ASTYAGES (Greek Ἀστυάτης; no documents in cuneiform). — Last king of Media (584–550 B.C.), son of Cyaxares (v.). About 553 B.C., Cyrus (v.), king of Anshan in Susiana and vassal of A., rebelled against his lord, and, thanks to the treachery of the Median general Harpagus, defeated him and annexed Media to the Persian kingdom (550). A. remained until his death a prisoner of Cyrus, who, however, treated him with consideration. According to Herodotus, Cyrus’s mother, Mandane, would have been daughter of A.; but this is contradicted by Ctesias. A. is mentioned in Dan. 13:65 (Theodotion and Vulgate) as predecessor of Cyrus.
Cf. Herodotus, I, 46, 73, 75, 107, 123, 127–30; Ctesias-Fragm., 29, par. 2; Nabonidus Inscription I, cols. I, II, 28–33; Nabonidus and Cyrus Chronicle, col. II, II, 1–4 (in Eb. Schrader, Keilinschr. Bibliothek, III, 2, Berlin 1890, pp. 99, 129 sq.; H. Gressmann, Altoriental. Texte, 2nd ed., Berlin-Leipzig 1926, pp. 366–68).