An ancient legend tells that Ikhtovigo, king of Medes, has a beautiful daughter, Mandana. One night the king dreamed that from Mandana grew a giant vine-tree which covered all Asia.

The court astrologers told him that Mandana would give birth to a great King who would subdue him and conquer the world. Alarmed, the king gave her to Cambyses, king of Anshan, far from her land of Ecbatana, the capital of Medes.

As soon as her child Cyrus was born, the cruel grandfather ordered to carry the baby into the forest and leave him there to be devoured by wild beasts. But the forester’s newly born child had just died and he decided to put him in the forest and adopted Cyrus, who grew up and became a strong and courageous warrior. After succeeding to his father in Anshan, he refused to pay tribute to the Medes. When Ikhtovito sent a strong army to punish him, he entered Ecbatana, dethroned his grandfather and sent him to exile to Anshan.

Cyrus the Great then founded the immense Iranian Achaemenid empire.