Heartwarming / The Histories

• Baby Cypselus. The ruling family of Corinth sent ten men to kill the newborn baby Cypselus, because the Oracle at Delphi had prophesied that he would overthrow their house. However, when his mother innocently handed Cypselus to them, the baby smiled at the men and they were touched with pity, and gave him back to his mother and left.
  • Crowning Moment of Cynicism: Cypselus went on to overthrow the ruling house of Corinth and became a tyrant. So if an oracle tells you that a baby will overthrow your clan, you better kill it.
• At exactly the moment when we expect Croesus to lose his life along with his empire, he instead realizes his folly and hubris, and Cyrus, touched, spares his life and the life of his family, and takes him on as a loyal adviser, so that he might learn from the wisdom of experience and avoid making the mistakes of a man he recognizes as being much like himself... which is, after all, the purpose of what we now call history.