The Myth Behind Alexander the Great
By: Alvaro Corrales Cano
Tags: Asia, Mythology, War, Greece, History

The Myth Behind Alexander the Great

Alexander Cuts the Gordian Knot (1797), by Jean-Simon Berthélemy. Source: Wikimedia Commons

October 331 BCE - Alexander III of Macedon, popularly known as Alexander the Great, defeats the army of Darius III of Persia near the village of Gaugamela, in modern-day Iraq. This was the climax of Alexander’s campaigns. In Plutarch’s [1] words:

After the battle had ended in this way, the authority of the Persian empire was regarded as having been completely overthrown. Alexander was proclaimed king of Asia […].

In Gaugamela, 24-year-old Alexander achieved his lifelong purpose of subjugating the Persian empire. This battle was by no means an isolated event, but part of a series of military victories as king of Macedon between 336 and 323 BCE. The rest, as they say, is history: after conquering the territories of the Persians (which in that time included places like Egypt, Anatolia and Mesopotamia) he went on as far as modern Pakistan and the Hindu Kush. There, only his army’s mutiny forced him to turn back. Finally, in Babylon, at the age of 32, he died in strange circumstances.

The grandiosity of Alexander’s feats has inspired countless authors who have come up with various explanations for his glory. Plutarch, who lived some four centuries after Gaugamela, is just one of the many who wrote about Alexander in Antiquity. Writing so many years after Alexander’s time, it is only normal that Plutarch’s Life of Alexander is plagued with legends and impossibilities. His depiction of the great king is full little gestures, extravagant situations and, more importantly, colourful and bizarre omens. Yet, his account also stands out for its vivacity. Let’s dive into it.

Born to be a hero

Alexander the Great at Achilles’ Tomb, by Johann Heinrich Schönfeld. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Heroes are born, not made — at least in Greek mithology. The Illiad, Alexander’s (quite literally) bedside book, is full of great warriors of divine stock. The greatest of them is Achilles, son of the sea goddess Thetis. Achilles is the epitome of the Greek hero, and Alexander’s role model. Other mythological characters with semidivine origin included Heracles, son of Zeus, and Dyonisus, who was both the god of wine and parties, and a great conqueror of Asia.

We do not know whether Alexander thought that, because he was destined to rule the world, he had to be the son of a god, or the other way round. What we do know is that, however he came to that conclusion, he believed he was the son of Zeus. This was of course a tricky thing to say: his claim to the throne of Macedon came from his human father, Phillip. In any case, this did not prevent stories about his origins to arise. In the incredibly funny first chapters of the Life of Alexander, Plutarch tells us that Phillip, suspecting that his wife Olimpia may be cheating on him with a god, decided to spy on her. One night, he went to her chambers and peered through the half-open door. Zeus, conveniently disguised as a snake for the occasion, didn’t like this, and he made Phillip lose his eye.

Destiny unfolds

Alexander’s empire. Source: Wikimedia commons

Like many other kings, Alexander was prone to vanity. Upon his arrival in Egypt, he decided to travel to the temple of Zeus-Ammon in the Siwah oasis. A perilous journey through the desert, Alexander was sure that he could “overcome not only his enemies, but even places and seasons of the year” [ch. 26]. His motivation? He wanted the god’s confirmation that he would defeat the Persians and, since he was there, he’d solve once and for all the issue about his father. According to Plutarch, to greet Alexander in his native tongue, the priests of the temple addressed him as ‘O, paidion’ (Greek for ‘O, my son’). However, in the priests’ foreign accent, it sounded as ‘O, pai Dios’ (‘O, son of Zeus’), which was enough for Alexander to confirm his ascendence.

The interpretation of the Egyptian priests’ accent may sound a little forced. After all, one may think that you wouldn’t need to twist facts so much if you really were the son of a god and destined to rule the world. But Alexander (or rather, the Alexander from Plutarch’s sources) saw nothing wrong with this. In another very famous episode that confirmed Alexander’s destiny, the Macedonian managed to fullfil the prophecy of the Gordian Knot. The story goes that king Midas had dedicated to Zeus a chariot that belonged to his father. In doing so, he had tied it to a pilar in a temple in Gordium using a very intricate knot. The knot was so complex that, with time, a prophecy formed that whoever was able to untie it would rule over the whole world. After capturing the city of Gordium, Alexander decided to prove his worth against the knot. Unable to find an end to pull from, Alexander inpatiently drew his sword and cut the thread. See? Destiny.

Restoring balance

Even for the great heroes of old, defeat and death were eventually at the end of the road. Achilles was killed after conquering the city of Troy; Hercules was burnt alive before he acquired immortality. This was in fact only natural for the Greeks, a necessary counterbalance that reminded humans of their place in the universe: right below the gods. Boundless victory was their exclusive privilege. Perhaps even more important, a legend needs a tragic, early end to become timeless. And, as it was clear for everyone who cared to look at the signs, Alexander would have his.

A coin celebrating Alexander’s campaign in India; Babylon, 322. Source: Wikimedia Commons

The invasion India, in summer 327 BC, marked a turning point in Alexander’s life. In chapter 57, Plutarch tells us of the various omens that foreboded the bittersweet outcome for the campaign. As the army was preparing to march, an ewe gave birth to a lamb with a strange substance over its head. Oddly, the substance ressembled the Persian king’s tiara and, even worse, it looked as if two testicles were hanging from either side. Alexander was appalled, as he interpreted that an unworthy successor may inherit his throne. A few days after setting off, his servants found a spring of olive oil while pitching Alexander’s tent. Although the king welcomed the omen, his diviners pointed that it forecast a glorious, but painful campaign: oil was only given to men by the gods after their hard labours.

Toilsome as it was, the Indian campaign brought some victories for Alexander. However, things started going South as he approached Babylon, the new capital of his empire, on his way back. The first portent happened at the gates of the city, when he saw a large group of ravens fighting one another. Shortly after, news came of another bad sign: Apollodorus, the governor of the city, had conducted a sacrifice in honour of the king, only to find that the victim’s liver had no lobe. Dark omens kept coming, until one day the king found a man silently wearing his regalia and sitting on his throne. Alexander had taken them off to go play a ball game with his friends. The man could not explain how he had got there, but Alexander had him executed nonetheless. This was not enough though, and confidence deserted the king. He became fearful and superstitious, and some fevers took his life shortly after. He was only 32 years old, but by then Alexander had conquered much of the world known to the Greeks.

Conclusion

Alexander the Great is an enormous figure and one of the greatest warriors in History. His achievements were so beyond imagination that some historians like Plutarch could only rationalise them through a lense of divine portents and omens. In doing so, they enlarged Alexander’s legend and effectively made him what they already thought he was: a semidivine hero.