pothos.org

Effectively there was no need to refer to Prometheus as a benefactor of mankind: in this age Herakles had very good credentials to behave as a hero friend of men. At least from Pindarus on (not forgetting Isocrates in his Exhortation to Philip) many Greek orators and philosophers had tried to persua...

The same Mithridates (identical spelling), it seems, is quoted only another time by Plutarch, Mor. 326f, together with Spithridates, as being both killed at Granicus' battle.

There is, however, a hint to Alexander as an author in Athenaeus, Deipn.13, 586 d. He wrote: "The author of Agen, the little satyric drama, whether it be Python of Catana or King Alexander himself, says, etc." And again Athenaeus, ibid. 13, 595 e: "All this is confirmed by the testimo...

I like this exibition, but I miss the caption under the photos. Where is it?

Very interesting indeed! We use comb so many times a day, yet we pay so little attention to this instrument. But the ones you find here are of course special and precious ones. Thanks for posting this link.

I think you are right, Alexia, about the youth's head at p.223: it isn't a portrait of Hephaistion. Not only the mouth and the eyes are different from his recognized imagines, but this head is tilted to the right side, and in general it seems more likely an approximate portrait of Alexander. As to t...

Thank you for making clear the exact location of the column, and for the beautiful photo. However , according to Herodotus ( 9, 81), the snake had 'three heads'( trikàrenos òphis). This is one of the few ancient monuments still existing that are quoted by a near-contemporary author: over the snake h...

Thank you for remembering this great - yet now underrated - battle. I'll add another element to stress its importance: the so-called serpentine column. This unique monument, still preserved (even if partially) in Instanbul Museum, is a bronze spiral of several snakes in which there are inscribed the...

I 'd add that some scholars think Alexander quoted some lines from Hesiod (Works and Days, 410- 412): "Do not put your work off till to-morrow and the day after; for a sluggish worker does not fill his barn, nor one who puts off his work: industry makes work go well" Unfortunately I don't ...

I totally agree with you. I read this novel a year ago or more, but it seemed to me so ugly, and - even worse - useless to understand Aristoteles, let alone to love Alexander, or to recognize the characters of his friends, that I have completely wiped out this book from my memory, Usually I don't li...

In Theocritus,Idyll XVII there is perhaps a hint of the dubious birth of Ptolemy I. Here the poet calls the father of Ptolemy II 'son of Lagus', but, after a comparison between Alexander and his companion Ptolemy I, he says: "Both of them are descendants (prògonos) of strong Heracles, both of t...

By the way, it seems that Ptolemy wasn't at all a long- winded speech lover, but rather laconic in his writings, if we may judge from the extant fragments of his work.

I'd add another shade of meaning to your comment on Curtius quote (7,1,17): if Amyntas wanted to retain his 'spear', it means that he wanted to be considered a "free man", not yet a "prisoner". The official deprived of his weapon, then as now, is an official under arrest, but Amy...

Cartledge statement "poison has to me more of a Roman than a Greek ring to it" is plainly refuted by Plutarch's quote (Alex.life,77,2-3): "And as for suspicions of poisoning, NO ONE HAD ANY IMMEDIATELY, but five years afterwards, as we are told, upon information given, Olympias put ma...

What strikes me mostly is the face of this bronze: it is so uncharacteristically generic, it has no one of the features that we know distinguish a true Alexander portrait. It seems the sculptor had never seen his subject, and therefore put together a seemly (in his judgement!) head of a guy very you...