Lecture 15: Homeric in this ethos and aims, Alexander pursed excellence in imitation of the heroes of the past. From Olympias, he learned of his descent from Neoptolemus, son of Achilles and conqueror of Troy.
Olympias also later claimed that Zeus, i…
Lecture 15: Homeric in this ethos and aims, Alexander pursed excellence in imitation of the heroes of the past. From Olympias, he learned of his descent from Neoptolemus, son of Achilles and conqueror of Troy.
Olympias also later claimed that Zeus, in the guise of a serpent, rather than Philip had fathered Alexander.
Alexander carried a copy of the Iliad annotated by his mentor Aristotle, he was convinced that he was Achilles reborn. At Gaza, Alexander even imitated Achilles’ treatment of Hector’s body in dishonoring the body of a fallen Persian eunuch. From his father Philip, Alexander counted both Perseus and Heracles as ancestors. His identification with Heracles was personal and dynastic. The silver and copper coins of Alexander carried on the obverse the portrait of a youthful Heracles wearing a lion skin headdress, which later generations mistook as the king himself. His longing to emulate his ancestors drove Alexander to consult oracles and seek divine sings of his destiny. In so doing, he became ever more convinced that his deeds elevated him to the company of the gods. At Gordion, Alexander loosened the Gordian knot, and so claimed the lordship of Asia. In 332 B.C., Alexander trekked to the Oracle of Zeus-Ammon at Siwah located in the Libyan desert 175 miles west of the Nile. The sources differ on what transpired, but Alexander departed convinced of his descent from Zeus. In 328 B.C., Alexander added Dionysus to his exemplars, for this son of Zeus was credited with the conquest of India. In the Indian campaigns of 327–325 B.C., Alexander matched himself against Dionysus, and so redefined the iconography of the god thereafter. The boundary between the divine and mortal was not sharply drawn by the Greeks.
Suggested Reading:
Badian, The Deifi cation of Alexander the Great.
Bosworth, Alexander and the East.
Eddy, The King is Dead.
Hamilton, Alexander the Great.
Munn, “Alexander, the Gordian Knot, and the Kingship of Midas.”
Price, Rituals and Power.
Wilcken, Alexander the Great.
Zamoyski, Moscow 1812.
Lecture 16: https://www.bitchute.com/video/VAuC4IokJhPj/
