Harpagus

Harpagus, also known as Harpagos or Hypargus (Ancient Greek Ἅρπαγος; Akkadian: Arbaku), was a Median general from the 6th century BC, credited by Herodotus as having put Cyrus the Great on the throne through his defection during the battle of Pasargadae.

Biography

According to Herodotus' Histories, Harpagus was a member of the Median royal house in service to King Astyages, the last king of Media.

When word reached Astyages that Cyrus was gathering his forces, he ordered Harpagus, as his primary general, to lead the army against Cyrus. After a three-day battle on the plain of Pasargadae, Harpagus took his revenge for the death of his son when he turned on the battlefield in favor of Cyrus, resulting in Astyages' defeat and the formation of the Persian Empire.

Myth

Herodotus accounts for the turn of Harpagus' support to a version of the cannibal feast of Thyestes. He reports that Astyages, after having a dream that his daughter, Mandane, would give birth to a king who would overthrow him, ordered Harpagus to expose the child at birth. Harpagus, reluctant to spill his own royal blood, gave the child (Cyrus) to a shepherd named Mitradates, who raised him as his own son.

Harpagus (bird)

Harpagus is a genus of birds of prey in the Accipitridae family. It comprises:

Both live in tropical American forests. They are small, rather accipiter-like kites, 30 to 35 cm long and compact, with long tails and oval wings ("pinched in" near the base of the trailing edge) which they characteristically curve downward when soaring or gliding. Both have dark tails with pale bars, as well as a white throat with a dark stripe down the middle. Another shared feature is a blunt bill with two notches on each side of the upper mandible. This "double tooth" gave rise not only to the common name of one species but to the specific epithets bidentatus and diodon. Both like rather high perches in trees and sometimes soar above the forest.

Harpagus was the Greek name of a Median general.

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