Influence of Kyrus the Great on Alexander
Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 5:01 am
No doubt this topic has been discussed to death here, but in my short travels I haven't seen it yet. Forgive me if it has been and I missed it. Then, will someone please, just direct me to the proper link
What I am curious about is how others view the influence, i.e., the stories, traditions, any sort of exposure of Kyrus the Great on Alexander's policy, and how much of that influence upon him might have been from the Persian exiles i.e., Artabazos, and how early he might have got it into his head. Could he have perhaps grown up weighing the Illiad along with the Kyropedia, esp. as sources of guidance and then later for ideas of policy, etc.; esp. with the Persians. I've always been curious about this subject as he clearly esteemed Kyrus, i.e. his veneration of is tomb upon coming to it as Passagarde (I think that's correct), and then his angry reaction to the destruction of in his tomb upon his return from the Indias and the introduction of proskynesis to the court, which as I understand was something Kyrus introduced to united the Persians and the Medes. I know in Mary Renault's Persian Boy Bagoas explains certain of Alexander's behavior as having been adopted from reading the Kyropedia and she tends to give Bagoas a good deal of credit for "Persianizing" Alexander. (Don't get me wrong I idolize Ms. Renault's work.) But I tend to think he came upon references to Kyrus much earlier than that.
I have many thoughts on this and would like to hear other people's views. It seems the more he became or allowed his court to become Persianized the more he would have looked for a source that would have been acceptable to those peoples, and I would think anything associated with Kyrus would have been.
What I am curious about is how others view the influence, i.e., the stories, traditions, any sort of exposure of Kyrus the Great on Alexander's policy, and how much of that influence upon him might have been from the Persian exiles i.e., Artabazos, and how early he might have got it into his head. Could he have perhaps grown up weighing the Illiad along with the Kyropedia, esp. as sources of guidance and then later for ideas of policy, etc.; esp. with the Persians. I've always been curious about this subject as he clearly esteemed Kyrus, i.e. his veneration of is tomb upon coming to it as Passagarde (I think that's correct), and then his angry reaction to the destruction of in his tomb upon his return from the Indias and the introduction of proskynesis to the court, which as I understand was something Kyrus introduced to united the Persians and the Medes. I know in Mary Renault's Persian Boy Bagoas explains certain of Alexander's behavior as having been adopted from reading the Kyropedia and she tends to give Bagoas a good deal of credit for "Persianizing" Alexander. (Don't get me wrong I idolize Ms. Renault's work.) But I tend to think he came upon references to Kyrus much earlier than that.
I have many thoughts on this and would like to hear other people's views. It seems the more he became or allowed his court to become Persianized the more he would have looked for a source that would have been acceptable to those peoples, and I would think anything associated with Kyrus would have been.