MEDIA mē’ dĭ ə, the home of the Medes, an ancient Indo-European people of northwestern Iran who were absorbed by the rise of Persia (q.v.) in the 7th cent. b.c. Hebrew מָדָֽי, Aram. shows variation, kěthībh מָדָיָא, H10405, while qěrē reads מָֽדָאָ֔ה, in Daniel 6:1 in reference to Darius the king. The Greeks knew them as Μῆδοι, in Herodotus et al. The only sources of knowledge about their geographical distribution in antiquity is found in the annals of the Assyrian rulers who campaigned against them. Although of Indo-European origin and possibly older than Pers., none of their language has survived with the exception of loan words and specific names in Old Pers. records. They seem to have settled in the plateau of Iran below the Caspian Sea and considerably NE of the Tigris River. They were shielded somewhat from the Scyths by their related culture and the Cimmerians with whom they appear to have been allied. They are mentioned together as Madai and Gomer, the sons of Japheth, in Genesis 10:2. Ultimately Scythia fell upon the Cimmerians and the nearby kingdom of Urarṭu and the Medes were left alone to fend off further aggression. The origins of Media are obscure; however, the annals of the Assyrian, Shalmaneser III, mention them. He ruled from 858-824 b.c. and prob. discovered them in the region of Ecbatana (Hamadan) around 836 b.c. The annals of Shamshi-Adad V (823-811) mention a ruler of Iran who had 1,200 cities N of Lake Urmia. Tiglath-pileser III (745-727 b.c.), one of the most methodical of Assyrian strategists, carried out a number of campaigns in Iran penetrating to the foot of mount Demavend. It appears that during the 8th cent. Media provided horses for the Assyrian army, but the alliance of the Iranian tribes were a constant threat to the settled villages and towns of Mesopotamia. Sargon II (721-705 b.c.) overcame Hoshea, the ephemeral king of Samaria, and placed the subject peoples in “the cities of the Medes” (2 Kings 17:5, 6; 18:11) which he controlled. He is known to have taken a certain Dayaukku as prisoner of war and deported him with his family to Hama in Syria. It has been suspected that this is, in fact, the Deioces mentioned by Herodotus as the founder of the Median royal line (I:96), the son of an unknown chieftain. His son, Khshathrita (Phraortes) died in a battle with the Assyrians and his son Uvarkhshatra (Cyaxares) succeeded to his dominion over the three sections of Media as mentioned by Herodotus (I:102) and apparently renewed Median control over the regions round Lake Urmia. Herodotus adds that during this period Cyaxares learned the warfare and military organization of the Scythians and used it with success against Alyattes, king of Sardis, in a long campaign. During this war an eclipse of the sun occurred which greatly terrified the troops of both armies. This astronomical event had been forecast by the Milesian Gr. sage, Thales, and is one of the few dates in Median history which may be pinpointed with accuracy as 28 May 585 b.c.

The effect of Scythian culture is seen in the mixed form of what survives of Median art, which demonstrates strong barbarian motifs. Cyaxares overcame his Scythian overlords and annexed the regions of the Persians and the Mannai to his kingdom apparently using Gr. ̓Αγβάτανα, modern Pers. Hamadan, as his capital. In 615 b.c. he had marched on Nineveh but had been repulsed. He turned N and captured Aššus on the Tigris River. The Babylonian king, Nabopolassar, concluded a treaty with Cyaxares which was sealed by the marriage of Amytis, granddaughter of Cyaxares with the son and heir of Nabopolassar, Nebuchadrezzar II. In the inscrs. from this period the general term, Umman-manda is used by the Assyro-Babylonian scribes for Scythians, Cimmerians and at least in this instance for the Medes. (D. J. Wiseman, Chronicles of Chaldean Kings in the British Museum [1956], 16.) The hoped-for attack of the Medes upon Babylon, the subject of Isaiah’s prophecy (Isaiah 13:17-19), came to pass after the Median power had been combined with that of Persia in 539 b.c. Cyaxares’ kingdom passed to his successor Arshtivaiga (Astyages) under whom the Median state gave way and fell to its former vassal, Persia. For a brief period Media had shared the rule of Western Asia with the Chaldeans, Lydians and Egyptians and had built a number of great city-states. Media, however, finally fell to Persia under Cyrus II in 550 b.c. The name Media was used in later times by the Sassanians and their successors. It appears in Rom. lit. and in Acts 2:9.

Bibliography E. Herzfeld, Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran, Vol. I (1929); F. W. König, Älteste Geschichte der Meder und Perser (1934); G. G. Cameron, History of Early Iran (1936); I. M. D’yakonov, Istoriia Midii (1956) in Russian; R. Ghirshman, Iran (1961); E. Porada, Alt-Iran, Die Kunst in vorislamischer Zeit (1962).