Spear in the back ...revisited

[jona]

Let me get one thing straight - I am not denying any links between Alexander and Achilles, and I think it is possible that Alexander was indeed emulating his ancestor. Opis is indeed an example and is not unique (Alexander did the same in India and Sogdia too). What I am arguing is that very proof is very hard. Every time the homeric parallel is invoked, there are perfectly credible alternative explanations.Things become really complex when we take into account the possibility that Alexander knew what his first biographers were writing. Alexander himself appreciated that Callisthenes presented the sea as doing obeisance to the conqueror of Asia. Myth making started early; Alexander appreciated it; but (a) there is (as far as I know) no conclusive evidence that the Achilles parallel was made during his life; (b) if it was, we do not know whether Alexander believed in it.So, when all is said & done, I don't deny the possibility, but I maintain that we can not know.As to Gaza - that the story is disgusting does not prove that it is untrue. But it is absent from Arrian, so we are left with the Vulgate. This does not prove that it is untrue, but we can not know.Jona