Traces ancient Iranian mythical-legendary traditions within classical sources on Median and Persian royalty.• Combines leading research in different interdisciplinary areas, including classics, Iranology, oral traditions, comparative mythology, and religious studies (focusing on Zoroastrianism, Mithraism, and other Old Iranian religions).• Expands on previous scholarship and utilizes overlooked Iranian evidence.• Provocatively rereads the accounts of key events in Median and Achaemenid history, including passages that are of tremendous interest outside the field of Iranian studies.• Overturns longstanding perceptions regarding the methods and overall reliability of classical authors.• Presents findings that may serve as a foundation to future narrative works on Achaemenid history, as well as to the concept of cultural production in the Achaemenid period.This book fills an important gap in Achaemenid studies by using traditional Iranian narratives, such as those found in the famous Shahnameh, or ‘Book of Kings’, of Ferdowsi, to analyse the Greco-Roman accounts of Median and Persian royalty. The study shows that the classical authors derived their accounts from Iranian traditions, grounded in age-old myths and legends. This analysis serves many purposes. It refines the extent to which the classical sources may be used in historical reconstructions and sheds new light on the literary methods of authors, such as Herodotus, Ctesias, and Xenophon. Finally, the book offers insights into one of the thorniest enigmas in Iranian historiography, the apparent disappearance of Illustrious rulers like Cyrus II, Darius I, and Xerxes I from native historical traditions. Standing at the crossroads of Iranian studies and Classics, this book is an indispensable source for scholars of ancient Iran, Greek historiography, and the Shahnameh.
Reza Shaghaghi Zarghamee
Dr Reza Shaghaghi Zarghamee is a Post-doctoral Fellow in Ancient History at the University of St. Andrews, where he received his PhD from the School of Classics in 2022. His area of specialisation is the history of pre-Islamic and, more specifically, Achaemenid Iran. He is the author of Discovering Cyrus: The Persian Conqueror Astride the Ancient World (Mage: 2013), a biographical account of Cyrus the Great, and various shorter publications on ancient Iranian history and myth, as well as Greek accounts of ancient Persia. In addition to his work as a historian, Mr Zarghamee is a practising attorney.
Editorial Reviews
“This book by Reza Zarghamee, Myth and History in Ancient Persia, is yet another radiant entry in Edinburgh Studies in Ancient Persia. What is particularly admirable about the book is its almost uncanny precision and clarity in dealing with the complex diversity of primary sources centering on the self-presentation of the imperial civilization of ancient Medes and Persians.”
—Olga M. Davidson, Boston University