Alexander and sleeping habit

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jan
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Alexander and sleeping habit

Post by jan »

Does anyone know of the story that ATG slept with a silver ball in his hand with arm stretched over basin, so that when he finally drifted into sleep, and relaxed enough, that the ball would fall into the basin? Is this a well known story?
ruthaki
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Re: Alexander and sleeping habit

Post by ruthaki »

That's a new one on me! Sounds like a fable.
The only thing I know about that is likely true is that he slept with a copy of "The Iliad" (given to him by Aristotle) under his bed. It was his kind of Bible.
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dean
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Re: Alexander and sleeping habit

Post by dean »

Hello,I had never heard of the story you mention Janet, but it sounds interesting. I have heard of the Iliad story and Alexander sleeping with a copy of it and a dagger under his pillow, although I think that even that story could be false because someone said that sleeping with so much papyrus under your pillow would be Goddam uncomfortable.Regarding sleeping habits I always remember the story of the Syrian fortune teller who was given access by Alexander to watch over him when he slept.Best regards,
Dean.
ruthaki
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Re: Alexander and sleeping habit

Post by ruthaki »

Dagger under the pillow: Yes.
"Iliad" under the pillow: NO. It was supposedly kept UNDER his sleeping couch as I believe it was kept in a special casket. At any rate, if the story is true it would be a fairly large scroll so of course he wouldn't have it under his pillow.
jan
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Re: Alexander and sleeping habit

Post by jan »

Thanks, I read it in a book called Gods and Legions by Michael Curtis Ford. He described it so well as a way of contrasting Julian to Alexander that I thought perhaps someone would know of it. He didn't leave a footnote for that anecdote, but I hope someone will be able to verify it. I appreciate your help.
xxx

Re: Alexander and sleeping habit

Post by xxx »

As I recall that is a quote from a fiction book on Alexander, can't recall which though - i've read so many.
jan
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Re: Alexander and sleeping habit

Post by jan »

I found a statue of him in a book which is not fiction showing him with a ball in his right hand. So from that note, I gathered that there may be some truth in it after all. Using this as a way of keeping alert, let it be said that Miracles may not be working as some chicanery is going on in sent files at GO.
X

Re: Alexander and sleeping habit

Post by X »

I'm NOT gonna say it, I'm NOT gonna say it.....
jan
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Re: Alexander and sleeping habit

Post by jan »

Oh, go ahead and say it...Just kidding. I just could not remember which book I found the statue in, by robin lane fox or lloyd. I have seen two different portraits of ATG as statues saying I was here syndrome. The ball simply is amusing, and is almost like the diogenes portrait, cartoonish too!The real reason I am wanting to know whether MCF's information is factual or fantasy is because of a habit. If Alexander actually did try to keep himself alert by the use of such a strange way of behaving, what does that say about his having slept late one morning when Parmenio had to waken him up? He was so confident that he replied that Darius had done what he had wanted him to do anyway.I have learned to take most stories of Alexander with a grain of salt. But the need to stay alert versus the overconfidence to sleep until noon caught my attention and fancy. Contradictions do that to me.
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alejandro
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Re: Alexander and sleeping habit

Post by alejandro »

Dear JanetI do remember having read about the story of the ball and the basin. But I am not sure whether the protagonist was Alexander or someone else (I donGÇÖt know why, but Descartes comes to my mind).The story, as I know it, was about this person (let us assume it is Alex for the time being) needing to concentrate on an important matter, so important that not even sleeping was allowed to interrupt his thoughts. Hence, he would lie on the bed, stretching out his hand and holding the ball in it, just above the basin. This way, when tiredness got him, he would release the ball, which will land on the basin, generating a considerable din that will wake him up, thus resuming the interrupted analysis.It was not so much a sleeping habit as a device to maintain concentration when needed (at least in the version I read).Kind regardsAlejandro
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Re: Alexander and sleeping habit

Post by ruthaki »

Hey! Let's all try that! ruthaki
jan
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Re: Alexander and sleeping habit

Post by jan »

Thanks, Alejandro, I really appreciate that information. It explains a lot to me, as that is the intent that Michael Curtis Ford explains also. So I will check Descartes now. Gracias!
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Re: Alexander and sleeping habit

Post by Tsthornybopper »

Ok so I'm not sure if some of this is accurate, but hey who knows.

a little while ago, I went to Salzburg, Austria, to study classical music. Anyways long story sorta not so short, there was one of Salzburg's archbishops, Wolf Dietrich Raitenau (from 1587 and 1612) where he worked from and occasionally lived in this building called the Salzburg Residenz where I believe he commissioned a painted by the painter Johann Michael Rottmayr, (I'm pretty sure though I could be totally wrong) to do a painting on the ceiling of Alexander the Great (who Wolf Dietrich was quite fond of given the symbol of power ATG was), doing just that. Holding an orb/metal ball type thing while a basin was underneath, so that way if one of the gods where if one of the "sleep" gods were to try to make ATG fall asleep it wouldn't work, and I think this was so Alexander could protect something valuable or someone or some god, the problem is I can't find it or remember the exact mythology. But I'll keep searching for the story as well as the painting.

More about the painting from what I remember, if I remember the tour correctly,
So the god of sleep which probably was greek god, Hypnos and his wife Pasithea or maybe it was thier son, Morpheus with maybe Iris bc I know stuff went down there. But there was another aspect or two of the paint that I can't remember but I'm trying. Also the location of the painting was/is in his bedroom in the residenz. Hope maybe this sparks some research I couldn't find, mixed of what I remember and what I think I remember.
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Jeanne Reames
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Re: Alexander and sleeping habit

Post by Jeanne Reames »

The ball story, like a lot of anecdotes, is false, created later during the Imperial period.
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sikander
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Re: Alexander and sleeping habit

Post by sikander »

Greetings,

Allegedly, Thomas Edison used a similar technique, as did Salvador Dali and numerous others,
both in the ancient world and the modern. It has also been suggested Aristotle used a similar
technique.

I suspect most references to the ancient world are somewhat post-ancient world, however.
The purpose of doing so is to be awakened during the hypnagogic state, in
the belief that creative ideas are often easier to connect to at that time, so long as you don't
enter the sleep inertia stage.

It is an amusing story, but probably just that- a story that will weave itself into the modern mythology
and become "true" through repetition.

Regards,
Sikander
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