Lecture 9: Alexander the Great, the son of Philip II and Olympias, was born in 356 B.C., and later accounts report portends of his future greatness. Both parents were brilliant, passionate, and ambitious whose tempestuous marriage divided the court …
Lecture 9: Alexander the Great, the son of Philip II and Olympias, was born in 356 B.C., and later accounts report portends of his future greatness. Both parents were brilliant, passionate, and ambitious whose tempestuous marriage divided the court at Pella into scheming factions. Yet, Philip loved his son, and trained Alexander to succeed to the Macedonian throne. Philip sought out the fi nest tutors, most notably the Greek philosopher, Aristotle. For three years at Mieza, Aristotle instructed Alexander and his companions–Hephaestion, Leonnatus, Lysimachus, and Ptolemy–destined to be generals and kings. From Aristotle, Alexander learned his Homer and Hellenic aesthetics, but he remained a Macedonian king who never accepted the distinction of Greeks and barbarians.
Plutarch reports how Philip took pride in his son’s accomplishments such as Alexander’s taming of the stead Bucephalus, and predicted his son’s greatness. Yet, Alexander had ambivalent feeling towards his father, and later in life he denied his paternity in favor of descent from Zeus. Olympias clashed with her husband Philip. Alexander was devoted to his mother who schemed against Philip, for she rightly preferred her son over her husband as king. In 337 Philip divorced and exiled Olympias. Relations between Alexander and Philip deteriorated after Philip married Cleopatra Eurydice, niece of Attalus, one of the Macedonian generals. At the ceremony of reconciliation of father and son in Aegeae, Philip was struck down by an assassin, Pausanias, reportedly for a private grievance. Olympias returned to Pella to dispose of her rival queen. Alexander, age 21, ascended the throne, determined to succeed to his father’s legacy, and to perform the heroic deeds of a new Achilles.
Suggested Reading:
Andronikos, Vergina: The Royal Tombs.
Bosworth, Alexander and the East.
Carney, Olympias, Mother of Alexander the Great.
Cawkwell, Philip of Macedon.
Hammond and Griffi th, A History of Macedonia.
Macurdy, Hellenistic Queens.
Pomeroy, Women in Hellenistic Egypt.
Worthington, Philip II of Macedonia.
Yalouris, Rhomiopoulou, and Andronikos, The Search for Alexander.
Lecture 10: https://www.bitchute.com/video/h15gEwyYB5Tt/
