level plain. So when this herdsman
came, being summoned with much urgency, Harpagos said these words:
"Astyages bids thee take this child and place it on the most desolate
part of the mountains, so that it may perish as quickly as possible.
And he bade me to say that if thou do not kill it, but in any way shalt
preserve it from death, he will slay thee by the most evil kind of
destruction: 124 and I have been appointed to see that the child is laid
forth."

111. Having heard this and having taken up the child, the herdsman went
back by the way he came, and arrived at his dwelling. And his wife also,
as it seems, having been every day on the point of bearing a child, by
a providential chance brought her child to birth just at that time, when
the herdsman was gone to the city. And both were in anxiety, each for
the other, the man having fear about the child-bearing of his wife, and
the woman about the cause why Harpagos had sent to summon her husband,
not having been wont to do so aforetime. So as soon