Did Alexander drink blood?

[phoohb]

Was Dracula almost from Macedonia also?

What is wrong with drinking wine?

How can Vangelis change musically style soo much, the movie "Alexander" musics was totally different from "Blade Runner", or is it?

Wasnt Persian-immortals good fighters?

Did they smoke hashish?

And how many webforums are there dedicated to Alexander?

( I also posted something yesterday on www.thegreatalexander.com uid:defuzo but none responds, yet. Also a blogpost on my own sajt/site: http://phoohb.shellkonto.se/node/119 (cant spreed it out soo much?) )

[marcus]

Was Dracula almost from Macedonia also?

No. Dracula was from Transylvania, in modern Romania.

How can Vangelis change musically style soo much, the movie "Alexander" musics was totally different from "Blade Runner", or is it?

'Cos that's what musicians can do.

Wasnt Persian-immortals good fighters?

Did they smoke hashish?

They were good fighters ... in their way and according to their style of warfare. They weren't quite as much as a match for the Greeks and/or Macedonians as they thought they were, though. There's no evidence that they smoked hashish.

ATB

[phoohb]

No. Dracula was from Transylvania, in modern Romania.

Yes I know. But thats not far away from Greece (In my view).

In the movie there was a sacrifice of an ox (before the battle of Gaugamela). The priest said this and that about blood. And while drinking wine one commander was sacrificed. And/or there was the reflection of his mother in the wine pot. There was also an eagle follow them all the time, if not to eat the remaining corps.

'Cos that's what musicians can do.

All guitar players cant play piano..

They were good fighters ... in their way and according to their style of warfare. They weren't quite as much as a match for the Greeks and/or Macedonians as they thought they were, though. There's no evidence that they smoked hashish.

They did
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Immortals
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashshashin
(also Hashishin, Hashashiyyin or Assassins. A military units that are specialized in backstabbing the enemy, while smoking pot)

[marcus]

No. Dracula was from Transylvania, in modern Romania.

Yes I know. But thats not far away from Greece (In my view).

Er ... OK ... but the fact still remains that Dracula wasn't from Macedonia.

In the movie there was a sacrifice of an ox (before the battle of Gaugamela). The priest said this and that about blood. And while drinking wine one commander was sacrificed. And/or there was the reflection of his mother in the wine pot. There was also an eagle follow them all the time, if not to eat the remaining corps.

Not sure what the point of this is?

'Cos that's what musicians can do.

All guitar players cant play piano..

That's true, but you asked why Vangelis' musical style changed so much between Blade Runner and Alexander. The reason is that, as a composer, his job is to write music that fits the movie, and not surprisingly Alexander required a different style from Blade Runner. The analogy between the practical ability to play one or another instrument is irrelevant.

They were good fighters ... in their way and according to their style of warfare. They weren't quite as much as a match for the Greeks and/or Macedonians as they thought they were, though. There's no evidence that they smoked hashish.

They did
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Immortals
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashshashin
(also Hashishin, Hashashiyyin or Assassins. A military units that are specialized in backstabbing the enemy, while smoking pot)

The wikipedia article on the Immortals makes no mention of hashish, as far as I can see. The article on the Assassins has nothing to do with the Immortals. The Assassins did have their base at Alamut, which is in modern Iran, but the sect didn't start until the 9th or possibly even 11th century AD. So I don't really know why you are citing these references.

All the best

[marcus]

By the way, just read your blog - very interesting.

Your dates for the battle of Thermopylae are, however, incorrect, I'm afraid. That episode happened around 5 generations before Alexander - Alexander's father was a hostage in Thebes in his youth, but probably went to Thebes even after Leuctra, when the Thebans crushed the Spartans.

ATB

[dean]

Hello,

Just seen this post- did Alexander drink blood?(am I really answering it?)

Just joking- I honestly don't know what must have brought up this subject. Some may say that he was "bloodthirsty" but did he drink blood? No, I don't think so...(yet you may be giving Anne Rice a new idea tough)

Best regards,
Dean

[amyntoros]

In the movie there was a sacrifice of an ox (before the battle of Gaugamela). The priest said this and that about blood. And while drinking wine one commander was sacrificed. And/or there was the reflection of his mother in the wine pot. There was also an eagle follow them all the time, if not to eat the remaining corps.

Hmm, difficult to know what to say in response to this, especially if your point is to make some sort of comparison between Alexander and Dracula. I'll try, nevertheless . . .

The sacrifice of the ox was to the gods - blood sacrifices were the norm in ancient Greece along with many other types of offerings. However, the sacrifice of an animal had great importance and significance. No commander was sacrificed while drinking wine. Both Alexander and Cleitus were drunk and, essentially, Cleitus was murdered. The reflection of Olympias in the wine pot was just a device to show that Alexander was thinking of her at that time. The eagle following the army is a representation of Zeus, the eagle being one of his symbols - in mythology he was known to turn into an eagle. So (in the movie) as long as he saw the eagle Alexander felt that Zeus was with him. And eagles aren't scavengers anyway. They make their own kills and don't feed off corpses.

Best regards,

[beausefaless]

And eagles aren't scavengers anyway. They make their own kills and don't feed off corpses

Greetings Amyntoros

With all due respect, your description of the eagles (Bald and Golden) feeding habit couldn't be further from the truth. They are part of the Accipitridae family, which also includes hawks, kites, and old-world vultures. They prey on (depending upon their location) prairie dogs, cottontail rabbits, jackrabbits and ground squirrels to grouse, ducks, chukars, reptiles and smaller birds, and fish. These birds will also feed on carrion especially during winter. On many occasions I've seen them feed upon road-kill (deer) along the highways were I live and winter kill on my ranch. When the ravens and eagles discuss the etiquette of fine cuisine the noise can be irritating after long periods of time.

Best regards

Andrew

[amyntoros]

With all due respect, your description of the eagles (Bald and Golden) feeding habit couldn't be further from the truth....

Hi Andrew,

Wow, I never knew that that Bald and Golden eagles will feed off carrion when nothing else is available! That's quite a surprise. Then again, my education was in England and these eagles didn't figure much in my learning. I suppose I shouldn't suggest that others of the Accipatridae family in Europe and Asia might not be carrion feeders? No ... probably not a good idea and it would send me into a whole different area of research.

Thanks for the information - and I'm envious that you have such a close contact with nature. I have seen hawks flying over wetlands not too far from where I live in NYC, but there's not much opportunity to observe them in detail, unfortunately.

Best regards,

[marcus]

With all due respect, your description of the eagles (Bald and Golden) feeding habit couldn't be further from the truth. They are part of the Accipitridae family, which also includes hawks, kites, and old-world vultures. They prey on (depending upon their location) prairie dogs, cottontail rabbits, jackrabbits and ground squirrels to grouse, ducks, chukars, reptiles and smaller birds, and fish. These birds will also feed on carrion especially during winter. On many occasions I've seen them feed upon road-kill (deer) along the highways were I live and winter kill on my ranch. When the ravens and eagles discuss the etiquette of fine cuisine the noise can be irritating after long periods of time.

Hey, Andrew, it's always great to have your knowledge of nature to fall back on.

Would it not be true to say, however, that normally they don't feed on carrion? - as you say, they will do in winter, when getting fresh kill might be more difficult.

Anyway, just diverting back to the original question - the point was, of course, that the eagle was in the film to represent Zeus (and Alexander did dream about eagles quite often), rather than as an indication of carrion or any other eater ...

ATB

[beausefaless]

Marcus wrote:

Would it not be true to say, however, that normally they don't feed on carrion? - as you say, they will do in winter, when getting fresh kill might be more difficult.


Greetings, Amyntoros and Marcus.

From my personal experience of observation and due to population explosion, unfortunately
it makes no difference the time of year eagles *will* partake in easy pickens, But make no mistake, this des not diminish their magnificence of stature and grandeur.

My fish pond is surrounded by thick forest and the only way an eagle can fish is from a vertical decent, catch up to a five pound trout then from a single bound off the water surface take to vertical flight all within a few short seconds. Sometimes they can drop their catch from an non secure grip I suppose, in the most unlikely places. As always, good to hear from both of you folks.

Regards

Andrew

[jasonxx]

Count Dracula Was based on Count Vlad of Rumania. Centuries following Alexander. Where does the notion Dracula came from Macedonia Come from.?

That count Vlad was areal hero. Vlad the impaler was known for his bloodthirsty shinannigans. Impaling People and drinking Blood at his banquets.

It seemsw that the real lunatics and sadists came after Alexander. We read the anti Alexander stuff crucifictions and town distructions all part of pacification for his own rule.

But we dont hear of any perverse or sadistic tendencies with Alexander overall temperament.I doubt he drank blood but we must admit he spilled plenty.

kenny

[azara]

Hi, all!
I don’t think that Macedonians and Transylvanians were the same thing, still less that either drank blood, but there is something that links the Greek world to the legend of Vampyres and hasn’t yet been researched, for what I know. It is in Homer, Odyssey, book XI, also known as “the Nékuia”, i.e. the visit to the dead. Ulixes is urged by Circe to go to the kingdom of Hades to question Thiresias the seer, who has been dead for years.
He sets sail to the country of the Cymmerians, a gloomy place where you never see the sun (a bit like the outskirts of Milan during a bad winter, not to mention other European countries); there he digs a hole in the ground and fills it with the blood, warm and steaming, of the animals he has sacrificed. Only then do the dead come, and come with a vengeance: they crowd around the hole, uttering ghastly screams, because they all want to drink the blood. In fact in their grisly afterlife they have no consciousness, no possibility of communicating with the living, no personality, no humanity until they drink the blood. Ulixes sees his mother among the dead and recognizes her immediately, but she recognizes him only after having drunk. Ulixes has to fend off the souls, his mother's included, with his sword to let Thiresias get near and drink.
Obviously in all cultures the blood is the symbol of life, but here, at the very beginning of Greek literature, we have the concept that the dead drink blood to recover a sort of temporary life. By the way, the Cymmerian country existed and was on the Northern coast of the Black Sea; had the legend originated there? Perhaps the Vampyre legends are the remains of a very ancient tradition; in any case, I’d like to know more. Has anybody ever read something about this?
All the best to all
Azara