huh?

[luc]

Hey all!I heard two bits of either myth or history, depending on your point of view, that I never could check for sure. To be honest, I don't know if I heard it, or read it, so I can't note a source. But, I heard/read that Alexander was left handed. Is there anything that states that for sure?
Another thing is that supposedly he was "bathed" or "dipped" in gold and then entombed. Again, don't know where I got that, but does either one of these ring a bell to anyone?Take care,Luc

[ruthaki]

How in heck could we possibly know (for sure) that he was left-handed or not? Did any ancient historian every record such a detail? There are so many myths and legends surrounding Alexander's life. And a lot of them are concepts written about by historical/fiction writers. As for him being dipped in gold, I believe he was embalmed by Egyptian embalmers and his body was sealed inside it's supposed see-through sarcophagus so that it didn't decay.

[Tre]

Hello.There are numerous things on the net - not all of them true. There are a number of sites that say he is left handed, epileptic and diabetic, which doesn't mean any of it is true. In fact we have no evidence of any of the former. I believe there was a previous discussion on the Forum if he was left-handed. There is no evidence he was.As for his body, it was put in a gold sarcophagus at first, and when one of Ptolemy's descendants got into financial difficulty, it was melted down and the body was put into a sarcophagus of glass.

[marcus]

Hi Tre,A couple of times now I've seen statements that Alexander was epileptic - in such august organs as The Times, no less. I always felt that I ought to write a huffy letter to them about that... then I wondered whether there was something I had completely missed in everything I have always read.It goes to show how easy it is to put blind faith in a source, even if it is entirely incorrect!As for being left handed, if he was, then why is he wielding his spear in his right hand in the Alexander Mosaic! :-)All the bestMarcus

[davej]

I am with Marcus on the Right hand left hand thing, the mosiac definitly shows a left handed Alexander. Having said that my son Alexander is left handed but uses his right hand to hit me and his brother with stuff (he is three). I would have thought if he was left handed one of the sources like plutarch would have mentioned it. As for being a diabetic, the only evidence I suggest fot this is his sweet smelling flesh, would could have been his breath. I seem to remember from my first aid training that diabetics can have sweet smelling breath when they are low or high on sugar (cant remember which). I look into it once, if h was a diabetic it could explain his outburst and his mysterious death.