Re: Kallixenia

Thalestris-Alexandros · Sat Feb 22, 2003 6:54 pm

Thessalian courtesan who was sent to sixteen year old Alexander to make sure he had "masculine vigor", according to Plutarch. Is this fact or fiction? I know the Amazon Queen, Thalestris, in Curtius' resource is completely fiction (says a lot of him as reliable historian), but is Kallixenia also fiction?Cheers!

susan · Post by **susan** » Mon Feb 24, 2003 3:20 am

Gossip column stuff, I think - maybe true, maybe not. What seems a bit strange is how public it was, if true, you'd have thought that they'd all like to keep the matter quiet.Susan

Tre · Post by **Tre** » Mon Feb 24, 2003 12:14 pm

Hello Susan:But of course Cassander would have been more than happy to make that public knowledge along with his friend and benefactor Theophrastus, friend of Callisthenes. In fact, anything said against Alexander's clan short of his father would have been deriguer. It may well have been true, but if Alexander refused the advances of this woman, it wouldn't have been for the reasons that were implied. For Cassander, what could be better than attacking your old dead enemy and saying he was sexually incompetent and(after all look at Philip so something must have been wrong with Alexander), and therefore not a man at all? Regards,Tre

susan · Post by **susan** » Mon Feb 24, 2003 1:32 pm

There's a story of Alexander's impotence in a Persian version of the Alexander Romance - it was with Roxana, her father had put a spell on him for some reason I've forgotten - and after 40 days the spell was released. I thought that this was an interesting reflection of the Western tales.

maciek · Post by **maciek** » Mon Feb 24, 2003 1:42 pm

I think all we have are sources so we have to decide if it can be true or not but there will be no straight decision if it's true or not. I think that as always there can be some true in this story, if he was so ambitious he could in young age not think about girls at all what can be nothing special but parents coud be affraid. Some boys are growing sooner some later.Maciek

Thalestris-Alexandros · Mon Feb 24, 2003 3:58 pm

Thank you for your replies. Now that I know the incident could have been slander, I will resist taking it into account during my research endeavor.

maciek · Post by **maciek** » Mon Feb 24, 2003 6:53 pm

Why slander? I think that if he was in his young age not interested in girls it is nothing to shame. Look that even just before he launched his expedition Parmenion and other companions tried to persuaid to him to take a wife and he said that he has a time first he needed a victories. But if some sources are right he suddenly fell in love in Roxane so maybe he just waited for the right one girl? I know it sound romantic but I think we shouldn't deny anything to him because he was very special man and in my opinion above his time maybe not only his times.Maciek