Image Details
Courtesy Cyrus Gordon
Cyrus, meet Cyrus. Polymath scholar and Annual Meeting honoree Cyrus Gordon stands atop the tomb of Cyrus the Great (ruled 559–530 B.C.) at Pasargadae, in Iran. This 1944 photo shows Cyrus the younger while he was serving in the Persian Gulf Command during the Second World War. According to one ancient account, the tomb contained an inscription that read, “O man, I am Cyrus, who founded the empire of the Persians and was king of Asia. Grudge me not therefore this monument.”