The Garden of Cyrus

NEBUCHADNEZZAR original: "NABUCHODONOSOR", whom some consider to be the famous Syrian King mentioned by Diodorus Diodorus Siculus, a Greek historian, beautifully repaired that city and so magnificently built his hanging gardens that later writers gave him the honor of being their first creator. From there, overlooking Babylon and all the surrounding region, he found no limit to his ambitious gaze until, over-delighted with the splendor original: "bravery" of this Paradise, he fell into a melancholic transformation original: "meta-morphosis"; a reference to the biblical account in Daniel 4 where the king was driven mad and lived like an animal. He discovered the folly of that delight and received a fitting punishment in a very different dwelling: among the wild plants and wanderings of the fields. ❦ THE Persian nobles original: "gallants", who destroyed this monarchy, maintained their own botanical excellence original: "bravery". It is to them that we owe the very name of "Paradise," a word we do not find in Scripture before the time of Solomon, and which is thought to be originally Persian. The Hebrew word for that disputed garden Eden means nothing more than an enclosed field; interestingly, the same Hebrew root gives rise to the words for both a "garden" and a "shield" original: "buckler"; both words derive from the root "gan," implying protection or enclosure. ❦ CYRUS the Elder, raised in woods and mountains, followed the leanings of his upbringing when time and power allowed. He brought the treasures of the field into order and boundary, so nobly beautifying the hanging gardens of Babylon that he was also thought to be their creator. ❦ AHASUERUS (whom many believe to have been Artaxerxes Longimanus) entertained his princes and people in the country and city of flowers Susa and in an open garden, while Queen Vashti more modestly hosted the ladies within the palace. ❦ BUT if (as some believe) King Ahasuerus was actually Artaxerxes Mnemon—who lived a long life and reign worthy of his great memory—then our celebrated Cyrus Cyrus the Younger was his younger brother. This Cyrus provided the occasion for that memorable feat and almost miraculous retreat led by Xenophon The "Anabasis," or the March of the Ten Thousand Greek mercenaries out of Persia. He was a man of high spirit and honor, a natural king, though tragically prevented from the throne by the simple accident of being the younger son original: "post-geniture". He was not only a lord of gardens but a hands-on planter of them, arranging his trees like his armies in regular, orderly rows. Thus, while the elderly Laertes the father of Odysseus in Homer's Odyssey is remembered for pruning hedges and clearing away thorns and briars; while King Attalus Attalus III, the last king of Pergamum lives on for his poisonous plantations of Aconite, Henbane, Hellebore, and other plants hardly admitted within the walls of Paradise; and while many ancient figures live on only as the names of vegetables; all of history looks upon Cyrus as the magnificent and orderly planter. ❦ ACCORDING