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Alexander the Great

The Romance of Alexander

His legends, true and false, appear in 80 languages, from Iceland to Malaya. The Parsees curse him for destroying their holy books.

In Central Asia he is Sikandar (also Iskander). His red silk banner is still displayed in Ferghana, in Turkestan. Chiefs claim descent from him, their people claim descent from his soldiers, their horses from Bucephalus.

He appears in the Koran as Dulcarnain. In legend he explored as far as the Ganges, the Blue Nile, and Britain. He travelled to the heavens and to the underworld. In legends, he went indeed to the end of the world, and even to the bottom of the sea, where the very fish paid him homage.

He was the son of Apollo, according to his own mother, and there are signs that he believed this. At Gordium, he cut the fabled knot.

He tamed the wild horse audio gifBucephalus with a word and a touch. That story is as good as any to tell in some detail.

Bucephalus

One day, when Alexander was a boy, his father and some of his companions were trying to break a horse. This horse was a magnificent black stallion, of such size and fierce spirit that no one had been able to ride him.

The men stood around the horse, each trying his hand and each being thrown or even being unable to approach the huge beast. None could manage it. Finally, Alexander asked that he be allowed to try. The men thought it would be a grand joke to let a mere boy (he was about 10 years old) attempt to ride the black stallion, so they let him.

Alexander approached the horse, who stood and regarded him. It lowered its head and the boy spoke to him softly, whereupon it immediately was tamed. Alexander leaped onto the horse's back and it bore him away.

The horse was Alexander's from that day on. He named it Bucephalus and it was his war horse and he rode it in all his major battles. Bucephalus served Alexander faithfully and died at last on campaign in India, where Alexander named a city in his honor.

In paintings, Alexander is always represented as riding a black horse. Like his master, Bucephalus entered into legend and became a creature of mythic abilities. There is a nice re-telling of the story of Bucephalus at the beginning of the movie The Black Stallion. If you have a chance to see the movie, you'll hear the main character's father tell the story, with the sort of embellishments that have nourished all the Alexander legends through the centuries.

Everything about Alexander was larger than life, both his real exploits and his imagined ones. Throughout the ancient world, great generals would dream that they could imitate Alexander. In the Middle Ages, he became a figure encrusted in legend.