The Greek Alexander Romance
Page 21
and disappeared. But they left behind their boats, of which there were twelve. My closest friend, Pheidon, Hephaestion, Craterus and the rest of my friends did not want me to go over there. “Let me go instead of you,” said Pheidon; “if there is any danger, I will run it for you; but if not, then I will send the boat over to you afterwards. If I, Pheidon, should die, you will find other friends; but if you, Alexander, die, all the world will be saddened.” I was persuaded and allowed them to cross over. They disembarked, but after an hour the island dived into the depths, for it was a creature and not an island. We shouted out when the beast vanished and all the men perished, along with my best friend. I was very angry; I looked for the barbarians, but could not find them anywhere.
‘We remained eight days on the promontory, and on the seventh we saw the beast. It had tusks. We made the journey back to Prasiake in a few days. On the way we saw many wonderful things, which I must describe to you. We saw many strange beasts… and reptiles. The most amazing thing of all was the disappearance of the sun and moon and the bitter weather.
‘After we had conquered Darius the king of Persia and his men, and had subdued the whole country, we made a journey to see all its wonders. There was gold, and urns decorated with precious stones,… and many other marvels besides.
‘We began our journey from the Caspian Gates. At the tenth hour the trumpets sounded the call for dinner… everyone went to sleep. As soon as the sun rose, the trumpets sounded… until the fourth hour. The preparation of the soldiers was so complete that each had his own sandals, greaves, thigh armour of leather, and breastplates. The natives had warned me about the deadly serpents on the road, so I ordered no one to go abroad without this protection.
‘After we had travelled for twelve days, we arrived at a city in the middle of a river. In the city there were reeds, 45 feet in circumference, from which all the buildings of the city were made. It was built not on die ground but on top of these reeds. I ordered the men to pitch camp there. We arrived at about the third hour of the day. Going down to the river, we found its water more bitter than hellebore. We tried to swim over to the city, but hippopotamuses came and seized the men. The only thing to do was to leave that place. The trumpets sounded: From the sixth to the elevendi hour we were so short of water that I saw soldiers drinking their own urine. Then we chanced to come to a place where there was a lake and trees with all kinds of fruit. We rushed to enjoy the sweet water, which was more delicious even than honey.
‘We were exulting about this when we saw on the cliff a stone statue with this inscription: “Sesonchosis, the ruler of the world, made this watering-place for those who sail down the Red Sea.”136
‘I ordered the men to pitch camp, to prepare the beds and to light fires. About the third hour of the night, when the moon was high, the beasts that lived in the wood came out to drink from the lake. There were scorpions 18 inches long, sand-burrowers, both white and red. We were very frightened. Some of the men were killed, and there was tremendous groaning and wailing. Then four-footed beasts began to come out to drink. Among them were lions bigger than bulls – their teeth alone were 2 feet long – lynxes, panthers, tigers, scorpion-tails [?], elephants, ox–rams, bull–stags, men with six hands, strap-footed men, dog–partridges and other kinds of wild animals. Our alarm grew greater. We drove some of them off with our weapons.
‘We followed the usual road to Prasiake.138 When I was ready to move on – about the sixth hour on the third day of the month of Zeus – the following sight was seen in the air: first there was a sudden breeze, so that our tents were blown down and we were knocked over on to the ground.
‘After thirty days the road was clear again and we marched on. After five days we conquered the city of Prasiake along with its king, Porus, and his men.’
The A-text continues with the story of the wise men and the trees of the Sun and Moon, as narrated in the main text (III. 17, pp. 133–5).
J: THE UNCLEAN NATIONS (III.26A, p. I45)
The γ-text adds here:
Leaving those regions, he went to war against Eurymithres the leader of the Belsyrians, because he refused to bow to the might of Macedonia. When Eurymithres discovered this, he took 1,800 men and hastened to war against Alexander. When he approached Alexander’s advance lookouts, they spotted him, and so Alexander discovered what Eurymithres was up to. Alexander reinforced his lookouts to a number of several thousands, all armed with golden breastplates, ordered the most trusted soldiers to stay behind on guard, and put Seleucus in charge of the troops. As night drew on Eurymithres sent spies to Alexander’s camp, who reported back that Alexander was quite unaware of their presence.
Meanwhile Alexander was arming a huge army against him. Eurymithres’ counsellors advised him: ‘Eurymithres, we cannot fight successfully against Alexander unless we capture the advance posts and hurl ourselves against him with full force. If we do, they will be bewildered by the unexpected clash and will be put to flight, each thinking only of his own safety.’
This was their advice, though they had no idea of Alexander’s position. They surrounded Alexander’s advance posts by night, expecting to hunt them all down while they were ignorant of the attack. But when the Belsyrians caught sight of Alexander’s dispositions, they forgot all about fighting and their thoughts turned to flight: it was too much for them. At this point Seleucus brought his phalanx up against them; at once they turned tail, exemplifying the Homeric phrase: ‘He came on like a lion and went off Hke a deer.’ Seleucus’ men charged and captured Eurymithres. Some of the enemy Alexander’s men killed, others they pursued northwards for fifty days, until they came to two mountains in the unseen world, which they called the Breasts of the North.
When they got there, Alexander stopped pursuing them. He saw that the two mountains would be suitable for closing up their exit, so he stayed there and prayed to God to help him close up the mountains to keep them out. He stood and prayed as follows:
‘God of gods, lord of all creation, who made all things by your Word, both heaven and earth. Nothing is impossible for you, all things are slaves to the word of your command
. You spoke and they were created, you commanded and it was done. You alone are eternal, supreme, invisible, sole god, and there is no other but you. Through your name and your will I have done what you wished, and you have placed the whole world in my hands. I call now upon your name that is so often praised: fulfil this request of mine and cause these two mountains to come together, as I have asked of you, and do not look askance at me, wretched as I am, who have been so bold as to speak in this way. I know you care for me and your supreme goodness.’
Immediately the mountains came together, though they had previously been 18 feet apart. When Alexander saw what had happened, he praised God. Then he built bronze gates, fixed them in the narrows between the two mountains and oiled them. The nature of the oil was such that it could not be burned by fire nor dislodged by iron. Within the gates, stretching back to the open country [for a distance of 3,000 miles] he planted brambles, which he watered well so that they formed a dense mane over the mountains.
So Alexander shut in twenty-two kings with their subject nations behind the northern boundaries – behind the gates that he called the Caspian139 and the mountains known as the Breasts. These are the names of those nations: Goth, Magoth, Anougeis, Aigeis, Exenach, Diphar, Photinaioi, Pharizaioi, Zarmatianoi, Chachonioi, Agrimardoi, Anouphagoi, Tharbaioi, Alans, Physo-lonikaioi, Saltarioi, and the rest. 140 These were the nations that dwelt behind the gates that King Alexander built so as to be indestructible. They used to eat worms and foul things that were not real food at all – dogs, flies, snakes, aborted foetuses, dead bodies and unformed human embryos; and they ate not only animals but the corpses of humans as well. Alexander, seeing all this, was afraid that they would come out and pollute the inhabited world; so he shut them in and went on his way.
K: THE OBITUARY (III.35, p. 159)
The γ-text adds here:
He subdued a multitude of nations: the Greeks, Iberians, Abari, Slavs, Moors, Mauretanians, Onogouroi, Tetragouroi, Tetra-katoi, One-horns, Sikiones, Kanziotes, Kanzetes, Rysperetes, Charourites, Snake-charmers, Elephant-feet, Skebryotes, Exam-aroi, Lombards, Lebesentianoi, Ebrides, Dermatesioi, Abasgoi, Armenians, Russians, Ochloi, Saracens, Syrians, Alans, Ebre-paoi, Ebrexaoi, Six-hands, Six-rows, Strap-feet, Under-fingers, Priskoi, Lakoi, Multi-feet, Patesophoi, Lebeis, Wolf-heads, Dog-heads, Lokomites, Ostrikoi, Panzetes, Deleemes, Sandaleis, Kansadeis, Kasandriotes, Aigiotes, Hyopobiotes, Hypobotioi, Indians, Sindians, Sogdians, Barmaioi, and Egyptians as well as the inhabitants of the lands of darkness, Hebrews, Thrymbetes, Kouskoi, Khazars, Bulgars, Khounaboi, Pinsai, Ethiopians and Romans, those victorious warriors. The rest he subdued without a battle; and they paid tribute. Amen.
Iambic lines on Alexander
The bright world’s glory, O my friend, is nothing.
Before they even appear, they are swiftly gone
Like flowers or grass, a shadow in a dream.
The worse love better than the good.
Before its season what is lovely vanishes.
There’s nothing new in all this, foreign guest:
Acanthus flowers and flourishes, and quickly
It passes on; it may be foul of smell
Or thick with thorns, its fame is just as bright.
Often one day sees all this disappear
And leaves the kings bereft of all their goods.
Virtue alone remains, imperishable
In fame, and even Time that conquers all
Cannot destroy a noble reputation.
You wish to know, O stranger, what this means
That I have told you? Listen, then, and hear:
King Alexander, ruler of the world,
Olympias’ son, the fair-bloomed rose.
Baptized with drenchings of the blood of kings,
The mighty hero, noble, like a lion,
Whose sword affrighted even the fiercest nations,
Whose javelin made the Persian army tremble,
Who swept the barbarians like a hurricane,
Where they dwelt in the four quarters of the earth;
He was illustrious among the Macedonians,
Alack. He died untimely, and was hidden
Like a brilliant light beneath a bushel.
NOTES
1. These opening sentences are not in A.
2. Nectanebo II was the last Pharaoh of Egypt, who fled the country after the Persian conquest of 343 BC under Artaxerxes Ochus.
3. ‘So-called’ only in B.
4. The list of peoples varies in the different recensions. A has: ‘Scythians, Arabs, Oxydrakai, Iberians, Seres, Kaukones, Lapates, Bosporoi, Agroi, Zalboi, Chaldaeans, Mesopotamians, Wild-game-eaters, Euonymitae’.
5. The Greek word is aerinos. y has aerios; A has aitherites. The expression is translated as ‘the ethereal astrologer Aramazd’ (i.e., Zeus) by the Armenian translator; he did not understand it either.
6. karpisetai might also mean: ‘will make you free’.
7. L has: ‘sewing up a papyrus roll and sealing it’. The sequel makes it clear that my text, translated from A, is the correct one.
8. This odd clause is not in A.
9. A inserts here Nectanebo’s detailed astrological arguments. The rest of the chapter differs slightly in A.
10. A Greek father, at the birth of his child, customarily examined the newborn infant for deformities and made a decision as to whether the child was to be reared, or exposed to die. ‘Let it be reared’ (trephestho) was the formal expression of his favourable decision.
11. The asymmetry of Alexander’s eyes is a traditional attribute: in A one eye is black, the other white, and the Armenian text describes Alexander’s eyes as ‘heavy-lidded’.
12. Literally ‘cauldron’.
13. Literally ‘black’.
14. The Julius Valerius version adds that these details are confirmed in the ‘learned histories’ of Favorinus (c. AD 200). As Favorinus is mentioned in the Armenian version, he may have been mentioned in the Greek recension as well. But in the interpolated state of the recensions, this is of no value for determining the date of any of the versions.
15. γ adds here: ‘without Philip’s knowledge’.
16. boos kephale.
17. The Armenian version (39–46) inserts here some letters from Zeuxis the painter and Aristotle to Philip and Olympias, and the replies. This correspondence is not given in any of the Greek texts.
18. In γ the Games are held not at Pisa where the sanctuary of Olympia was situated, but at Rome, and Alexander is invited by the princes, with the promise, “The winners will receive prizes from Jupiter Capito-linus; but the defeated will be put to death by the victors.’ In the passages from γ in chs. 19 and 20 I have not attempted to iron out the contradiction.
19. Nicomachus in A.
20. In A Cleopatra is the sister of Antalos, not of Lysias.
21. The tribute of golden eggs is not mentioned in A, but is prominent in Firdausi’s Shahnameh. The whole episode occurs later in γ, after the death of Philip.
22. The name literally means ‘dwellers round about’. Amphictyonies were leagues, centred on a temple, which had some political standing. Philip II acquired the votes of Phocis in the Delphic Amphictyony.
23. The error in the addition is that of the Greek text.
24. In the true historical sequence the events of I.43–II.6 belong here. They were displaced into the middle of the Asian campaign at an early stage in the formation of the Romance. As a result the campaign against Thebes is recounted twice in L – briefly in I.27 and at greater length in I.46. I have filled out the narrative here with the γ-text, with the result that there are now two versions of the debate in Athens: I.27 (γ) and also II.3.1–5 (A). The campaign against Lacedaemon appears there (briefly) in L and at greater length in A at II.3.6. There is no way of rationalizing these confusions and I offer both versions of each event.
25. The Cynic philosopher. In Plutarch and other historical accounts his meeting with Alexander (see p. 60) took place in Corinth.
26. At this point the γ-text abandons the siege of Athens without explanation and continues with the events that are narrated here in L.
27. The events of this chapter are described in the historical accounts. The place where the sea drew back was on the Cilician coast near Mount Climax, where the cliffs fall precipitously into the sea. See Freya Stark, Alexander’s Path (London, 1958), pp. 73 ff.; A. B. Bosworth, Conquest and Empire (Cambridge, 1988), p. 51.
28. It is only the Romance that puts the visit to Ammon before the foundation of Alexandria. C. B. Welles, Historia, 11 (1962), pp. 271–98, argues that for once the Romance tradition is historically superior; it was natural to seek an oracle before founding a city. The following chapters clearly derive from local histories of Alexandria and are an important clue to the place of origin of the Romance.
29. The Greek for ‘wide of the mark’ is paratonon.
30. taphos means ‘grave’, ‘tomb’.
31. The fuller A-text names sixteen villages. The L-text names none.
32. These details, given only in A, are very corrupt and were probably left out in later recensions because of their obscurity.
33. The Greek word is hormei.
34. Europhoros and Eurylichos; A has Eurylochos for both.
35. See n. 34.
36. Sarapis was often portrayed accompanied by the three-headed dog, Cerberus.