[13] Now when Mandane began to think of going back to her husband,
Astyages begged her to leave the boy behind. She answered that though
she wished to please her father in everything, it would be hard to
leave the boy against his will. [14] Then the old man turned to Cyrus:
"My boy, if you will stay with us, Sacas shall never stop you from
coming to me: you shall be free to come whenever you choose, and the
oftener you come the better it will please me. You shall have horses
to ride, my own and as many others as you like, and when you leave us
you shall take them with you. And at dinner you shall go your own away
and follow your own path to your own goal of temperance just as you
think right. And I will make you a present of all the game in my parks
and paradises, and collect more for you, and as soon as you have
learnt to ride you shall hunt and shoot and hurl the javelin exactly
like a man. And you shall have boys to play with and anything else you
wish for: you have only to ask me and it shall be yours." [15] Then
his mother questioned the boy and asked him whether he would rather
stay with his grandfather in Media, or go back home with her: and he
said at once that he would rather stay. And when she went on to ask
him the reason, he answered, so the story says, "Because at home I am
thought to be the best of the lads at shooting and hurling the
javelin, and so I think I am: but here I know I am the worst at
riding, and that you may be sure, mother, annoys me exceedingly. Now
if you leave me here and I learn to ride, when I am back in Persia you
shall see, I promise you, that I will outdo all our gallant fellows on
foot, and when I come to Media again I will try and show my
grandfather that, for all his splendid cavalry, he will not have a
stouter horseman than his grandson to fight his battles for him." [16]
Then said his mother, "But justice and righteousness, my son, how can
you learn them here when your teachers are at home?" "Oh," said Cyrus,
"I know all about them already." "How do you know that you do?" asked