Cyrus

plural Cyruses · plural rare Cyri

1. An ancient king of Persia, Cyrus the Great.

   Thus ſayeth Cyꝛus the kynge of Perſia: The LORDE God of heauẽ hath geuen me all the kyngdomes in the londe and hath commaunded me to buylde him an houſe at Ieruſalem in Iuda.

   1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, I. Esdras [Ezra] j:[2], folio cvij, recto, column 1

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   Furthermore, the superlative formulation of Cyrus’ character (he possesses kallos, philanthrōpia, philomathia and philotimia to an outstanding degree) may be thought to make him a supremely successful leader, but also a unique and not so easily imitated one (how many Cyruses do you know? Can you be Cyrus?).

   2018, Luuk Huitink, “Xenophon”, in Koen De Temmerman, Evert van Emde Boas, editors, Characterization in Ancient Greek Literature (Mnemosyne Supplements: Monographs on Greek and Latin Language and Literature, 411; Studies in Ancient Greek Narrative, 4), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, →ISSN, part 7 (Biography), page 471

2. A male given name from Old Persian.

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   Cyrus] There were two Cyri the greater, meant here, Conqueror of Aſia, Scythia, and all the Eaſt, reigning in the time of Tarquin the proud. […] The other was Cyrus the leſſer, ſonne to Darius, brother to Artaxerxes, whoſe iourney into Perſia, Xenophon wrote. [marginal note:] The tvvo Cyri. […] Cyri who they were.

   1610, Io[annes] Lod[ovicus] Viues, translated by I[ohn] H[ealey], Sᵗ. Augustine, of the Citie of God: With the Learned Comments of Io. Lod. Viues. […], [London]: […] George Eld, page 125 and index

   At this passage the Behistun inscription does not enumerate the names of all the nine Achaemenians, but from an inscription Aššurbānapli to be dated to 639 B. C. we know that a certain Kuraš was the king of the country of Parsumaš at this time and this could be the grandfather of Cyrus «the Great». In the family tree between the two Cyri appears Cambyses I, who is mentioned by Herodotus.

   1973, D. Hegyi, “Historical Authenticity of Herodotus in the Persian «Logoi»”, in Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, volume 21, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, →ISSN, pages 76–77

   Contrast Arrian’s statement that the camp belonged to the younger Cyrus (ii, 4.3). It is unlikely that both Cyri camped in the same area (pace Mützell), for when Cyrus marched against Croesus he entered Asia Minor on the northerly route, as Pteria was his first objective (Hdt. i, 76.1), and he would not therefore have gone through the Cilician Gates.

   1980, J[ohn] E[dward] Atkinson, “Commentary on Book 3”, in A Commentary on Q. Curtius Rufus’ Historiae Alexandri Magni, Books 3 and 4, Amsterdam: J.C. Gieben, →ISBN, page 137

3. A surname.

1. The Kura river, as it is called in classical sources.

   In the mountains near Suram is a watering-place called Burjan, to which the Imperial Lieutenant of the Caucasus retires in summer. The river Kur, the ancient Cyrus, takes its rise in that district.

   1868, “Route 20: London to Tiflis […] ”, in Handbook for Travellers in Russia, Poland, and Finland, 2nd edition, London: John Murray, page 321