Alexanders divinity Essay -- essays research papers

What evidence is there that Alexander may have believed that he was of divine descent? And how convincing would this evidence have appeared to one of his following?From studying the sources of the ancient world that talk about Alexander The Great, it is recognize that many of them present Alexander as being any(prenominal) suit of heroic figure or Demi-god. However you could question whether Alexander believed this himself. solely by studying his actions and the actions of those around him bottomland we draw any guinea pig of conclusion on this matter. This can be done through the theatrical role of sources that exist from the time of and around his death. Most of these sources have been lost or are incomplete however, so I feel that it would be beat to mainly consult the sources of Arrian and Plutarch Although twain of these were written a couple of ascorbic acid years after Alexanders death they are excuse the most complete. Plus Arrian would reckon to have many sources to consult in his writing, all from Alexanders time. His main two sources were Ptolemy and Aristobulus, both of whom were on Alexanders campaigns. Plutarchs ac guess is more a narration than a history since it is full of stories and anecdotes, however it contains some information that Arrian doesnt so it is still a suitable source to consult. In this it would maiden be prudent to study all those events in Alexanders life, which would seem to suggest that he did have some belief that he was of divine origin. The primary example of this would appear to be his visit to the shrine of Ammon. While in Egypt, Alexander had an urge to visit the temple since he wanted to consult the vaticinator there, which had a reputation for infallibility. Arrian as well as states that both Perseus and Heracles had consulted it at some point. And since it is clear from Arrians account that Alexander longed to duplicate, if non surpass, the feats of both Perseus and Heracles, so surely he must consu lt this oracle too. Arrian (book 3) claims that the blood of both flowed within Alexander, which suggests that Arrian was of the opinion that Alexander did have some divine heritage since Heracles was supposedly the son of Zeus. In any case, Arrian also states that Alexander also visited the temple because he himself felt that he expertness be descended from Ammon in some way. If this is true then it would certainly seem that Alexander did in some way believe that he was of d... ... countries that he defeated. Alexander, being the great tactician that he was must have realised the benefits of lot believing that he was more than vindicatory a great linguistic rule and actually connected to the gods themselves.As far as the beliefs of his pursuit go, I believe that the willingness of the Persians to prostrate themselves in front of him and his Macedonian troops faithfulness were important indicators. This is seen when they followed him across the vast desert in which the temple of Ammon was situated, just to answer the question of whether or not he did descend from the Egyptian god this suggests that they too believed in his claim to being of divine descent. And it can be seen that there are not many men that were as revered and honoured by the people of the time as Alexander was. go away no doubt in my mind that both Alexander and his followers were convinced that he was of divine descent and that they felt that he was worthy of all the tribute that was paid to him after he died.Word count 3298