This was the revenge of Astyages upon Harpagos. Concerning Kyros, he took counsel, and summoned the same magicians who had explained his dream, then he asked them how they had at one time interpreted his vision in a dream. But they said that the boy must become a king, if he remained alive, and did not die prematurely. Astyages made reply: “The boy is alive, and is here, and as he was staying in the country, the boys of the village elected him for their king. But he did everything like the real kings, for he ordained to himself as the master, sword bearers, gate keepers, messengers, and everything. How do you mean to interpret this?” The magicians made reply: “If the boy is alive, and has been made king without the help of anyone, thou canst be at ease so far as he is concerned, and be of good cheer, for he will not again be made a king. Already several prophecies of ours have applied to insignificant trifles, and what rests upon dreams is apt to be vain.” Astyages made reply: “Ye sorcerers, I am entirely of your opinion that the dream has been fulfilled when the boy was king in name, and that I have nothing more to fear from him. Yet counsel me carefully as to what is safest for my house and for yourselves.” Then the magicians said: “Send the boy away, that he may get out of thy sight, send him to the land of the Persians, to his parents.” When Astyages had heard this, he was greatly pleased. He sent for Kyros, and said to him: “My son, I have wronged thee greatly, misled by a deceitful dream, but thy good fortune has saved thee. Now go cheerfully to the land of the Persians; I shall give thee safe conduct. There wilt thou find a very different father, and a very different mother than the herders, Mithradates and his wife.” Thus spake Astyages, and Kyros was sent away. When he arrived in the house of Kambyses, his parents received him with great joy when they learned who he was, for they believed him to have perished at that time, and they desired to know how he had been preserved. He told them that he had believed himself to be the son of the cattle herder, but had learned everything on the way from the companions whom Astyages had sent with him. He related that the cattle herder’s wife had saved him, and praised her throughout. The bitch (Spako) played the principal part in his conversation. The parents took hold of this name, so that the preservation of the child might appear still more wonderful, and thus was laid the foundation of the myth that the exposed Kyros was nursed by a bitch. Later on, Kyros, on the instigation of Harpagos, stirred up the Persians against the Medes. War was declared, and Kyros, at the head of the Persians, conquered the Medes in battle. Astyages was taken a prisoner alive, but Kyros did not harm him, but kept him with him until his end. Herodotus’s report concludes with the words: “But from that time on the Persians and Kyros reigned over Asia. Thus was Kyros born and raised, and made a king.”