Alexander’s divinity, tyranny and alcoholism
ALEXANDER. GOD or MAN? (The divinity of Alexander)
“During the ceremonies (of the games he held at Aegea in Macedonia before crossing over to Asia) a report came from Peiria that the statue of Orpheus, son of Oragrus of Thrace, had been constantly sweating, a phenomenon which was variously interpreted by the seers; one of them, however – Aristander of Telmissus – told Alexander that he had no cause for alarm: it merely signified that the writers of odes and the epic and melic poets had hard work coming to celebrate Alexander and his exploits in verse and song.” (Arrian, p.65)
“No prose history, no epic poem was written about him: he was not celebrated even in such choral odes as preserve the name and memory of Hiero or Gelo or Thero, or many other men not in the same class as Alexander, with the result that the wonderful story of his life is less familiar today than that of the merest nonentities of the ancient world. ... And that is why I venture to claim the first place in Greek literature, since Alexander, about whom I write, held first place in the profession of arms.” (Arrian, p.67-8)
“As an offering (after the Battle of Granicus) to the goddess Athena, he sent to Athens 300 full suits of Persian armour, with the following inscription: Alexander, the son of Philip, and the Greeks except the Lacedaemonians dedicate these spoils, taken from the Persians who dwell in Asia.”
(Arrian, p.76)
“It occurred to him (at Sardis in Asia Minor) to build a temple and altar in honour of Olympian Zeus, and while he was considering the best site a summer storm, breaking suddenly with violent thunder and a fall of rain over the palace of the Lydian kings, persuaded him that Zeus himself had indicated the spot where his temple should be raised; so he gave orders accordingly.” (Arrian, p.77)
Before the Siege of Miletus Alexander was discouraged from undertaking the naval battle that Parmenio offered to command himself due, in part, to an omen of an eagle perched near the ships “... his interpretation of the omen was different to Parmenio’s: the appearance of the eagle was, without doubt, a favourable sign; but the fact that it had been seen on shore surely indicated that it was his army, not his navy, which would render the Persian fleet powerless – he would as it were win the sea battle from the land.” (Arrian, p.80-1)
From Phaselis in Lycia en route to Gordium “He himself marched with his picked troops along the coast, a route which is practicable only in northerly winds – during southerlies the beach is impassable. It had been blowing hard from the south before he started: but (by the grace of God, as both he and his staff felt) the wind went round into the north and made the passage quick and easy.” (Arrian, p.94)
Having cut the Gordium Knot either by slashing the cord with his sword or, as Aristoboulus claimed, in unpinning the yoke Alexander deemed himself to be that man whom the oracle declared was destined to be Lord of all Asia. “I do not myself presume to dogmatise on this subject. In any case, when he and his attendants left the palace where the wagon stood, the general feeling about the oracle about the untying of the knot had been fulfilled. Moreover, that very night there was lightning and thunder – a further sign from heaven ...” (Arrian, p.105)
At Issus, Darius was “doomed to make an easy victory to Alexander and the Macedonians. Destiny had decreed that Macedon should wrest the sovereignty of Asia from Persia, as Persia once had wrested it from the Medes, and the Medes, in turn, from the Assyrians.” (Arrian, p.111)
In his written reply to Darius first letter of truce Alexander wrote, “You sent aid to the people of Perinthus in their rebellion against my father; Ochus sent an army into Thrace, which was part of our dominions; my father was killed by assassins whom, as you openly boasted in your letters, you yourselves hired to commit the crime.” (Arrian, p.127)
Before the siege of Tyre, Alexander “had further encouragement by a sign from heaven, for that very night he dreamed that as he was approaching the walls of the town Heracles greeted him and invited him to enter.” (Arrian, p.132)
Whilst Alexander was sacrificing for the forthcoming siege of Gaza, a bird flew above him and dropped a stone on his head. Having been asked by the King for an interpretation of the omen the soothsayer Aristander then said, “you will capture the town, but today you must take care for your own safety. ... but in the action a missile from a catapult pierced his shield and corselet and penetrated his shoulder.” (Arrian, p.145-46)
On his journey to the Oracle at Siwah “fortunately for Alexander there was much rain – the god’s own gift, as he supposed.” Alexander’s guides however lost their way in the desert but “in this dangerous situation, however, the god had another gift to give” for, according to Ptolemy’s account, two snakes led the way to the oasis whilst Aristoboulus reported that two crows showed the army the way; “in any case I have no doubt whatever that he had divine assistance of some kind – for what could be more likely?” (Arrian, p.152)
It was too much for Cleitus when Alexander’s sycophants declared that the achievements of Castor and Polydeuces and even Heracles himself were not to be compared with Alexander’s and he intervened “it was intolerable, he declared, to offer such an insult to divine beings, and he would allow no one to pay Alexander a compliment at the expense of the mighty ones of old – such a compliment was not for his honour but for his shame. ... he began to magnify Philip’s achievements and belittle Alexander’s; his words poured out – he was, by now, very drunk indeed – and among much else, he taunted Alexander with the reminder that he had saved his life, when they fought the Persian cavalry on the Granicus.” (Arrian, 214-15)
Callisthenes “used to declare that he had come not in the hope of honour for himself, but merely to spread Alexander’s fame throughout the world; adding that if Alexander was destined to have a share of divinity it would not be owing to Olympias’ absurd stories about his birth, but to the account of him which he would himself publish in his history.” (Arrian, p.218)
During his rebuttal of the claim towards Alexander’s divinity Callisthenes said, “Suppose some fellow or other, by some quite unjustified vote or show of hands, were brought to enjoy royal honours: would Alexander tolerate it? Of course he would not. * By the same reasoning there are much better grounds for the gods’ resentment against men who invest themselves with divine honours, or allow other people to do it for them.” (Arrian, p.220) * Plutarch informs us that he had a man put to death for sitting on his throne, holding his sceptre and wearing his diadem in Babylon after India. See Plutarch 73-4)
“The description of this remarkable place (the Rock of Aornos) awakened in Alexander a passionate desire to capture it, and the story about Heracles was not least of his incentives.” (Arrian, p.249)
Glaring down at the Indians within Alexander found himself standing alone on the walls of Mallia when “Suddenly a thought crossed his mind: by staying where he was he might well be killed with nothing accomplished; but if he leapt down into the fortress, he might by that very act spread consternation among the enemy, or at least, if it was his fate to die, death would come not without a struggle and as the crown of an exploit which would live upon the lips of men. To think was to act: without further hesitation he made his leap.” (Arrian, pp.313-14)
“Alexander did not chose that route (through the Gedrosian desert) because he was unaware of the difficulties it would involve (Nearchus is our one authority for this); he chose it because apart from Semiramis one her retreat from India, no one, to his knowledge, had ever before succeeded in bringing an army safely through. Even Semiramis, according to local tradition, got through with no more than twenty survivors, and Cyrus, son of Cambyses, with only seven – for it is a fact that Cyrus came here with the intention of invading India, but found the going so bad and the country so wild and barren that he lost nearly all his men before he could do so. Alexander heard these stories; they inspired him to go one better than Cyrus and Semiramis, and that was the reason, combined wih the hope of being able to keep in contact with the fleet and procure supplies ofr it, why, according to Nearchus, he marched by that route. The result was disastrous ...” (Arrian, pp.335-36)
Addressing the Macedonian Assembly (assembled troops) at Opis Alexander began his speech thus, “First I will speak of my father Philip, as it is my duty to do.” (Arrian, p.360)
Commenting in his faults in the closing passage of his history; a passage that bears all the qualities of an obituary, in reference to his assumed divinity Arrian says, “Nor do I think that Alexander’s claim to a divine origin was a very serious fault – in any case, it may well have been a mere device to magnify his consequence in the eyes of his subjects. In point of fact I account him as great a king as Minos or Aeacus or Rhadamenthus, whose claims to be sons of Zeus were not felt by men of old to be in any way dangerously arrogant; and the same may be said of Theseus’ claim to be the son of Poseidon and Ion’s to be son of Apollo. Surely, too, his adoption of Persian dress was, like his claim to divine birth, a matter of policy: by it he hoped to bring the Eastern nations to feel that they had a king who was not wholly a foreigner , and to indicate to his own countrymen his desire to move away from the harsh traditional arrogance of Macedonia. ...
Arrian goes on to say,
I cannot but feel that some power more than human was concerned in his birth; indications of this were, moreover, said to be provided at the time of his death by oracles; many people saw visions and had prophetic dreams; and there is the further evidence of the extraordinary way in which he is held, as no mere man could be, in honour and remembrance. Even today, when so many years have passed, there have been oracles, all tending to his glory, delivered to the people of Macedon.” (Arrian, p.397-98)
PLUTARCH
“The bride (Olympias), before she consorted with her husband, dreamed that she had been struck by a thunderbolt, from which a sheet of flame sprang out in every direction, and then suddenly died away. Philip himself some time after his marriage dreamed that he set a seal[Pg 301]upon his wife's body, on which was engraved the figure of a lion. When he consulted the soothsayers as to what this meant, most of them declared the meaning to be, that his wife required more careful watching; but Aristander of Telmessus declared that she must be pregnant, because men do not seal up what is empty, and that she would bear a son of a spirited and lion-like disposition. Once Philip found his wife asleep, with a large tame snake stretched beside her; and this, it is said, quite put an end to his passion for her, and made him avoid her society, either because he feared the magic arts of his wife, or else from a religious scruple, because his place was more worthily filled.” (Plutarch 2)
We are told that Philip after this portent sent Chairon of Megalopolis to Delphi, to consult the god there, and that he delivered an oracular response bidding him sacrifice to Zeus Ammon, and to pay especial reverence to that god: warning him, moreover, that he would some day lose the sight of that eye with which, through the chink of the half-opened door, he had seen the god consorting with his wife in the form of a serpent. (Plutarch 3)
The historian Eratosthenes informs us that when Alexander was about to set out on his great expedition, Olympias told him the secret of his birth, and bade him act worthily of his divine parentage. Other writers say that she scrupled to mention the subject, and was heard to say "Why does Alexander make Hera jealous of me?" (Plutarch 3)
“Alexander was born on the sixth day of the monthHekatombæon which the Macedonians call Lous, the same day on which the temple of Artemis at Ephesus was burned. This coincidence inspired Hegesias of Magnesia to construct a ponderous joke, dull enough to have put out the fire, which was, that it was no wonder that the temple of Artemis was burned, since she was away from, it, attending to the birth of Alexander. All the Persian magi who were in Ephesus at the time imagined that the destruction of the temple was but the forerunner of a greater disaster, and ran through the city beating their faces and shouting that on that day was born the destroyer of Asia.” (Plutarch 3)
“Philip, who had just captured the city of Potidæa, received at that time three messengers. The first announced that the Illyrians had been severely defeated by Parmenio; the second that his racehorse had won a victory at Olympia, and the third, that Alexander was born. As one may well believe, he was delighted at such good news and was yet more overjoyed when the soothsayers told him that his son, whose birth coincided with three victories, would surely prove invincible.” (Plutarch 3)
Alexander and his mother Olympias went into voluntary exile after the fracas between Alexander and Philip during the wedding to Cleopatra "You villain, am I then a bastard?"
“When Alexander had crossed the desert and arrived at the shrine of Ammon the high priest of Ammon welcomed him on the god’s behalf as a father greeting his son. Alexander’s first question was to ask whether any of his father’s murderers had escaped punishment. At this the priest commanded him to speak more guardedly, since his father was not a mortal. ... This is the account that most writers have given of the oracles pronounced by the god ... Others say that the priest, who wished as amark of courtesy to address him with the Greek phrase ‘O paidion’ (O my son) spoke the words because of his barbarian origin as ‘O, pai Dios (O son of Zeus), and that Alexander was delighted at this slip in pronunciation, and hence the legend grew up that the god had addressed his as ‘O son of Zeus’. We are also told that while he was in Egypt he listened to the lectures of Psammon the philosopher, and especially approved of the saying to the effect that all men are ruled by God, because in every case that element which imposes itself and achieves the mastery is divine. Even more philosophical was Alexander’s own opinion and pronouncement on this subject, namely that while God is the father of all mankind, it is the noblest and best whom he makes especially his own. (Plutarch 27)