THE SCENE: The Persian king Cambyses ordered the death of his brother, Smerdis, after receiving a prophesy that Smerdis would destroy him. Years later, an unrelated man named Smerdis rebelled, and Cambyses realized the depths of his doom and damnation.
THE TEXT: The moment that Cambyses heard the name, he was struck with the truth of what Prexaspes had said, and realized that his dream of how somebody told him Smerdis was sitting on the throne with his head touching the sky, had been fulfilled. It was clear to him now that the murder of his brother had been all to no purpose; he lamented his loss, and at last, in bitterness and anger at the whole miserable set of circumstances, he leapt upon his horse, meaning to march with all speed to Susa and attack [Smerdis]. But as he was springing into the saddle, the cap fell off the sheath of his sword, exposing the blade, which pierced his thigh – just in the spot where he had previously struck Apis, the sacred Egyptian bull. Believing the wound to be mortal, Cambyses asked what the name of the town was, and was told it was Ecbatana. There had been a prophesy from the oracle at Buto that he would die at Ecbatana; and he had supposed that to mean the Median Ecbatana, his capital city, where he would die in old age. But, as it turned out, the oracle meant Ecbtana in Syria. After the mention of the name, the double shock of his wound and of [Smerdis’] rebellion brought him back to his senses. The meaning of the oracle became clear, and he said: “Here it is fated that Cambyses, son of Cyrus, should die”. Having said this, Cambyses bitterly lamented the cruelty of his lot, and when the Persians saw the king in tears, they tore their clothes, and showed their sympathy by a great deal of crying and groaning. Shortly afterwards gangrene and mortification of the thigh set in, and Cambyses died, after a reign in all of seven years and five months.
– The Histories, Herodotus, 5th Century BC
