Alexander : The Movie

[deang]

Now don't get me wrong...I already wrote my paper for college. The assignment recieved was to watch the movie and answer a list of questions (nearing the triple digits) in an essay format. For posting purposes it isn't included, but I answered all the questions to the best of my ability with the exception of a few and I was wondering what you guys/girls had to say on them.What kind of influence do you think Olympias and Philip had on Alexander?What kind of person did the movie portray Alexander as? Please don't say gay...that's what I put in a more subtle tone and was asked for more detail...Do you believe Alexander deserves the title of "The Great"?

[jona]

"What kind of influence do you think Olympias and Philip had on Alexander?"About Olympias, we have only 1 (one) source: Plutarch. This is simply insufficient evidence to be certain. If you have only one witness in a law suit, the judge will say you don't have a case. So it is with Olympias: evidence is too weak.Jona

[saif]

I think he was influenced by Olympia, Philip and Aristotle at the beginning

[ancientlibrary]

I think that's a bit extreme Jona. I presume that
by one source you mean one source specifically
on Olympias and Alexander's childhood. This is
essentially true, but it's not like there isn't a fair
bit of evidence about Olympias in generalGÇöher
ruthlessness, for example, was proverbial and,
not incidentally, demonstrable. We can draw
some conclusions about her character, and, so
long as we don't get carried away, speculate a
bit on what Alexander might have learned from
her..More generally, I think the problem is not really a
single sourceGÇöparticularly as Plutarch was
widely read and ecclectic in choice of
materialGÇöbut more general problems of
"getting to the bottom" of ancient personalities.
It's hard to trust anything but a *public* action for
someone like Olympias. Not only are there
questions like "who would know?" but so much
is preserved not as an incidental factual detail
but as a tidy exemplum, and a verbal one at that.
So, we get exempla in Aelian or Aulus Gellius,
deflating Alexander's divine pretensions, eg.,
chiding him for slandering her to Hera when he
signed a letter "Alexander son of Zeus Ammon."
Piffle, I say. .Other times an exemplum deserves some
credence. Take for example Aelian's report that
Olympias sent Eurydice a hemlock, a noose
and a dagger. (Eurydice, like a good tragic
heroine, chose the noose.) I have no idea if the
details are true, but it confirms what might
otherwise be gatheredGÇöOlympias was known
for ruthlessness. There are probably some
ruthless people who wangle a reputation for
sweet benevolence, but few sweet benevolents
stuck with a ruthlessness rap.

[ancientlibrary]

Hemlock not "a hemlock." Olympias did not
send trees.