Alexander the Great  

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"Once, while he was sitting in the sun in the Craneum, Alexander was standing by, and said to him, "Ask any favour you choose of me." And he replied, "Cease to shade me from the sun.""--Diogenes of Sinope in "Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers"


"An apt and true reply was given to Alexander the Great by a pirate who had been seized. For when that king had asked the man what he meant by keeping hostile possession of the sea, he answered with bold pride, 'What do you mean by seizing the whole earth; because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, while you who does it with a great fleet are styled emperor'."--The City of God (5th century) by St. Augustine


"Love won the day, and there was the foremost scholar in the world prancing about on all fours like a colt, with a saucy girl on his back, when Alexander appeared at the window." --Women of Mediaeval France (1907) by Pierce Butler

Image:Lai d' Aristote.jpg
Aristotle and Phyllis, c. 1485, from the medieval legend Lai d' Aristote, illustrated by the Master of the Housebook

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Alexander the Great (July 20, 356 BC–June 10, 323 BC), also known as Alexander III, king of Macedon (336–323 BC), was one of the most successful Ancient Greek military commanders in history.

Contents

Pupil of Aristotle

Then [344 BCE], one or two years later, Aristotle was summoned to his native Stageira by King Philip II of Macedon to become the tutor of Alexander the Great, who was then 13.

Lai d' Aristote

Aristotle, supposed tutor and counselor to Alexander the Great, fell for the scheme of the youthful monarch's paramour Phyllis. One of the best loved medieval tales, the so-called "Lai d' Aristote," presented a scandalous image of the great philosopher. The story of Aristotle's fall remained popular for more than 500 years.

His lover Hephaiston

Alexander the Great world conqueror but also a lover of men, particularly Hephaiston [1], whose death in 324 BC he mourns extravagantly.

Hephaestion (ca. 356 BC–324 BC), son of Amyntor, was a Macedonian aristocrat, the closest companion, general, bodyguard, and the lover of Alexander the Great.

In literature

  • From 1969 to 1981, Mary Renault wrote a historical fiction trilogy on the life of Alexander: Fire From Heaven (about his early life), The Persian Boy (about his conquest of Persia, his expedition to India, and his death, seen from the viewpoint of Bagoas, a Persian eunuch and Alexander's eromenos), and Funeral Games (about the events following his death). Alexander also appears briefly in Renault's novel The Mask of Apollo, and is alluded to directly in The Last of the Wine and indirectly in The Praise Singer. In addition to the fiction, Renault also wrote a non-fiction biography, The Nature of Alexander.
  • French writer Roger Peyrefitte wrote a trilogy about Alexander the great which is regarded as a masterpiece of erudition : La Jeunesse d'Alexandre (1977), Les Conquêtes d'Alexandre (1979) and Alexandre le Grand (1981).
  • A further trilogy of novels about Alexander was written in Italian by Valerio Massimo Manfredi and subsequently published in an English translation, entitled Child of a Dream, The Sands of Ammon and The Ends of the Earth.
  • David Gemmel's Dark Prince features Alexander as the chosen vessel for a world-destroying demon king. ISBN 0-345-37910-1.
  • Steven Pressfield's 2004 book The Virtues of War is told from the first-person perspective of Alexander. Pressfield's novel The Afghan Campaign is told from the point of view of a soldier in Alexander's army. Alexander makes several brief appearances in the novel.
  • Rudyard Kipling's story "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888) provides some glimpses of Alexander's legacy. Made into a movie of the same title in 1975, starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine.
  • In Alan Moore's Watchmen, one of the main characters, Ozymandias, goes into detail about how he followed in Alexander the Great's footsteps in order to achieve enlightenment.




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Alexander the Great" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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