Okay, I don't think I have told about Cyrus the Great for a while. In ancient Iran, there was a mighty kingdom called Media, ruled by Astyages. Now, Astyages had a daughter who was married to a nobleman from one of the subjugated people; the Persians. Astyages dreamt that this daughter urinated all over Asia, and on another occasion that roots sprung from her engulfed all over Asia. His priests interpreted this as a sign that she would give birth to an usurper who would conquer the Medes and all of Asia. Naturally, Astyages was terrified at this, and ordered a certain nobleman named Harpagus to kill the infant. Harpagus set off to Persia and arrived shortly after. However, he could not bring himself to kill the infant, so instead he took the child and handed it over to a shepherd in his employment.
This shepherd was not all that eager to kill the child either, and it happened that his wife had just given birth to a stillborn son. The couple took the child as their own, and when Harpagus later came to verify that the killing had been done, they showed him their stillborn. The boy who was adopted in this way then, was called Cyrus. Wether he was given that name at his adoption or later on I don't remember. As he grew older, he played a lot of games with the other boys. In one such game, where he was roleplaying a king and the others his subjects, one of the others disobeyed an order. Cyrus had the boy physically punished, and he ran home to his parents and cried.
Because of this event, many saw Cyrus as a natural leader. This eventually reached the ears of Astyages, the aforementioned king. He had Cyrus sent to his palace, and it was somehow discovered that the boy was indeed the son of Astyages' daughter. The king, who had decided to have him killed at birth, now changed his mind because he was charmed by his noble spirit. Harpagus however, the man who had been given the task, did not come off so easily. Astyages had that man's son killed and cooked, and at a banquet served the flesh to him. At first, Harpagus was not aware of what he was eating, but at the end of the banquet, a last dish was brought to him; his son's cooked head. Harpagus said nothing at the time, but secretly swore revenge.
As Cyrus grew older and ascended to the throne in Persia as a vassal of the Medes, Harpagus approached him with a scheme to overthrow Astyages. Cyrus agreed, and he led the Persians against the Medes in battle. The Medes were defeated and the Persians became the new rulers of that part of Asia, but not just that - Cyrus also went on to conquer the rest of Asia, just as foretold by his grandfather's dream.