The birth of Alexander the Great

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html><head><script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/bundle-playback.js?v=HxkREWBo" charset="utf-8"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/wombat.js?v=txqj7nKC" charset="utf-8"></script> <script>window.RufflePlayer=window.RufflePlayer||{};window.RufflePlayer.config={"autoplay":"on","unmuteOverlay":"hidden"};</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/ruffle/ruffle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> __wm.init("https://web.archive.org/web"); __wm.wombat("http://www.livius.org:80/aj-al/alexander/alexander_t32.html","20150320180439","https://web.archive.org/","web","/_static/", "1426874679"); </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/banner-styles.css?v=S1zqJCYt" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/iconochive.css?v=3PDvdIFv" />  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Mozilla/4.79 [en] (Windows NT 5.0; U) [Netscape]"> <meta name="Author" content="Plutarch of Chaeronea"><title>The birth of Alexander the Great</title> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439cs_/http://www.livius.org/livius.css"></head><body>   <table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" width="800"> <tbody> <tr> <td colspan="3" bgcolor="#ffcc99" valign="top"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/">home</a>   :    <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/catalogue.html">index</a>    :    <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/persia.html">ancient Persia</a>    :    <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/greece.html">ancient Greece</a>    :    <a href="alexander00.html">Alexander</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td height="2" valign="top" width="19%"><br> </td> <td height="2" valign="top" width="60%"> <center> <h1> The birth of Alexander</h1> </center> </td> <td height="2" valign="top" width="21%"><br> </td> </tr> <tr> <td height="2" valign="top" width="19%"><img style="width: 150px; height: 118px;" title="Detail of the Alexander mosaic, found in Pompeii. National Archaeological Museum, Naples (Italy)." src="/web/20150320180439im_/https://www.livius.org/a/2/alexander/alexander_mos_det.jpg" alt="Detail of the Alexander mosaic, found in Pompeii. National Archaeological Museum, Naples (Italy)."></td> <td height="2" valign="top" width="60%"><font color="#cc0000">Although <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/aj-al/alexander/alexander00.html">Alexander the Great</a> was the son of king <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/phi-php/philip/philip_ii.htm">Philip</a> of <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/maa-mam/macedonia/macedonia.html">Macedonia</a> and queen <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/oa-om/olympias/olympias.htm">Olympias</a>, he claimed to be the son of a god. As a consequence, stories about his miraculous procreation were needed. In section 2-3 of his <i>Life of Alexander</i>, the Greek author <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/pi-pm/plutarch/plutarch.htm">Plutarch of Chaeronea</a> shows us what was invented.</font> <p><font color="#cc0000">The translation was made by Mr. Evelyn and belongs to the Dryden series.</font></p> </td> <td height="2" valign="top" width="21%"> <center> <center> <center> <center> <center> <center> <center> <center> <center> <center> <center> <center> <center> <center> <center> <center> <center> <center> <center> <center> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.ancient-warfare.com/trial/?aff_id=4"><img style="border: 2px solid ; width: 150px; height: 87px;" alt="Ancient-Warfare.com, the online home of Ancient Warfare magazine" title="Ancient-Warfare.com, the online home of Ancient Warfare magazine" src="/web/20150320180439im_/https://www.livius.org/a/2/aw_banner_small.jpg"></a> </center> </center> </center> </center> </center> </center> </center> </center> </center> </center> </center> </center> </center> </center> </center> </center> </center> </center> </center> </center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td height="2" valign="top" width="19%"> <br> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/a/1/alexander/coin_olympias_mus_theski.JPG"><img style="border: 2px solid ; width: 150px; height: 169px;" title="Olympias. Gold medaillon found at Abukir. Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki (Greece). Photo Marco Prins." src="/web/20150320180439im_/https://www.livius.org/a/2/alexander/coin_olympias_mus_theski_s.JPG" alt="Olympias. Gold medaillon found at Abukir. Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki (Greece). Photo Marco Prins."></a> <center class="kant"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/oa-om/olympias/olympias.htm">Olympias</a> (Archaeological Museum, Thessaloniki)</center> </td> <td height="2" valign="top" width="60%"> <br> His father <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/phi-php/philip/philip_ii.htm">Philip</a>, being in Samothrace, when he was quite young, fell in love there with Olympias, in company with whom he was initiated in the religious ceremonies of the country, and her father and mother being both dead, soon after, with the consent of her brother, Arymbas, he married her. <p>The night before the consummation of their marriage, she dreamed that a thunderbolt fell upon her body, which kindled a great fire, whose divided flames dispersed themselves all about, and then were extinguished. And Philip, some time after he was married, dreamt that he sealed up his wife's body with a seal, whose impression, as be fancied, was the figure of a lion. Some of the diviners interpreted this as a warning to Philip to look narrowly to his wife; but Aristander of Telmessus [<a href="#1">1</a>], considering how unusual it was to seal up anything that was empty, assured him the meaning of his dream was that the queen was with child of a boy, who would one day prove as stout and courageous as a lion. </p> <p>Once, moreover, a serpent was found lying by Olympias as she slept [<a href="#a">2</a>], which more than anything else, it is said, abated Philip's passion for her; and whether he feared her as an enchantress, or thought she had commerce with some god, and so looked on himself as excluded, he was ever after less fond of her conversation. </p> <p>Others say, that the women of this country having always been extremely addicted to the enthusiastic Orphic rites, and the wild worship of Bacchus [...], imitated in many things the practices of the Edonian and Thracian women about Mount Haemus [<a href="#2">3</a>] [...]; and that Olympias, zealously, affecting these fanatical and enthusiastic inspirations, to perform them with more barbaric dread, was wont in the dances proper to these ceremonies to have great tame serpents about her, which sometimes creeping out of the ivy in the mystic fans, sometimes winding themselves about the sacred spears, and the women's chaplets, made a spectacle which men could not look upon without terror. </p> <p>Philip, after this vision, sent Chaeron of Megalopolis to consult the oracle of Apollo at <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/de-dh/delphi/delphi.html">Delphi</a>, by which he was commanded to perform sacrifice, and henceforth pay particular honor, above all other gods, to <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/am-ao/ammon/ammon_god.html">Ammon</a> [<a href="#3">4</a>]; and was told he should one day lose that eye with which he presumed to peep through that chink of the door, when he saw the god, under the form of a serpent, in the company of his wife [<a href="#4">5</a>]. </p> </td> <td height="2" valign="top" width="21%"><br> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="text-align: center;"><a href="/web/20150320180439/https://www.livius.org/a/1/greeks/olympias_snakes_rgzm.jpg"><img style="border: 2px solid ; width: 150px; height: 154px;" alt="Contorniate, showing Olympias and her snakes. R鰉isch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Mainz (Germany). Photo Jona Lendering." title="Contorniate, showing Olympias and her snakes. R鰉isch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Mainz (Germany). Photo Jona Lendering." src="/web/20150320180439im_/https://www.livius.org/a/2/greeks/olympias_snakes_rgzm_s.jpg"></a><br> <span class="kant">Contorniate, showing Olympias and her snakes. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/museum/mainz-romisch-germanisches-zentralmuseum/">R鰉isch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum</a>, Mainz (Germany).</span></td> <td> <br> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/ei-er/eratosthenes/eratosthenes.html">Eratosthenes</a> says that Olympias, when she attended Alexander on his way to the army in his first expedition, told him the secret of his birth, and bade him behave himself with courage suitable to his divine extraction. Others again affirm that she wholly disclaimed any pretensions of the kind, and was wont to say, 'When will Alexander leave off slandering me to Hera?' [<a href="#5">6</a>] <p>Alexander was born the sixth of Hecatombaeon [<a href="#6">7</a>], which month the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/maa-mam/macedonia/macedonia.html">Macedonians</a> call Lous, the same day that the temple of <font color="#000000"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/ei-er/ephesus/ephesus_artemis.html">Artemis</a> of <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/ei-er/ephesus/ephesus_photos1.html">Ephesus</a></font> was burnt [<a href="#7">8</a>]; which Hegesias of Magnesia makes the occasion of a conceit, frigid enough to have stopped the conflagration. The temple, he says, took fire and was burnt while its mistress was absent, assisting at the birth of Alexander. And all the Eastern soothsayers who happened to be then at Ephesus, looking upon the ruin of this temple to be the forerunner of some other calamity, ran about the town, beating their faces, and crying that this day had brought forth something that would prove fatal and destructive to all Asia. </p> <p>Just after Philip had taken Potidaea, he received these three messages at one time, that <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/pan-paz/parmenion/parmenion.htm">Parmenion</a> had overthrown the Illyrians in a great battle, that his race-horse had won the course at the Olympic games, and that his wife had given birth to Alexander; with which being naturally well pleased, as an addition to his satisfaction, he was assured by the diviners that a son, whose birth was accompanied with three such successes, could not fail of being invincible.</p> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><br> </td> <td><br> </td> <td><br> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="/web/20150320180439/https://www.livius.org/a/germany/welschbillig/welschbillig_philip_ii_lmt.jpg"><img style="border: 2px solid ; width: 150px; height: 225px;" title="Portrait of Philip, from Welschbillig. Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Trier (Germany). Photo Jona Lendering." src="/web/20150320180439im_/https://www.livius.org/a/germany/welschbillig/welschbillig_philip_ii_lmt_s.jpg" alt="Portrait of Philip, from Welschbillig. Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Trier (Germany). Photo Jona Lendering."></a> <center class="kant">Portrait of Philip, from Welschbillig (Germany). <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/museum/trier-rheinisches-landesmuseum/">Rheinisches Landesmuseum</a>, <a href="/web/20150320180439/https://www.livius.org/to-ts/trier/trier.html">Trier</a>.</center> </td> <td><b><font color="#cc0000">Note<a name="1"></a>1:</font></b> <br> Telmessus, modern Gurice near Bodrum, was a town in <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/cao-caz/caria/caria.html">Caria</a>, famous for its oracle and seers. Aristander accompanied Alexander and was present when <font color="#000000"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/aj-al/alexandria/alexandria.html">Alexandria</a></font> was founded. <p><b><font color="#cc0000">Note <a name="a"></a>2:</font></b> <br> The symbolism is not really understood. Snake cults were known on the Balkans (e.g., <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/gi-gr/glykon/glykon.html">Glykon</a>), but this time, an Egyptian god was believed to be the father, not a god from the Balkans. To make things more complex, the Roman historian <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/li-ln/livy/livy.htm">Livy</a> tells the same story about the Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/li-ln/livy/periochae/periochae026.html#snake">more...</a>). </p> <p><b><font color="#cc0000">Note <a name="2"></a>3:</font></b> <br> Mount Haemus is the ancient name for the Balkan range. These cults were Thracian in origin. </p> <p><b><font color="#cc0000">Note <a name="3"></a>4:</font></b> <br> Ammon was considered to be the Egyptian equivalent of the Greek supreme god Zeus. It is obvious that this story was invented after Alexander's visit to Ammon's oracle. </p> <p><b><font color="#cc0000">Note <a name="4"></a>5:</font></b> <br> Philip lost his eye in battle. </p> <p><b><font color="#cc0000">Note <a name="5"></a>6:</font></b> <br> Hera was Zeus' wife. Olympias' joke may be authentic. </p> <p><b><font color="#cc0000">Note <a name="6"></a>7:</font></b> <br> The first month of the year, theoretically starting on the first new moon after the summer's solstice. This could mean that Alexander was born on 20 July 356. Unfortunately, the astronomical, religious and civil calendars did not coincide in the fourth century; as aconsequence, it is impossible to give the date of Alexander's birth. </p> <p><b><font color="#cc0000">Note <a name="7"></a>8:</font></b> <br> The famous temple of Artemis (one of the <font color="#000000"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/se-sg/7wonders/seven_wonders.html">Seven Wonders of the Ancient World</a></font>) had been set afire by a man named Herostratus, who declared that his aim had been to become famous.</p> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <td height="2" valign="top" width="19%"><br> </td> <td height="2" valign="top" width="60%"><br> </td> <td height="2" valign="top" width="21%"><br> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="3" bgcolor="#ffcc99" valign="top"> <center> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/">home</a>   :    <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/catalogue.html">index</a>    :     <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/persia.html">ancient Persia</a>    :    <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439/http://www.livius.org/greece.html">ancient Greece</a>    :    <a href="alexander00.html">Alexander</a></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="3" valign="top"> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <script src="https://web.archive.org/web/20150320180439js_/http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <script type="text/javascript"> _uacct = "UA-1495088-1"; urchinTracker(); </script> </body></html>

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The birth of Alexander the Great