section_path: Legacy/Religion and philosophy
section_name: Religion and philosophy
paragraph_text: Religion and philosophy
  
  Pierre Briant wrote that given the poor information we have, "it seems quite reckless to try to reconstruct what the religion of Cyrus might have been." It is also debated whether he was a practitioner of Zoroastrianism or whether Zoroastrianism only becomes involved with the imperial religion of the Achaemenid empire after him. The evidence in favor of it comes from some of the names of members of Cyrus' family, and similarities between the description of Cyrus in Isaiah 40–48 and the Gathas. Against the thesis is how Cyrus treated local polytheistic cults, acknowledging their gods and providing funding for the establishment of their temples and other holy sites, as well as a possible late-date for the activity of the Iranian prophet Zoroaster, who founded Zoroastrianism.
  
  The policies of Cyrus with respect to treatment of minority religions are documented in many historical accounts, particularly Babylonian texts and Jewish sources. Cyrus had a general policy of religious tolerance throughout his vast empire. Whether this was a new policy or the continuation of policies followed by the Babylonians and Assyrians (as Lester Grabbe maintains) is disputed. He brought peace to the Babylonians and is said to have kept his army away from the temples and restored the statues of the Babylonian gods to their sanctuaries.
  
  Information about religion and ritual during the reign of Cyrus is also available from the Cyropaedia of Xenophon, the Histories of Herodotus, and inscriptions, though these were written in later periods and so must be used carefully.
  
  The Cyrus Cylinder was composed in the name of Cyrus with him as the first-person speaker. The Cylinder is highly religious and is framed around the interventions of the god Marduk. It is Marduk who is praised in the outset of the text, whose direct intervention is thought to be responsible for what happened in recent history, and it is Marduk who summons Cyrus for the purpose of righting the wrongs of his predecessor, Nabonidus. Furthermore, Cyrus offers respect not only to the cult of Marduk but also to local cults. One inscription from Uruk states "(Cyrus) loves Esangil and Ezida", while another from Ur mentons that he "returned the gods to their shrines". Another from Babylon or Sippar says that unlike Nabonidus, Cyrus provided proper and even increased the sacrifices for the gods. Additional reliable information may come from the funerary customs around the tomb of Cyrus which indicates a privileged cult honoring Mithra. Some have also identified the figure depicted in the bas-relief from Pasargadae as Mithra, further indicating the reverence of Cyrus for this deity. Additional evidence further indicates the connection between Cyrus and Mithra.