The Dream of Astyages

What it is

This is a page from an illuminated manuscript made about 1475. The page has two columns of red and black medieval text with blue and gold initials. Below the text is a framed painted scene showing a standing woman in a long gown beside a vine with grapes, and a man asleep in a large bed on a checkered red and white floor. The scene is linked to the dream of Astyages about the birth of Cyrus. The illuminator is not known.

Why it matters

Medieval artists retold ancient stories about Cyrus for their own readers, adding details from their own time. The dream of Astyages, the Median king who feared his grandson, was a story about how Cyrus's rise was foretold. This page shows how a story from the ancient world was kept alive and illustrated in Europe many centuries later.

Look closer

• What do you see in the painted scene, and how does the artist show the sleeping king?
• Who made this manuscript, and for what readers was it meant?
• What does the page leave out about the ancient setting of the story?