The Greek Alexander Romance
Page 22
37. Zeus and Hera were identified in antiquity with Sarapis and Isis.
38. The numbers are expressed in Greek by the letters forming the name of Sarapis. The riddle is corrupt in A’s verse version, so I have given it in L’s prose. The rest of the section given here from A (pp. 66–8) is altogether lost in L.
39. The usual Greek name for Ptah.
40. The Greek word tyros means ‘cheese’.
41. Actually the Pinaros, which flows through the plain of Issus, site of Alexander’s second great battle with Darius.
42. Chronology and geography are given another violent jerk. The river Scamander in the Troad was one of the first places Alexander came to after crossing into Asia.
43. Alexander’s reply is omitted in y. The Armenian and Julius Valerius versions add here that so far Olympias had travelled with Alexander, but that he now sent her back to Macedón. None of the Greek texts contains this detail.
44. Like a film running in reverse, the narrative now brings Alexander back to Europe and recapitulates the Greek campaigns of chs. 26 ff. See n. 24.
45. 1.45 and I.47–II.6 are not in L. The narrative goes directly from the end of I.46 to the end of II.6. I have omitted L’s ch. 46 in favour of the much fuller narrative in A, I.45–II.6.
46. Tripod of Phoebus. Though the Romance places this event in Acragas it clearly belongs, in geography and sense, at Delphi.
47. Thebes was founded by Cadmus, after an oracle had told him to follow a white ox and to found a city where she lay down.
48. Antiope.
49. Zeus prevented the sun from rising in order to extend his night of pleasure with Amphitryon’s wife Alcmena, who then gave birth to Heracles.
50. An outré name for the god Dionysus, born of Semele by Zeus’ thunderbolt.
51. The story is that of Euripides’ Bacchae. Pentheus’ mother was Agave, who in Bacchic ecstasy mistook her son for a wild beast and tore him apart.
52. The Cadmeia was the Acropolis of Thebes.
53. The text of this line is corrupt and the meaning of the sentence obscure. Alexander did not study with Pindar, but perhaps the author of the Romance thought he did?
54. i.e., Heracles, whose grandfather was Alcaeus.
55. The twin of Castor, one of the Dioscuri.
56. The author’s geography is confused. See Introduction, pp. 5–6.
57. The meaning of this sentence is uncertain.
58. ‘Oxydelkys’ also in γ; A has ‘Oxydarkes’.
59. γ adds here the Iberoi, Tabaktoi and Taeroi.
60. So in all versions. This is actually the river Cydnus. The story has already been told, very briefly, in I.41.
61. Parmenio’s role in this story has a historical basis: see Introduction, n. 21. The correct form of his name is Parmenion. A wild version of this story relating to the war against Egypt is told by y in II.25 ff: see Supplement F.
62. In A the satraps are named as Hydaspes and Spinther.
63. The author of the Romance treats Persia as a city rather than a region. It is not until he has crossed the (fictitious) river Stranga that Alexander reaches Persepolis, the capital (II. 14).
64. Stranga. γ calls the river Arsinoe.
65. γ: Parages. A: Parasanges.
66. In γ Alexander demands the torch, and then hits the sentry but does not kill him; with the result that the sentry is able to tell the pursuers which way he has gone.
67. In γ Alexander takes time out to yell mockery at the Persians beyond the river, and Darius’ reaction is told at greater length.
68. This battle corresponds to the historical one of Gaugamela or Arbela, in which scythed chariots were used and many of the Persian army were drowned in the Great Zab as they fled (see Bosworth, op. cit., p. 84).
69. None of the versions contains Alexander’s famous retort which is in the historians: ‘And so would I, if I were Parmenio.’
70. Historians continue to differ as to whether the burning of Persepolis was an act of policy or the outcome of a drunken rampage.
71. i.e., Nebuchadnezzar.
72. The tomb of Cyrus was, and is, actually in Pasargadae, about 25 miles north-east of Persepolis. Its appearance bears no resemblance to this fictional description.
73. The Caspian Gates were the complex of defiles south-east of Rai and the modern city of Tehran which linked Media with the eastern satrapies.
74. Ecbatana (modern Hamadan).
75. This speech of Alexander’s, and Darius’ reply, are given in verse in A.
76. The meaning of this sentence is very uncertain. The Armenian, Syriac and A versions have differing, but equally obscure, senses.
77. This is the form of the name in all MSS except L, which has ‘Lites’.
78. In reality the mother of Darius was Sisygambis, and his wife and daughter were both called Stateira. Alexander did not marry his daughter. Roxane, whom he did marry, was the daughter of the Bactrian prince, Oxyartes. In A Rodo is called Rodogyne.
79. This short letter to Olympias is not in A or γ.
80. This letter to Olympias (II.23–40) is replaced in γ by a third person narrative which is much longer and relates different events (see Supplement F). This account occupies chs. 22—31 of Book II, and, therefore, the numbering in A, B and L goes directly from 23 to 32.
81. Literally ‘Goats’.
82. The testing of a wild man with a naked woman is reminiscent of the corruption, or ‘civilization’, of die Wild Man Enkidu in the Epic of Gilgamesh.
83. The Greek for ‘without men’ is exandros.
84. i.e., lambda.
85. The story of the diving bell is not in A. γ has a similar version, but in the third person narrative.
86. This stratagem of using foals to ensure die mares found their way home features also in Rashid al-Din’s version of the legend of Oghuz, eponymous ancestor of the Oghuz Turks (seej. Boyle, Zentralasiatische Studien, 9 (1965), p. 270). It is also in Marco Polo (IV.21).
87. Kale lives on in modern Greek legend as Kale ton Oreon, the Beautiful One of the Mountains. The Nereids in modern Greece have become mountain spirits.
88. The Greek word is neros.
89. The story of die Water of Life is not in A.
90. The story of Alexander’s Ascent is not in A. This became one of the most popular pieces of Alexander iconography in the Middle Ages; e.g., misericords in Wells and Gloucester, and a relief in the museum at Thebes.
91. γ continues the narrative directly in the third person. The events of 41 are not in L.
92. This magic stone assumes a much larger significance in the Syriac and hence the Persian traditions.
93. The Sirens. These too receive more attention in the Syriac narratives.
94. γ inserts as ch. 43 (not in L or A) a letter to Olympias, which repeats in brief all the previous adventures.
95. Chs. 42 and 43 occur in γ only and repeat events of chs. 24-41.
96. The mutiny in India has a historical basis, but it did not take place until after the conquest of Porus (see Bosworth, op. cit., p. 133).
97. γ begins Book III here, omitting ch. 1 and the first sentence of ch. 2. The mutiny appears in γ, III.3.
98. Porus is historical but the single combat is not. In fact, Porus was captured. When brought to Alexander, the latter asked him how he expected to be treated. ‘Like a king,’ replied Porus; and Alexander reestablished him as a vassal ruler.
99. The meeting with the Brahmans is naturally omitted at this point by γ which includes it in Book II: see Supplement F.
100. A inserts here the monograph by Palladius, De Bragmanibus. Most of this work is also included in the version in γ (Supplement F). I have not translated this work.
101. The sentence seems to be corrupt. The name Moutheamatous may conceal names for each tree – perhaps the Iranian sun and moon deities, Mithras and Mao.
102. Beroe: B, L. Meroe: A.
103. Or’chimpanzees’.
104. Or ‘unbored’.
105. The author of γ was obviously puzzled too, and simplified the story. He has only two characters, Alexander and Antiochus, and the two of them change clothes. The third character is, in fact, unnecessary to the plot.
106. γ has a different account of the rescue of Candaules’ wife from the tyrant (who is called Evagrides). Frightened by Alexander’s letters, the tyrant commits suicide. The tale in γ is tedious and not nearly as good.
107. γ includes here the events of III. 24, except that the Egyptian king, Sesonchosis, is replaced by the Persian king, Ochus, the father of Darius.
108. As we shall discover later, his name is Thoas. In A and the Armenian version he is called Kargos; and in γ, Doreph.
109. The expression is a strong one: diakoreusai literally means ‘penetrate’. γ has the more decorous symmigenai: ‘have intercourse with’. The same divergence occurs in ch. 26 below.
110. In γ the Amazons ask for a portrait of Alexander to revere, and he sends them his spear.
111. The events of this letter are told in the third person in γ, thus making a doublet of the Amazon story.
112. Maron. A son or grandson of Dionysus, raised by Silenus. Here he seems to be identified with Silenus.
113. These wonders of the palace of the Persian kings are also mentioned by Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana, I.25.2; cf. Herodotus, 7.27.2.
114. There is no ch. 29 in A, B or L. Only γ includes the story of the enclosure of the Unclean Nations, Gog and Magog (see Supplement J).
115. The text of the Romance tells the tale in the third person, and therefore I have not given it in quotation marks.
116. In γ the number of Chaldaeans is ten.
117. At this point γ (MS C) inserts another letter to Olympias, again repeating several of the preceding events.
118. A has Iollas, a more Greek form.
119. Antipater’s son is Cassander. In reality Iolaus was Cassander’s younger brother.
120. γ adds Seleucus, Philo and Scamandrius. Antipater’s son Cassander should not be in this list of those who were ignorant of the plot, and has probably been inserted through carelessness.
121. Antipater’s son.
122. The first four paragraphs of the will are in an extremely pompous style, unlike the following ones, and notable for their overriding concern with Rhodian affairs. In the fifth paragraph the will opens afresh. One may suspect a Rhodian hand in the addition of the first four paragraphs.
123. Merkelbach (pp. 277–8), followed by Heckel, emends to Antipater.
124. The arrangements for the administration of Macedón are a puzzle to historians. See Bosworth, op. cit., p. 175.
125. The dispositions of this paragraph reappear, more or less, in γ, which does not have the rest of the will. None of the will appears in L except for the sentence about Roxane’s offspring.
126. γ has Alexandria.
127. ‘Neomaga’ may be a Greek form of an Egyptian word, in which the element ‘neo-’ was taken to mean ‘young’.
128. i.e., 323/2 BC.
129. i.e., 325/4 BC.
130. The Greek expression literally means ‘molten metal’.
131. What follows closely resembles the events in Cilicia recounted in II.8.
132. This story is also told by γ earlier (see Supplement C).
133. What follows repeats the story in II.35 in L.
134. What follows repeats the dialogue in A, III.17 (Letter to Aristotle; see Supplement I).
135. The Latin version is fuller, but the denouements differ. A translation may be found at the end of L. Gunderson, Alexander’s Letter to Aristotle about India (Meisenheim am Glan, 1980).
136. The Red Sea in ancient times referred to all the waters surrounding the Arabian Peninsula. The historical nugget in this section is Alexander’s return from India through the Gedrosian desert of south Iran.
137. The name literally means ‘Tooth-tyrant’. Various candidates have been proposed for this puzzling monster. They include the mammoth, the kraken, the crocodile and a Ganges water-snake with huge fangs. Or the name may derive from Persian kerkodon, the rhinoceros. The tale of Sindbad asserts that the rhinoceros can kill elephants. SeeJ. Zacher, Pseudo-Callisthenes. Forschungen zur Kritik und Geschichte der altesten Aufzeichnung der Alexandersage (Halle, 1867), pp. 153–8.
138. Prasiake seems to be a Greek form of the Sanskrit prachyaka, ‘the eastern land’ (i.e., east of the Ganges).
139. Caspian Gates. Not the same as those of n. 73 but either a defile between the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea, or the Pass of Dariel. The Caliph Wathiq once mounted an expedition to discover these gates.
140. Not much can be made of this exotic catalogue.