The etymology of Cyrus has been and continues to be a topic of discussion amongst historians, linguists, and scholars of Iranology. The Old Persian name "kuruš" has been interpreted in various forms such as "the Sun", "like Sun", "young", "hero," and "humiliator of the enemy in verbal contest" and the Elamite "kuraš" has been translated as one "who bestows care".
The name has appeared on many monuments and inscriptions in Old Persian.[2] There is also the record of a small inscription in Morghab (southwestern Iran) on which there is the sentence (adam kūruš xšāyaθiya haxāmanišiya) in Old Persian meaning (I am Cyrus the Achaemenian King).[3] After a questionable[4] proposal by the German linguist F. H. Weissbach that Darius the Great was the first to inscribe in Persian, it had previously been concluded by some scholars that the inscription in Morghab refers to Cyrus the Younger. This proposal resulted from a false interpretation of a passage in paragraph 70 of the Behistun inscription by Darius the Great.[5] Based on many arguments,[6] the accepted theory among modern scholars is that the inscription does belong to Cyrus the Great.[7]
There are interpretations of the name of Cyrus by classical authors identifying with or referring to the Persian word for "Sun". The Historian Plutarch (46–120) states that "the sun, which, in the Persian language, is called Cyrus".[8] Also, the Physician Ctesias who served in the court of the Persian king Artaxerxes II of Persia writes in his book Persica as summarized by Photios that the name Cyrus is from the Persian word "Khur" (the sun).[9] These are, however, not accepted by modern scholars.[1]
Regarding the etymology of Old Persian kuruš, linguists have proposed various etymologies based on Iranian languages as well as non-Indo-European ones.[10] According to Tavernier, the name kuraš, attested in Elamite texts, is likely "the original form" as there is no Elamite or Babylonian spelling ku-ru-uš in the transcriptions of Old Persian ku-u-r(u)-u-š. That is, according to Tavernier, kuraš is an Elamite name and means "to bestow care".[10] Others, such as Schmitt, Hoffmann maintain that the Persian Kuruš, which according to Skalmowsky, may be connected to (or borrowing from) the IEKúru- from Old Indic can give an etymology of the Elamite kuraš.[1][10] In this regard, the Old Persian kuruš is considered with the following etymologies: One proposal is discussed by the linguist Janos Harmatta that refers to the common Iranian root "kur-" (be born) of many words in Old, middle, and new Iranian languages (e.g. Kurdish). Accordingly, the name Kūruš means "young, youth...".[11] Other Iranian etymologies have been proposed. The Indian proposal of Skalmowsky goes down to "to do, accomplish". Another theory is the suggestion of Karl Hoffmann that kuruš goes down to a -ru derivation from the IE root *(s)kau meaning "to humiliate"[10] and accordingly "kuruš" (hence "Cyrus") means "humiliator (of the enemy in verbal contest)".[1]
People and fictional characters named Cyrus include:
Cyrus the Great (c.600 BC or 576 BC–530 BC) – also known as Cyrus II – the grandson of Cyrus I, an Achaemenid ruler and founder of the Great Persian Empire
Cyrus the Younger (died 401 BC), brother to the Persian King Artaxerxes
Tavernier, Jan (2007), Iranica in the Achaemenid Period (ca. 550-330 B.C.): Linguistic Study of Old Iranian Proper Names and Loanwords, Attested in Non-Iranian Texts, Peeters Publishers, ISBN978-90-429-1833-7
Tolman, Herbert Cushing (1908), Ancient Persian Lexicon, American Book Company, ISBN978-0-7905-2613-3
Harmatta, János (1971), "The Rise of the Old Persian Empire — Cyrus the Great", Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 19: 1–15
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The Behistun Inscription is a multilingual Achaemenid royal inscription and large rock relief on a cliff at Mount Behistun in the Kermanshah Province of Iran, near the city of Kermanshah in western Iran, established by Darius the Great. It was important to the decipherment of cuneiform, as it is the longest known trilingual cuneiform inscription, written in Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian.
Darius III was the thirteenth and last Achaemenid King of Kings of Persia, reigning from 336 BC to his death in 330 BC.
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Achaemenes was the progenitor of the Achaemenid dynasty of rulers of Persia.
Cyrus II of Persia, commonly known as Cyrus the Great, was the founder of the Persian Achaemenid Empire. Hailing from Persis, he brought the Achaemenid dynasty to power by defeating the Median Empire and embracing all of the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanding vastly and eventually conquering most of West Asia and much of Central Asia to create what would soon become the largest polity in human history at the time. The Achaemenid Empire's largest territorial extent was achieved under Darius the Great, whose rule stretched from Southeast Europe in the west to the Indus River valley in the east.
The Massagetae or Massageteans, also known as Sakā tigraxaudā or Orthocorybantians, were an ancient Eastern Iranian Saka people who inhabited the steppes of Central Asia and were part of the wider Scythian cultures. The Massagetae rose to power in the 8th to 7th centuries BCE, when they started a series of events with wide-reaching consequences by expelling the Scythians out of Central Asia and into the Caucasian and Pontic Steppes. The Massagetae are most famous for their queen Tomyris's alleged defeating and killing of Cyrus, the founder of the Persian Achaemenid Empire.
Median was the language of the Medes. It is an extinct ancient Iranian language and classified as a distinct language belonging to the Northwestern Iranian subfamily, which includes many other much more recently attested and different languages such as Kurdish, Old Azeri, Talysh, Gilaki, Mazandarani, Zaza–Gorani and Baluchi.
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The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire, was an Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, it was the largest empire by that point in history, spanning a total of 5.5 million square kilometres. The empire spanned from the Balkans and Egypt in the west, most of West Asia, the majority of Central Asia to the northeast, and the Indus Valley to the southeast.
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