The Armenians also narrate the fall of Astyages. Moses of Chorene (I. 513) tells us that he only related the stories of the Persians to please his patron Sahak (Isaac) Bagratuni, and gave them a meaning which they did not possess. Biurasp Asdahag lived at the time of Nimrod, and the person whom the Persians in their stories call the child of Satan, served him; and with regard to the dragon, or the changing of Asdahag into a dragon, the truth was that he sacrificed men in infinite numbers to the dragon, till the multitude grew weary, overpowered him, and threw him into a trench filled with bitumen. Moses further tells us: The ninth descendant of Baroir of Armenia (I. 515), King Tigran, was the mightiest of all the princes of Armenia, and helped Cyrus to overthrow the kingdom of the Medes. Tigran was pledged by treaties to Asdahag (Astyages) the king of the Medians, and when he united with Cyrus, Astyages had an evil dream. He saw a high mountain surrounded by snow and ice, as in the land of the son of Haikhs (I. 513). On the summit of the mountain, a woman in purple, covered with a sky-blue veil, brought forth three heroes at once: one, carried on a lion, dashed toward the west; the second, on a leopard, to the north; the third, on a monstrous dragon, to Media. With this Asdahag fought in the dream: they shed a sea of blood, and pierced each other with their lances. Asdahag explained this dream to mean that he had to expect an attack from Tigran, the king of Armenia. To prevent this, and secretly to destroy Tigran, Asdahag sought Tigran's sister, Tigranuhi, in marriage, obtained her, and held her in great honour. Then he asked for a meeting with Tigran. But Tigranuhi had perceived the duplicity of Asdahag, and warned her brother. He collected the best warriors of great and little Armenia, and marched against the Medes. The war continued for four months, till Tigran in a hand-to-hand conflict pierced the iron armour of Asdahag with his lance. The death of Asdahag put an end to the battle and the war, and Tigran led his sister back to Armenia, where she became the ancestress of the race of Osdan. Anuish (Aryanis), the first wife of Astyages, and a number of young princesses and boys, more than 10,000 in all, Tigranes brought to Armenia, and settled there to the east of the great mountain, towards the land of Koghten, in the plain of Ajtnayan, as far as Nakhjevan. In the songs of the people of Koghten, the descendants of Astyages are spoken of in an allegorical manner, as the descendants of the dragon; for Astyages (Asdahag) in our language means the dragon.[539] As has been shown, the Armenians were closely allied to the people of Iran in language, character, and religious worship. It cannot therefore astonish us that the legends of Iran are known to them. What Moses tells us of Biurasp Asdahag and his serpents rests on the myth in the Avesta of the serpent Azhi dahaka, the Zohak of the later form of Iranian legend (p. 250).