Alexander the Great: From His Death to the Present Day

by John Boardman

Overview

An elegant, concise, and generously illustrated exploration of Alexander the Great’s representations in art and literature through the ages

In this book, John Boardman, one of the world’s leading authorities on ancient Greece, looks beyond the life of Alexander the Great in order to examine the astonishing range of Alexanders created by generations of authors, historians, and artists throughout the world—from Scotland to China. John Boardman draws on his deep knowledge of Alexander and the ancient world to reflect on the most interesting and emblematic depictions of this towering historical figure. From Alexander’s biographers in ancient Greece to the illustrated Alexander “Romances” of the Middle Ages to operas, films, and even modern cartoons, this generously illustrated volume takes readers on a fascinating journey.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691217444
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	06/15/2021
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

John Boardman is a Fellow of the British Academy and a Senior Research Associate at the University of Oxford’s Beazley Archive. He is Professor Emeritus of Classical Art and Archaeology at Lincoln College, Oxford, and former Assistant Keeper at the Ashmolean Museum. His many books include The Greeks Overseas, The History of Greek Vases, and The Greeks in Asia.

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CHAPTER 1

His Biographers

Several contemporary scholars, courtiers, and writers who knew Alexander, and some of whom even accompanied him to the east, wrote histories of his exploits. These have survived only in fragments quoted by later historians. From them we can glean some idea of historical events, but also the nonhistorical ones, as well as much that was generated by prejudice for or against their subject. All these historians have been usefully discussed by Lionel Pearson in his The Lost Histories of Alexander the Great, a Monograph of the American Philological Association of 1960. An even fuller account of these sources is an Indian scholar's, Professor U. P. Arora's Greeks on India, Alexander to Megasthenes. He favours Arrian, as do most. The sources are legion. I dwell especially on two authors who depended on and quoted these sources — Plutarch and Arrian — writing long after the events — and I am guided by Pearson initially for an account of their own sources. Diodorus Siculus, writing at the turn of the era, I largely ignore, since surviving work by him is rather summary, although he had "decent" sources, which were used by other ancient historians, and will be quoted where needed in later chapters. Curtius, writing in Latin in the first century AD, had good sources and seems sometimes to offer a reliable account of them for the truth about Alexander.

Contemporaries

Callisthenes of Olynthus (in northernmost Greece) was related to the philosopher Aristotle. He accompanied Alexander in his travels east and wrote an enthusiastic commentary on them. This is lost, but it was used by later historians freely and must have been an invaluable first-hand account, at least until the point at which he fell out of favour with his master, and was executed. There was violence even in such academic aspects of our story. Callisthenes was a sophist, with a wide range of scientific interests, but also very much a Greek at heart and capable, therefore, of being critical of his subject and master. Much of his work informed the studies by later historians, but it is not easy to distinguish exactly what. Much later, "Pseudo- Callisthenes" is the name given to the author(s) of early Alexander Romances, non-historical, of the third century AD and later.

There were other historians contemporary with the great man, some of whom also accompanied him on parts of his expedition. They too are known only from fragments and quotations. From Egypt, Ptolemy, a fellow-student of Alexander's, was with the expedition and eventually, it seems, had much to do with the treatment of Alexander's body. Of Greeks, Aristoboulos was on the expedition, and with Alexander in India, and Nearchos was deeply involved in the last stages of Alexander's journeys (bringing home the fleet) and wrote an account of the Indian Ocean; and there was One-sicritus,a philosopher companion. The second- century BC Greek historian Polybius has much to say about Alexander's relations with Greeks.

The contributions of these contemporaries, with the later Polybius, can be added to the accounts written by later authors, but we cannot readily distinguish which were the most influential sources, for instance, for the treatment of Alexander's body after his death. Here I shall remark only on Curtius' account, but dwell more on only two of the later authors — Plutarch, the indefatigable and imaginative biographer of many a notable ancient figure, and Arrian, a more serious historian, who seems to have been properly critical of his sources. Here I simply pick out from their work passages which reveal their attitude to Alexander, his origins and behaviour, since these reflect well enough contemporary views, whether based on fact or fiction, and can give us some idea of how later antiquity, indeed down to today, was persuaded to view the Alexander story. I dwell especially on those more miraculous episodes, which may have gone to help promote the wholly fanciful Romances of later years.

Curtius

Curtius, writing in the first century AD, had good sources and seems sometimes to offer a reliable account of the truth about Alexander, but equally for the record of several of the more fanciful stories. Thus, he readily accepts Alexander's meeting with Amazons in and beyond the Caucasus, and their queen Thalestris, who fell passionately in love with him and wished to give him heirs — the boys for him, girls for her. Her passion took thirteen days to be fulfilled. Amazons do not exist but it is possible that this does record an encounter with a nomad people and its female warrior leader (a role acceptable in the nomad world of Central Asia). This role is one that it has taken a long while for scholarship to acknowledge, despite Herodotus. Curtius also alludes to Alexander's interest in Meroe, in the Sudan.

Plutarch

Of the authors who wrote about Greek history in general and Alexander in particular in the three centuries after his death, we have only scraps preserved in later writers. The adulation is apparent as well as a degree of acceptance of some of the more fanciful stories about his life and especially his birth. For a complete surviving work we have to wait for the Greek Plutarch, writing in the first half of the second century AD. He was a prolific writer, on philosophy as well as on aspects of the everyday life of Greeks and Romans. His Parallel Lives presented pairs of outstanding men from both backgrounds, consecutively, without always drawing specific parallels — certainly not in the case which concerns us — his Lives of Alexander and Caesar — beyond the obvious parallel that they were both world-beaters. For the most part, in describing Alexander's travels and adventures, he faithfully follows and quotes earlier historians, but he is ready to accept some more fanciful events that had been devised to enhance the appeal of the hero-king. So, he looks for "the signs of the souls of men," leaving to others their great deeds and victories (Alex. 1). For him there is no question that Alexander was in the lineage of Hercules and, on his mother's side, of Aeacus, a son of Zeus/Jupiter himself. His mother Olympias lay with snakes as she slept, and her husband Philip dreamed that he saw her with a seal on her womb with the figure of a lion upon it. The snake connection he explained by the queen's devotion to the rites of Dionysus/Bacchus, prevalent in the north (Thrace, more than Macedonia). Zeus Ammon in Egypt and the Delphic oracle were also involved, and Alexander was born on the day the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was burnt to the ground — which might be true. The snakes and Ammon will prove to be recurrent features.

Plutarch presents Alexander as an intellectual as well as a warrior. He could deal harshly with the Greek city of Thebes, but he felt for Greeks, and was glad to lead them to the east. Indeed, his policy can be seen as Pan-Hellenic, whatever his treatment of many Greeks, given his esteem for Greek ideals, if not altogether for the Greeks themselves. Plutarch has him meeting Diogenes in his tub, an encounter where the sage simply asked him to get out of the sunlight, a jibe that he took well, and this became a popular subject for artists after antiquity, but at Delphi he bullied the priestess of the oracle into declaring that he was invincible (Alex. 14). At Troy he saw the heroic relics but spurned the offer of Paris' lyre, preferring that of Achilles, on which he had sung the deeds of heroes.

The account of the campaigns is largely anecdotal, well supplied with stories such as that of Hercules stretching out his hand to him from the walls of Tyre (Alex. 24). In Egypt, the Ammon oracle addressed him "O paidion" = "O my child," or better "O pai Dios" = "O son of Zeus," whence his identification as Zeus Ammon and the wearing of the ram's horns, which were a feature of the god in Egypt. After his pursuit of the Scythians, Plutarch is somewhat skeptical about his meeting with Amazons, and this is rather in the biographer's favour. He knows of him erecting altars to the gods once he was stopped from crossing the Ganges in India, "still revered by the local kings who offer sacrifices on them in the Greek manner." The reality of such structures left by Alexander at the farthermost point of his campaign remains a subject for discussion by scholars. The gymnosophists, Brahmin sages, gave him a lot of trouble with their smart answers. He dismissed them, however, and the episode is possibly not historical, or if anything like it did happen, it may have been with one of his followers, and was to form an episode in several of the Romances. On the whole, however, Plutarch reveals little of the origins of the "real" fantasies about Alexander.

Plutarch returned to Alexander in two essays, like orations, entitled On the Fortune or Virtue of Alexander (Moralia 326–345), after a similar one On the Fortune of the Romans. "Fortune" is the Greek goddess Tyche, and so is rather more than our "Good Luck" since it may be judged to be deserved or earned. Alexander's "luck" seems more a matter of good judgment and education: "yet are we to contemn anyone who asserts that the works of Homer accompanied him as a consolation after toil and as a pastime for sweet hours of leisure, but that his true equipment was philosophic teaching, and Treatises on Fearlessness and Courage, and Self-Restraint also, and Greatness of Soul?" (Moralia 327f–328a). Fortune too provided him with an appearance and physique in which we can see his greatness, as portrayed by artists (Moralia 335e–f).

From his de Tranquillitate 3 is the anecdote about Anacharsus, who went with him to India, telling him about the many other worlds that existed, so that "Alexander wept that there were no more worlds to conquer," which became a misleading saying of his, when he meant that he wept that he had so far yet to conquer one. "Alexander wept," unlike "Jesus wept," became a much misused anecdote.

Arrian

The historian Arrian offers quite a contrast. He was the Greek governor of Bithynia (in Asia Minor) at the turn of the first and second centuries AD, under the Romans, and notably favoured by the philhellene Roman Emperor Hadrian. He had travelled too and wrote up his visit to India (Indica). His research into Alexander's campaigns (the Anabasis of Alexander) was thorough. Not surprisingly, therefore, he is not too easily led into speculative fantasies, and this sadly makes him less useful for present purposes of collecting historical gossip. He is properly critical of his sources and plausibly detailed when it comes to describing localities and the conduct of battles. At Troy he says that Alexander dedicated his armor, and took some of the other, heroic armor that had been left there by heroes at the Siege of Troy, to be carried before him into battle — far more plausible than his acquisition of the very Shield of Achilles, which was an invention of Homer's at best. He notes that after the Granicus battle Alexander buried the Persian commanders and their mercenary Greeks, but sent captured Greeks off in chains, and that the dedications he sent to Athens were from himself and the Greeks (except the Spartans; I.16.6–7). All this rings true, as does his account of the Gordion knot (the intricate fastening on a heroic chariot) — either Alexander cut it, or just cunningly removed the pin holding it together (II.3.7). He gives a good account of Alexander's compassionate treatment of Darius' mother, wife and children, with the comment — "I have written this down without asserting its truth or total incredibility. If it really happened I approve of Alexander's compassion. ... If the historians of Alexander think it plausible ... I approve of Alexander on that ground too" (II.12.8). Alexander burnt Persepolis. "He said that he wished to punish the Persians for sacking Athens and burning the temples when they invaded Greece, and to exact retribution for all the other injuries they had done the Greeks. I do not think that he showed good sense in this action, nor that he could punish the Persians of a distant past" (III.18.12). This seems very fair. We learn a lot too about Arrian himself in considering his comments on Alexander

Arrian had little time for Alexander's adversary, the Persian king Darius. After he was killed by his own men (led by Bessus), Arrian commented that "no man showed less spirit or sense in warfare; but in other matters he committed no offence ... his life was one series of disasters" (III.21.2–3). When Alexander caught Bessus he had him mutilated and executed: "I do not approve of this excessive punishment" and Arrian deplores Alexander's failure to command his passions (IV.7.4–5). And after killing the drunken Cleitus Alexander is commended for admitting his error, but Arrian blames both the king and Callisthenes for their quarrel over the king's adoption of some eastern practices (IV.12.6–7). When it comes to discussing divine interventions and especially the experience of Dionysos/Bacchus in the east "one must not be a precise critic of ancient legends that concern the divine. For things which are incredible, if you consider them on the basis of probability, appear not wholly incredible, when one adds the divine element to the story" (V.1.2) — which seems a reasonable attitude for a Greek who believed in his gods; "these tales anyone may believe in or not, taking them as he thinks fit," and he takes an open view of the identification in the east of the site of Hercules' rescue of Prometheus (V.3.1–4).

To Arrian his ambitions seemed endless, from Britain to Spain; "none of Alexander's plans were small and petty ... he would always have searched beyond for something unknown" (VII.1.1–4). He also tells the story of the Indian sophists who faced Alexander and simply stamped their feet to show that "each man possesses no more of this earth than the patch he stands on; very soon you too will die, and will possess no more of the earth than suffices for the burial of your body" '(VII.1.5–6). It chimes well also with Arrian's attitude to the man that recounts it, "believe it or not," and recalls Diogenes' telling Alexander to "get out of the light." Alexander's encouragement of weddings between Macedonians and Asians is also commended (VII.4.4–8) although he was deemed ruthless with recalcitrant Macedonians. Arrian will not believe that Amazons survived to Alexander's time or even existed at all (VII.13.2–5), but knows of Semiramis and agrees that "it had been accepted in Asia that women should actually rule men" (I.23.7). He is skeptical of any Roman embassy to Alexander (VII.155–156). He recounts the many stories about the great man's death "which I have set down to show that I know they are told rather than because they are credible enough to recount" (VII.27.3). His admiration for Alexander and what he achieved is nonetheless total (VII.27–30), and one is bound to acknowledge his serious attempt to record the truth. In Greek Romance, Semiramis can come to anticipate Alexander's own eastern conquests including Asia, Egypt, Ethiopia, and India.

CHAPTER 2

His Body and Burial

Now we come to what was alleged about the man himself in various periods, the earliest sources not necessarily being the most reliable or plausible. The early accounts of Alexander's death essentially imply that it was the result of overmuch drinking, or drinking tainted wine, and probably an ensuing stroke, at Babylon. He was fond of his wine, and his cup was said to have been as large as the heroic cup of Homer's Nestor. But this is too easy, and there were several ancient sources that suggested that he had been poisoned, as well as much modern speculation about by whom and how, and whether his illness could have been the result of malaria or typhoid fever. If he was poisoned, it was likely to have been as a victim of his own family's intrigues. The latest medical opinions insist that it was typhoid fever, from rancid water. Many stories are told about his dying remarks and wishes — for instance, for the most fanciful, that his doctors alone should carry his body because no doctor can cure everyone, that the path to his grave be strewn with jewels because he will leave nothing when he dies, that both his hands hang outside his coffin to show that he leaves the world as he entered it — empty-handed.

What happened to his body ranges in story-telling from the plausible if grandiose, to fine imaginative fiction. It inevitably involves the great city of Alexandria, which he founded, and is repeatedly reflected upon in the Romances, quite apart from the problems of his first burial. He had been in Egypt for only five or six months in 332/331 BC, in which time he travelled far into the western desert to the Siwa Oasis to visit Zeus Ammon whom he regarded as his father. The oracle of Zeus Ammon in Egypt had become as much respected by the Greeks as those of Zeus at Dodona and Olympia in Greece. Alexander may really have intended Egypt for his final resting place, but tradition soon found alternatives. These have been the subject for more than one scholarly monograph in recent years: Nicolas Saunders (Alexander's Tomb, the Two Thousand Year Obsession to Find the Lost Conqueror) and Andrew Michael Chugg (Quest) offer valuable commentaries, and there are many essays by others. The story of his death and the immediate sequel excited the curiosity and imagination of authors almost immediately. The essence of the surviving Liber de Morte has been thought to go back to Ptolemy himself and before the end of the fourth century BC, dealing with Ptolemy's activities with Alexander's body and the will. Ptolemy is certainly a key figure in the story of Alexander in the years immediately after his death. It is interesting that, historically for a change, he chose an Indian setting for his own issue of a gold coin showing the great man, in a chariot with four elephants and holding a cornucopia, thunderbolt and aegis (attributes of Zeus), a nice mixture of plausible history and legend.

(Continues…)

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Table of Contents

Preface vii

Abbreviations ix

Introduction 1

I His Biographers 13

Contemporaries

II His Body and Burial 23

III The Alexander Portraits in A 38

IV The Alexander Romances in the Middle Ages 53

His Parentage 59

His Wives and Lovers 61

His Horse Bucephalus 66

His Ingenuity 67

The Other Romances 71

Seriously, Though-Nectanebo 83

V The Persian Alexander/Iskander 86

VI The Indian Alexander 98

VII The Alexander Story in the Renaissance and Down to the Present Day 104

Latest Mediaeval and Renaissance England 104

The European Renaissance 109

Seventeenth- to Eighteenth-Century France and Britain 116

Eighteenth- to Nineteenth-Century European Arts and Literature 120

Twentieth-Century Britain 133

VIII Alexander, Star of Film, Stage, and Novel 138

IX Fellow Travellers, Marco Polo to TV 147

Marco Polo 147

Modern Travellers 151

Envoi 154

Index 155

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Boardman relates and confronts, with his usual genial acuity, the ‘traditions’ of Alexander head-on, exploiting and displaying to the full his unrivaled expertise in the cross-cultural melding of post-Alexander visual-artistic currents. He takes his story down well beyond antiquity too, providing something for a wide potential non-classicist readership to get their teeth into.”—Paul Cartledge, A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture Emeritus, University of Cambridge

"Written by a supremely knowledgeable guide, this is a remarkable survey of fascinating lore and legend about Alexander the Great. Whether in Hades or the Blessed Isles, Alexander will surely smile as he reads this tribute to his memory.”—Adrienne Mayor, author of The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World

“A delightful personal exploration of a vast subject, this is a book for everyone who is interested in antiquity and its legacy.”—Richard Stoneman, author of The Book of Alexander the Great

Editorial Reviews

"A vivid survey."

Times Higher Education

"Boardman’s affection for his subject shines . . . . [Alexander the Great] will entertain and instruct both scholars and the wider public . . . . [Boardman’s] extensive knowledge of ancient literature and even more especially art, ranging far beyond the narrow confines of the classical world, remains unrivalled."—-Lucilla Burn, Art Newspaper

"This delightful book will encourage you to take another look [at Alexander the Great]."—-Michael Fallon, Classics for All

"The strength of the work is its rich collection of illustrations of art based on the Alexander Romance. "—-S. M. Burstein, Choice Reviews

"[An] engaging study of the evolution of Alexander the Great mythos from antiquity down to the present day through art, literature, music, and film. . . . Alexander the Great: From his Death to the Present Day is a delightful read and has much to offer to anyone interested in the story of Alexander."—-Timothy Howe, Bryn Mawr Classical Reviews

"Boardman produces an engaging book able to open up the doors of a scholar’s studio and to give a sense of the innumerable shapes assumed by Alexander over time – and proving once again how very much alive he has been for the past twenty-three centuries and still is today."—-Claudia Daniotti, International Journal of the Classical Tradition

From the Publisher