Alexander the Great

What are ancient texts saying to us when they describe Alexander the Great's romantic relationship with his wife Barsine, or comment on his homosexual relationship with Hephaestion? What did it mean when the ancient writers told that Alexander had been sired by a thunderbolt or by a gigantic snake? What did it mean when they represented his mother Olympias as a witch? These que...

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What are ancient texts saying to us when they describe Alexander the Great's romantic relationship with his wife Barsine, or comment on his homosexual relationship with Hephaestion? What did it mean when the ancient writers told that Alexander had been sired by a thunderbolt or by a gigantic snake? What did it mean when they represented his mother Olympias as a witch? These questions and others are addressed in Alexander the Great: Myth and Sexuality. In this book, Daniel Ogden discusses the mythologizing of procreation and sex in the ancient traditions surrounding Alexander. From the author's Introduction: 'A quick review of [...] chapter titles will suggest that the first half [...] answers the title's promise of 'myth' and the second half that of 'sexuality', but in fact the entire volume is devoted to what may be termed 'myth' of one sort or another. Its central and unifying subject is the mythologizing of procreation and sex in the traditions surrounding the figure of Alexander the Great: accordingly, it comprises both treatments of the narratives spun around his own siring and birth on the one hand, and treatments of the narratives spun around the king's own procreative and sexual career on the other. A significant amount of this mythologizing [...] took root in Alexander's own age. The remainder of it is the product of subsequent tradition, a tradition that was evidently in vigorous development already within a few years of Alexander's death.'

Daniel Ogden is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Exeter. He has published substantially on the ancient world; his previous books include 'Greek Bastardy in the Classical and Hellenistic Periods' (OUP, 1996), 'The Crooked Kings of Ancient Greece' (Duckworth, 1997), 'Greek and Roman Necromancy' (Princeton University Press, 2001), 'Magic, Witchcraft and Ghosts in ...

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Daniel Ogden is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Exeter. He has published substantially on the ancient world; his previous books include 'Greek Bastardy in the Classical and Hellenistic Periods' (OUP, 1996), 'The Crooked Kings of Ancient Greece' (Duckworth, 1997), 'Greek and Roman Necromancy' (Princeton University Press, 2001), 'Magic, Witchcraft and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds: a Sourcebook' (OUP USA, 2002), 'A Companion to Greek Religion' (edited, Blackwell, 2007).

List of Figures.
Abbreviations.
Preface.
Introduction.
1. Son of the Thunderbolt: Alexander’s Birth Myths and Their Dates.
The Birth Myths.
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List of Figures.
Abbreviations.
Preface.
Introduction.
1. Son of the Thunderbolt: Alexander’s Birth Myths and Their Dates.
The Birth Myths.
The Lion-seal.
The Thunderbolt.
The Serpent Sire and Its Tradition.
The Serpent Sire and the Debate over Alexander’s Paternity.
The Serpent Sire and Ammon.
2. Son of the Serpent: The Original Identity of Alexander’s Serpent Sire.
Alexander’s World of Serpents.
Patterns in the Alexander Serpent-lore.
The Original Identity of the Serpent Sire.
The Visualisation of the Seduction of Olympias.
3. Son of the Ram: Alexander as Heir to the Macedonian Foundation Myths.
Typologies.
Macedon.
Caranus.
Perdiccas.
Midas.
Archelaus.
The Interaction of Alexander’s Myths with the Foundation Myths.
4. Son of the Eagle: The Heirs to Alexander’s Birth Myths.
The Opportunities Offered by Alexander’s Myths.
Ptolemy Soter.
Seleucus Nicator: The Foundations of Antioch and Seleuceia.
Seleucus Nicator: Descent and Typologies.
Seleucus Nicator: Apollo as Sire.
Antigonus Monophthalmus and Demetrius Poliorcetes.
Other Hellenistic Dynasties and the Roman Empire.
Conclusions.
5. Son of the Witch: Traditions of Polygamy in the Macedonian Court.
The Polygamous Structure of the Macedonian Court.
Olympias and Philinna: A War of Witches?
Alexander’s Family: Polygamy and Productivity.
6. Alexander’s Wives: Fact and Tradition.
Roxane.
Stateira.
Parysatis.
Barsine.
7. Alexander’s Dalliances: Fact and Tradition.
Courtesans.
Sons and Mothers: Encounters with Local Queens.
8. Alexander’s Men: Fact and Tradition.
The Enigma of Hephaestion.
Bagoas the Eunuch.
Hector.
9. Alexander the Gynnis.
The Gynnis Tale.
What was a Gynnis ?
Alexander as a Gynnis.
Conclusion.
Notes.
Bibliography.
Index.
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