Alexander
as visits the Oracle of Ammon
Alexander during his campaign in Egipt visits the Oracle Temple of Ammon
in Siwah, an oasis in the middle of the Sahara desert. The episode has
been reported by D. Siculus, Q.C. Ruffus, Arrianus, Plutarch
Oracle proclaims Alexander the son of Deus,
Quintus Curtius Rufus
(IV, 23,23)
...Id quod pro deo colitur, non eandem effigiem habet, quam vulgo diis
artifices accommodaverunt. Umbilico maxime similis est habitus, zmaragdo
et gemmis coagmentatus. Hunc, cum responsum petitur, navigo aurato
gestant sacerdotes multis argenteis pateris ab utroque navigii latere pendentibus:
sequuntur matrimonae virginesque, patrio more inconditum quoddam carmen
canentes quo propritari Iovem credunt, ut certum edat oraculum.
(IV,28)
... adiecit invictum fore , donec excederet ad deus. Sacrificio deinde
facto, dona et sacerdotibus et deo data sunt, permissumque amicis, ut ipsi
quoque consulerent Iovem: nihil amplius quaesirunt, quam en auctor esset
sibi divinis honoribus colendi suum regem. Hoc quoque acceptum fore Iovi
vates respondet.
my approximative translation from the
latin text
(IV, 23,23)
...The object which is honoured as god, does not have the form which is
usually by the artist atributed to the gods. It has the form very similar
to the disc (remember Umbilico, Omfaloes from Delphi) composed
of one smaragd and precious gemms. During the process of interogation,
the priests put the disc to some kind of golden "ship" with the meny silver
cups pending on the cords attached to the imbarcation sides of the
ship: it is followed in the some kind of procession by virgin sacerdotes,
which were singing "carmen canentes" in order to induce Jupiter (or Iove,
Ammon, Zeus, Deus, God) to give the right and certan answer to oracle.
Olympias and Python-Zeus, Quintus Curtius Rufus
Rufus reports a fantastic story,
according to which Philip II of Macedon was aware of the fact that Zeus
was the actual father of Alexander. The supreem Greek divinity frequently
visited Olympias in the night in the form of a snake. Philip II found out
about this by peeping through the keyhole while his wife had intercourse
with Zeus. His voayerism was punished by causing him to lose the eye with
which he watched Zeus's amorous scene with Olympias.
Alexander as Deus,
Plutarch
(XXVI, 6)
...as Callisthenes tells us, was that if any of the company went astray
in the night, they never ceased croaking and making a noise till by that
means they had brought them into the right way again. Having passed through
the wilderness, they came to the place where the high priest, at the first
salutation, bade Alexander welcome from his father Ammon. And being
asked by him whether any of his father's murderers had escaped punishment,
he charged him to speak with more respect, since his was not a mortal father.
Then Alexander, changing his expression, desired to know of him if any
of those who murdered Philip were yet unpunished, and further concerning
dominion, whether the empire of the world was reserved for him? This, the
god answered, he should obtain, and that Philip's death was fully revenged,
which gave him so much satisfaction that he made splendid offerings to
Jupiter, and gave the priests very rich presents. This is what most authors
write concerning the oracles. But Alexander, in a letter to his mother,
tells her there were some secret answers, which at his return he would
communicate to her only.
Others say that the priest, desirous as a piece of courtesy to address
him in Greek, "O Paidion," (oh my son) by a slip in pronunciation
ended with the s instead of the n, and said "O Paidios,"or
(O pai Dios=oh, son of Dios) which mistake Alexander was well enough pleased
with, and it went for current that the oracle had called him so.
Among the sayings of one Psammon, a philosopher, whom he heard in Egypt,
he most approved of this, that all men are governed by God, because in
everything, that which is chief and commands is divine. But what he pronounced
himself upon this subject was even more like a philosopher, for he said
God was the common father of us all, but more particularly of the best
of us. To the barbarians he carried himself very haughtily, as if he were
fully persuaded of his divine birth and parentage; but to the Grecians
more moderately, and with less affectation of divinity, except it were
once in writing to the Athenians about Samos, when he tells them that he
should not himself have bestowed upon them that free and glorious city;
"You received it," he says, "from the bounty of him who at that time was
called my lord and father," meaning Philip. However, afterwards being wounded
with an arrow, and feeling much pain, he turned to those about him, and
told them, "This, my friends, is real flowing blood, not Ichor-
"Such as immortal gods are wont to shed." And another time, when it thundered
so much that everybody was afraid, and Anaxarchus, the sophist, asked him
if he who was Jupiter's son could do anything like this, "Nay," said Alexander,
laughing, "I have no desire to be formidable to my friends, as you would
have me, who despised my table for being furnished with fish, and not with
the heads of governors of provinces." For in fact it is related as true,
that Anaxarchus, seeing a present of small fishes, which the king sent
to Hephaestion, had used this expression, in a sort of irony, and disparagement
of those who undergo vast labours and encounter great hazards in pursuit
of magnificent objects which after all bring them little more pleasure
or enjoyment than what others have. From what I have said upon this subject,
it is apparent that Alexander in himself was not foolishly affected, or
had the vanity to think himself really a god, but merely used his claims
to divinity as a means of maintaining among other people the sense of his
superiority.
Arrian reports
Olympias, claimed that Philip was not Alexander's father, but Zeus
in the form of a serpent. By coincidence a serpent is often identified
with the god, Zeus Ammon.
... since the oracle of Ammon was said to be infallible, and to
have been consulted among others by Perseus and Hercules..... Alexander,
as he was descended from them both; and in addition, Alexander identified
his mistic father as Ammon, just as the legends traced the origins of Hercules
and Perseus to Zeus...
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J. Popovic