Alexander The Great

2 Pages 538 Words

“Alexander the Great: Hunting For A New Past?”

Paul Cartledge attempts to tell the history of the myth and legend of Alexander the Great in this article. Alexander was born to Olympias and Philip of Macedon, or was he, in 356 at the Macedonian capital of Pella. Olympias claims that Alexander was conceived not by Philip, but by the Egyptian God Amun. So the legend begins.
As a teenager Alexander is said to have tamed a fiery and exorbitantly expensive Thessalian stallion called Bucephalas. This was Alexander’s horse for hunting and war. Bucephalas and Alexander were unfortunately separated when the steed died in Pakistan at the age of thirty. Alexander loved his horse so much that he named a city after him.
At the age of sixteen Alexander was appointed regent of Macedon while his father was away on a campaign. To upstage his father, Alexander waged war on the Thracian people and established a new capital named after, of course, himself. To become a man though Alexander had not to conquer a city, but to hunt and kill a wild boar and a human enemy. This allowed him the right to recline at social gatherings rather than sit straight up.
It is said that alcohol may have played a factor in Alexander the Great’s early death. Some scientists say that he may have become a clinical alcoholic. This cannot be proven today, but according to Cartledge his drinking habit may have led him to kill his personal companion and senior cavalry commander.
Alexander was taught by Aristotle, the greatest intellectual of his time. Aristotle advised Alexander to treat all non-Greeks as barbarians. He obviously did not pay much attention to this because of his many wives were of non-Greek people. Despite all his wives it is said that Alexander may have had interest in the opposite sex. How they can prove this I am not sure, but the author wrote that he may have had at least two lovers of the opposite sex. One was a boyhood fri...