Kurush Teipsides the Great King was named after his grandfather, whose name was Elamite. He did not rule as a Farsi nationalist - contrast Darius and Xerxes. Vridar is reminding those of us needing such reminder of Amelia Kuhrt: that Cyrus in Babylon posed as the new Ashurbanipal. That is: Cyrus was there to restore cosmic-order to Babylon; in the name of Anshar lord of the universe, to be associated with Marduk. (The midwittery would have that Cyrus venerated Ahura Mazda, as would Darius. Like Hanania, this blog tends midwit.)
Vridar points to Cyrus' heir Kambuzha = Cambyses, in Sais. Cambyses promoted Neith thence and there. I'll note that Cambyses could associate himself with the Saites, a favourite régime of Hudson. To the extent either shah "set captives free", a Hudson might add: this just means he nullified debts owed to the previous régime and its temples. Cyrus, ousting Nabunaid (note: not "Marduknaid"), would have hit the temples of Nabu and Sin, sparing Marduk.
All this means we have a contemporary context for Cyrus' propaganda. This context is not the Bible. In their own terms, Cyrus' decrees are not explicit about shifting Diversity back to whence it came. Vridar instead brings Judaeans by the Waters of Babylon (2022) that Yehud was happy "by the rivers of Babylon" and had no pressing desire for Zion. Yeb/Elephantine hints that Yehud may well have run a temple at Babylon. Ezekiel wanted Babylonian-style Temples for his people, maybe at Bethel.
Now: given the proCyrus propaganda in 2 Isaiah, and the Babylon-to-Zion stuff in Ezekiel, I actually do suspect there was a Judaean move back to Madinat Yehud. But maybe it wasn't the literate class. Maybe it was soldiers, with 2 Isaiah's cantillations ringing in their ears.
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