pothos.org

Hi Companions ---I am using the Xmas holiday to edit a few paragraphs which really need a restyling. Now this is the pothos.org paragraph about Alexander's "Birth":"Legend says he was born on the same day as the Temple to Artemis at Ephesus (one of the seven wonders of the ancient world) was burned down. No one knows for sure, but it was definitely in the summer of 356 BC. His real name was, of course, Alexandros."That is it. Is that it? I am sure we can come up with something better than this! Please fill me in... suggestions... additions... What really do we need to include about Alexander birth?Thanks in advance...Nick

Hello,In Robin Lane Fox's excellent book he cites three possibilities- July 20th or thereabouts, in October, or on July the 6th which was a day relating to Artemis Goddess of Childbirth- not to mention that his birth had coincided as well with the burning down of the temple of Artemis in Epheseus, prophesying the doom of Asia's peoples. The exact date still remains a mystery.The stories also branded around the court by Olympias about the snake- also the dreams had by Olympias about a circle of fire extending to the outer reaches of the earth and also of course Philip's dream of Olympias womb being sealed by a lion all are interesting tales surrounding Alexander's birth.Best wishes,
Dean.

I should stress that everything about Alexander's birth in Plutarch is LEGEND. After that, I would recount all these tales, because they are charming.Jona

Hammond is very good on Mecedonian dates. In "Sources for Alexander the Great" (Cambridge, 1993) he shows that Plutarch probably got his date of 6th of the Attic month Hecatombaeon 356BC for Alexander's birth from a contemporary writer, Timaeus, who was also born in 356BC. Basically, Cicero gives essentially the same story about Alexander's birth and the temple of Ephesus burning down and he attributes it to Timaeus. It follows that the date is well-sourced. Unfortunately, it is difficult to match this date exactly with the Julian calendar (which we tend to use for ancient events). However, Hammond says there is general agreement for the second half of July. 20th July is a good guess. Best wishes, Andrew

Hello, In my opinion Plutarch is one of the most valuable tools we have to get to important strands of Alexander's rather complex persona and I would like to ask you what you view on Plutarch is in general as a reliable source of info. Do you think we should discount Plutarch completely?Best,.
Dean.

The issue is that Plutarch is our ONLY source. If you have only one piece of information, its value is only relative. Knowledge starts when you have the same piece of information from different, independent sources. Even conflicting information in two sources is better than only one source, because when you have two differing views, you can at least make an educated guess.As to the specific case of Plutarch's info about Alexander's youth, much of it is only there to show that he was a special boy. Because Plutarch messes up the chronology and quotes fake letters, I suppose that the best thing we can do is this: accept only that what is confirmed from other sources, and leave the rest aside - legend, with probably an element of truth, but this element is unidentifiable.Please not that the principle I quoted above (we can start our research only when we have two sources) is identical to Arrian's, who assumes that where Ptolemy, Aristobulus, and Nearchus are in agreement, this is true; if a story is in only one of these sources, he mentions the name of his authority; and other information is indicated by "they say". We should unconfirmed info by Plutarch in the same way.Jona

Thanks, guys. I updated the article. Credits included.Regards ---Nick