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I was looking over a few of Callisthenes' amazing propaganda pieces- you know, where the sea bows before Alexander- letting him and his army pass and then the comments about the trip to Siwah how a miraculous bout of rain saved them and also of course about the crows indicating the right way to Siwah.
It appears to me to be vaguely similar to the wondrous tales in the old testament- you know of Moses parting the sea and all and other such amazing stories.
I just was curious, not really knowing much about the history of the bible, who might have been influencing (if at all) who.
I don't just mean about the tales of Moses- but the whole approach that Callisthenes took- that of trying to make out the gods were favouring Alexander.
Whilst on the theme on Siwah- the detail that was given such importance- that of the priest receiving Alexander and being unfamiliar with Greek, and making a slip tongue saying "son of god" - - this remark, to a new Pharoah isn't really such an amazing thing, I mean Pharoahs were supposed to be living gods unless I am mistaken- in the eyes of Egyptian people.
The conventionally agreed wisdom is that the Pentateuch was set down on papyrus over the time of the Babylonian captivity. Up until then it had been essentially an oral tradition GÇô like Homer. Of course, we are all aware that the version we now have was "published" in Ptolemaic Egypt in the third century BCE. That, though, was a Greek translation and so it must already have existed in Aramaic/Hebrew to be translated.
The first five books of the Old Testament, whilst being a religious publication first, make a fair fist of historicity. An indication of that would be the references to other nations and empires. All well before the Persians and one in particular, which did not come to archaeological light until H. Sayce found inscribed clay tablets in Turkey (at the close of the nineteenth century) leading to Hugo Winckler's eventual unearthing of Hattusha early last century: the Hitittes. Until then, their existence had been assumed based on biblical (and other) references but, no extant proof of the culture existed.
Knowledge of these works will have had wide dissemination throughout the Coele-Syria region and the East. It definitely pre-dated Greek writings on Alexander. I have little doubt that Callisthenes most likely thought it a marvellous propaganda template.
Paralus
Ἐπὶ τοὺς πατέρας, ὦ κακαὶ κεφαλαί, τοὺς μετὰ Φιλίππου καὶ Ἀλεξάνδρου τὰ ὅλα κατειργασμένους;
Wicked men, you sin against your fathers, who conquered the whole world under Philip and Alexander.
Hadn't a clue about the Hittites not being known to have existed except through biblical sources until last century... unbelievable stuff...
Whilst on the subject of miraculous events etc. another occasion that caught my eye must be the spring at Dydma. Alexander passed through and suddenly the spring started to flow again- the spring used by the oracle. Again thanks to Callsithenes we have another prime example of propoganda at the early stages of the campaign. How these were received in Greece I suppose is another matter. I guess the majority would have jibed the at the "mad hatter" thanks to these reports more than anything.
dean wrote:
Hadn't a clue about the Hittites not being known to have existed except through biblical sources until last century... unbelievable stuff...
Well, as indeed the Assyrians, Babylonians, Sumerians, etc. were only known through the Bible, until Rawlinson's work on the Behistun Inscription.
(When we say "last century", of course, we're really thinking about the 19th, rather than the 20th).
